Jeffery Taylor scored a career-high 30 points and Vanderbilt bounced back from two tough losses to defeat host Davidson 87-83 on Wednesday.

The Commodores dropped consecutive overtime games to Xavier and Louisville after holding big, second-half leads, and it nearly happened again Wednesday.

Vanderbilt (6-3) led by as many as 18 points, thanks in large part to Taylor, who topped a 26-point effort against Tennessee in Feburary 2010. Davidson (6-2), though, which had its four-game winning streak snapped, got the deficit down to three points on two free throws by reigning Southern Conference Player of the Week Jake Cohen (18 points) with 10 seconds to play.

John Jenkins, the SEC’s leading scorer, added 22 points for Vanderbilt.

While Taylor was scoring 12 points early, Jenkins took nearly eight minutes to get his first points. Starting with a 3-pointer at the 12:11 mark, Jenkins had 13 points, including two nice, cross-over moves for layups, over a seven-minute stretch that saw Vanderbilt turn a 16-8 deficit into a 33-25 lead.

Davidson closed to within 33-30 on a pair of field goals by De’Mon Brooks, who led the Wildcats with 24 points, before Festus Ezeli, playing for the first time this season after a suspension and knee injury, had three of his 15 points down the stretch to send the Commodores to the locker room up 40-34.

It was the first time in eight games Davidson had trailed at halftime.