What a game from Lanier.
Quite literally from the opening moment of the game tonight, this one was over. Tennessee won the Baha Mar Championship on Friday, beating Baylor 77-62. It was not that close.
Chaz Lanier drilled a three in the opening five seconds to give Tennessee a lead that they would never give back. Lanier went on to hit four more in the opening minutes of the game, pushing the Volunteers out to a quick 16-2 lead. Rick Barnes mentioned that he wanted to see a more aggressive version of Lanier going forward, and we certainly saw it this week in Nassau.
Lanier ended with 25 points, all of which came in the first half. He shot 7-10 from three-point range. The North Florida transfer had 15 points before Baylor could even blink.
“When that first shot goes in, just all the jitters that you have leading up to the game, they just all go out of your body,” Lanier said after the game. “So it was good seeing that first shot go in. But my teammates were just finding me all game, so I want to give all the credit to them.”
Tennessee built a 47-20 lead at halftime. Baylor would cut in a bit late, but they never threatened.
Jordan Gainey added 16 points, delivering a couple of daggers in the second half. Zakai Zeigler added seven points and nine assists. Igor Milicic had ten, while Cade Phillips delivered some big minutes and scored 11 points.
“They’re really good team,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Coach (Rick) Barnes is an unbelievable coach and an even better person. Mad respect for him. Love playing against him because if you have a weakness, they’ll expose it, and their toughness showed first half. Two assists, nine turnovers by us, and then we didn’t do a good job on the glass. The one guy we said, ‘don’t give him an open three,’ had 15 points in the first four minutes.”
Tennessee will return to action on Wednesday against UT-Martin.