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Chaz Lanier shoots No. 4 Tennessee to senior day win over South Carolina

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 22 hours•

GrantRamey

Chaz Lanier, Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics
Chaz Lanier, Tennessee Basketball | Andrew Ferguson, Tennessee Athletics

Chaz Lanier wasn’t about to let South Carolina ruin his senior day. No. 4 Tennessee got 20 of Lanier’s 23 points in second half and came from behind to beat the upset-minded Gamecocks 75-65 Saturday afternoon at Food City Center. 

Lanier scored 16 points over a stretch of five minutes, 43 seconds in the second half, turning a one-point deficit into a nine-point Tennessee lead with 9:35 left in the game. 

He finished 8-for-12 from the field and 2-for-4 at the 3-point line in the second half to lead Tennessee (25-6, 12-6 SEC). Zakai Zeigler had just one point but finished with a game-high eight assists. Cade Phillips scored 15 points, Igor Milicic Jr. had 13 points and Jordan Gainey added 10 points and six assists.

Tennessee’s win clinched a top-four finish in the SEC standings and gives the Vols a double-bye in next week’s SEC Tournament. They’ll play in the quarterfinal round on Friday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The bracket will be set and released Saturday night after of the SEC’s last game of the day.

South Carolina (12-19, 2-16) got 20 points from Jamarii Thomas, 16 from Nick Pringle and seven from Collin Murray-Boyles.

The Vols continued the run after Lanier went off in the second half. Phillips scored in the paint and Felix Okpara got an offensive rebound and dunked to get the lead back to 12 points with 7:56 left. 

Tennessee made eight of 10 shots over a stretch 5:35 and held South Carolina without a made shot from the field for 2:55, turning a one-possession game into a 64-52 lead.

South Carolina erased 10-point deficit in first half

Tennessee led for over 18 minutes in the first half, but it didn’t feel like it at halftime, with the score tied at 34-34. 

The Vols led by 10 with after the second of back-to-back Gainey jumpers, but South Carolina went on a 7-0 run and completed the rally with a Thomas corner three with 2:09 left, taking a 28-27 lead.

It was a 34-31 Carolina lead before a Phillips three-point play with five seconds left in the first half. 

Zeigler was scoreless at the break, going 0-for-2 from the field but had eight assists. Lanier had just three points as Tennessee’s bench outscored the starters 18-16 in the sleepy first half.

Up Next: SEC Tournament, Friday, Bridgestone Arena

Tennessee won the SEC Tournament in 2022 — the program’s first conference tournament championship since 1979 — after beating Mississippi State, Kentucky and Texas A&M over three days in Tampa. 

The Vols played for the SEC Tournament title in both 2018 and 2019, losing to Kentucky in 2018 in St. Louis and to Auburn a year later in Nashville.

Tennessee was one-and-done in the SEC Tournament a year ago, losing 73-56 to Mississippi State before going on an NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight. 

The Vols lost in the quarterfinals to Missouri in 2023, after beating Ole Miss a day earlier, and went to the semifinals in 2021 before losing to Alabama.

Tennessee played three games in the 2016 SEC Tournament, in the first year under Rick Barnes, beating Auburn and Vanderbilt before losing to LSU in the quarterfinals as the No. 12 seed. The Vols were one-and-done in 2017 after a loss to Georgia in the No. 8 vs. No. 9 seed game.

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