The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the MTSU Blue Raiders 82-64 on Monday night at the Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena.
However, if there’s ever been a basketball game where the final score didn’t reflect the game, this would be it.
Tennessee struggled with their intrastate foe, even trailing 40-34 at the halftime whistle. Tennessee led comfortably in the early going 25-14, but MTSU caught fire for the remainder of the half. Camryn Weston made 8 straight points for the Blue Raiders to get to 28-26, and from there, the game was tight until basically the final minutes. Weston finished with a game high 24 points off the bench for MTSU.
Zakai Ziegler was instrumental for Tennessee, particularly in the second half. Ziegler scored 4 points and assisted on 4 more points to help the Vols finally draw even again at 43. He finished with 17 points and an astounding 15 assists.
The game see-sawed back and forth until Chaz Lanier gave the lead for good at 55-51 after a pair of free throws and a big three pointer. Lanier led Tennessee with 23 points.
From there, Tennessee’s defense locked into place, and the Vols gradually pulled away, getting back to ahead by double digits with just over 4 minutes to play on a three by Jordan Gainey that proved to be the backbreaker at 70-59.
It wasn’t pretty for most of it, but the Vols managed to dodge a potential landmine and stay undefeated. Next up for the Vols is their final non-conference game on New Year’s Eve against Norfolk State. After that, they kick off conference play against Arkansas in Knoxville on January 5.