No. 1 Tennessee Basketball stays perfect, hammers Western Carolina, 84-36
No. 1 Tennessee stayed perfect Tuesday night. The defense played just about perfect, too.
Three weeks after setting a new Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena record with just 35 points allowed against UT Martin, the Vols nearly did it again, hammering Western Carolina 84-36.
Tennessee (11-0) got a team-high 19 points from Chaz Lanier, who added seven rebounds and four assists. Zakai Zeigler finished just one assist shy of just the second triple-double in program history, finishing with 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Jordan Gainey stayed hot with 17 points off the bench and Darlinstone Dubar added 13.
Western Carolina (3-7), which had just 15 points at halftime after not scoring for the final 7:57 of the half, got a team-high 10 points from Bernard Pelote.
The Catamounts didn’t make a two-point field goal until the 17:40 mark of the second half and shot just 21.9% from the field and 15.4% from the 3-point line against Tennessee’s defense, which is ranked No. 1 in KenPom.com’s adjusted defensive efficiency.
Tennessee’s 11-0 start matches its best since the 1999-2000 team started 11-0. A 12th straight win would tie the 1915-16 team’s 12-0 record during a 12-game season. The 1922-23 team holds the program record with a 14-0 start.
Vols closed first half on 38-6 run, held WCU scoreless for final 7:57
Tennessee led 38-15 after a dominant first half, one that ended with the Vols on a 38-6 run while holding WCU scoreless for the final 7:56 of the first half.
Western Carolina jumped out to a 6-0 lead after a pair of 3-pointers in the first 1:37 of the game, but Tennessee held the Catamounts to just nine more points over the final 18:23 of the half.
WCU missed its last 14 shots of the first half and made just one of its final 22 attempts. The Catamounts didn’t make a two-point field goal from the field in the first half, finishing 5-for-37 from the field and 5-for-28 from the 3-point line.
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Lanier scored 10 points and added four rebounds and three assists in the first half. Zeigler recorded a career-high 10 rebounds by halftime, adding six assists and two points.
The run to end the half is nothing new. Tennessee held Miami scoreless for the final 7:57 of the first half last week in the Jimmy V Classic and didn’t allow Illinois to make a shot from the field for the final 4:55 on Saturday.
Up Next: No. 1 Tennessee vs. MTSU, Monday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Tennessee is back home Monday to host Middle Tennessee State in a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network.
The Vols are down to just two non-conference games left, with MTSU on Monday and Norfolk State on December 31 in a 3 p.m. ET start on SEC Network+.
Tennessee’s four-game homestand continues with the start of SEC play against Arkansas on January 4 at Food City Center. The Vols then go to Florida and Texas for back-to-back conference road games, facing the Longhorns for the first time as an SEC team on Saturday, January 11.
