Knoxville, TN – The Tennessee men’s basketball team increased its season-opening winning streak to a dozen for the third time in program history with an 82-64 win Monday night against Middle Tennessee State.
Facing a halftime deficit for the first time in 2024-25, top-ranked Tennessee (12-0) controlled much of the second stanza to claim the win in front of 20,706 fans at Food City Center. Fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier paced the victors with 23 points, while senior guard Zakai Zeigler posted his second straight double-double, notching 17 points and career-high 15 assists, tied for the fifth-most in program history.
The Volunteers scored eight straight points in just 94 seconds midway through the first half to take a 25-14 edge with 9:31 on the timer. However, Middle Tennessee State (9-4) soon put together a 13-2 surge, including seven unanswered points in 55 seconds by redshirt senior guard Camryn Weston, to go in front for the first time, 32-20, with 3:06 left before the break.
After Tennessee leveled the score just 18 seconds later, the Blue Raiders scored eight of the last 10 points in the frame, making it a 21-6 run over the final 6:33 of the frame, to earn a game-high six-point advantage, 40-34, at the intermission. Weston, who capped the scoring on a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, tallied 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the session.
Tennessee scored nine of the opening 12 points coming out of the locker room, evening the score at 43 with 16:01 to play. Middle Tennessee State thrice went back ahead by three before the Volunteers pulled ahead, 52-51, with 12:21 to go and never conceded the lead. It pushed the cushion to six, 57-51, with 11:09 remaining after making it a 9-0 burst over 1:44.
The Blue Raiders got the deficit down to one, 59-58, with 9:23 to go, but Tennessee then went 5:58 without allowing a field goal—that included 3:35 without a point—and posted a 14-2 run during 5:15 of that span to take a then-game-best 13-point edge, 73-60, with 3:39 left.
The Volunteers eventually won by their largest margin of the night, 18, after scoring the final seven points in the last 1:37 of action.
Lanier, who had his fifth performance of 22-plus points in the last eight games, shot 5-of-10 from 3-point range to lead the team in scoring for the ninth time, including the eighth outright. Zeigler, who logged his 11th-career double-double, scored or assisted on 19 of the team’s 27 made field goals, plus shot 8-of-9 at the line to set season highs in makes and attempts. His 15 assists marked the highest total by a Volunteer since February 28th, 1987, and the top figure by an SEC competitor in non-conference play since November 15th, 2019.
Junior forward Felix Okpara scored 12 points, including 10 in a first half during which he shot 4-of-4, all on dunks. Senior guard Jordan Gainey added 10 points, six rebounds and a game-best two blocks, while senior forward Igor Mili?i? Jr., paced all players with 12 rebounds.
Weston led all scorers with 24 points for the Blue Raiders, adding a game-high four steals. He shot 9-of-18 from the field, the most makes by a Tennessee opponent this season, despite missing his final six attempts and scoring just one point in the last 14 minutes. Junior guard Kamari Lands added 13 points on a 5-of-10 field-goal clip for Middle Tennessee State.
Tennessee limited Middle Tennessee State to 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) shooting in the second half, including a 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) mark from beyond the arc. The Volunteers shot 18-of-23 (78.3 percent) from the stripe in the win, while the Blue Raiders went just 7-of-14 (50.0 percent).
Tennessee Volunteers Postgame Notes
Monday marked the 14th game in program history with Tennessee ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, as it improved to 12-2, including 11-1 in head coach Rick Barnes‘ tenure.
The Volunteers also upped their record to 26-4 all-time while ranked top-three in the AP Poll, including 22-2 under Barnes.
Tennessee remained one of the only four undefeated teams in the country and the lone school unbeaten in both men’s and women’s basketball.
Barnes is now 34-6 (.850) against in-state opponents during his Tennessee tenure, including 17-1 (.944) the last 18 such contests.
Barnes improved to 14-0 in his career against the current Conference USA membership, his third-most wins without a defeat against any league.
Middle Tennessee State is the 204th different current Division I program Barnes has defeated during his 38-year head coaching career.
Tennessee improved to 10-2 all-time versus Middle Tennessee State with the victories by an average of 21.7 points per game, including eight decisions by double digits.
The Volunteers moved to 12-0 to begin a season for the third time in program history, alongside 1922-23 (14-0) and 1915-16 (finished 12-0).
Tennessee now has its seventh winning streak of at least 12 games program history, including its fifth in a single season and first since 2018-19 when it claimed a program-best 19 consecutive victories.
The other four single-season winning streaks of at least a dozen games for Tennessee are as follows: 19 in 2018-19 (November28th to February 13th), 14 in 1922-23 (January 8th to February 20th), 12 in 1915-16 (January 8th to February 26th) and 12 in 1976-77 (December 11th to January 24th).
As announced before tip-off, the Volunteers played without freshman guard Bishop Boswell (right shoulder injury), leaving them with eight available scholarship players.
The Volunteers improved to 89-33 all-time when playing in front of 20,000-plus fans at Food City Center, including 30-9 under Barnes, with 24 of the latter 39 over the past four years (2021-25).
Monday marked the first time in 2024-25 the Volunteers trailed at halftime and/or conceded 36-plus points before the break.
Weston’s 17 first-half points tied for the most in a frame by a Tennessee opponent this season, matching the mark by Baylor’s Norchad Omier after the break November 22nd in Nassau, Bahamas.
The seven made field goals by Weston in the first half set a new high in a session by a Volunteer foe this year, eclipsing the second-half mark of six by both Omier and his teammate, V.J. Edgecombe, in the matchup with Baylor.
Weston shot 9-of-12 in the first 26 minutes of the contest, already setting a new top mark for the most made field goals in a full game by a single player against Tennessee in 2024-25.
The Volunteers have led for 412:43 of a possible 480 minutes thus far in 2024-25, while trailing for only 43:39.
Tennessee has held a lead of 18-plus points in 11 of its 12 contests this season, including by 26 in all but three, and still has not faced a deficit larger than eight.
Eleven of Tennessee’s 12 wins thus far are by 13-plus points, with seven by at least 22, four by at least 35 and two by 40-plus.
Zeigler, who now has back-to-back double-doubles for the first time as a Volunteer, upped his career double-double mark to 11.
Ten of Zeigler’s 11 double-doubles are with points and assists, giving him twice as many in that category as any other player in program history.
Monday marked the 11th double-figure assist outing of Zeigler’s career, including his third of the 2024-25 campaign.
Zeigler’s previous career-best assist mark came on February 24th, 2024, when he registered 14 against Texas A&M.
The most recent SEC player to post 15-plus assists in a game was Kentucky’s TyTy Washington Jr., who notched 17 on January 8th, 2022, against Georgia, while the last to do so in non-conference play was Auburn’s J’Von McCormick on November 15th, 2019, against Cal State Northridge.
Over the last three seasons (2022-25) there are just four occurrences of an SEC player amassing 13-plus assists in a game, with Zeigler owning three of those performances, as he also did so February 24th, 2024, versus Texas A&M (14) and February 2nd, 2024, at Kentucky (13).
Zeigler’s 15 assists matched Fred Jenkins’ tally on Feb. 28, 1987, against Georgia for the fifth-most in Tennessee history, with that also the most recent performance of 15-plus assists by a Volunteer.
Zeigler is one of just two players in program history to record 14-plus assists multiple times, joining Rodney Woods, who did so on February 1st, 1975, at Georgia (16) and February 3rd, 1973, against Auburn (14).
Mili?i? recorded double-digit rebounds for the 19th time in his career, including the fifth in 12 outings as a Volunteer.
Lanier connected on at least four made 3-pointers for the 22nd time as a collegian, including the seventh in just 12 games at Tennessee.
In half of those 22 contests, Lanier has now hit at least five 3-pointers, with this his third such performance as a Volunteer.
Over the last eight games, Lanier has scored 22-plus points five times and led Tennessee in scoring on seven occasions.
Gainey has now tallied multiple blocks in three of the last four games, including each of the past two, after doing so five times in his first 108 outings.
Next Up For UT Men’s Basketball
Following a one-week hiatus from game action, the Tennessee men’s basketball team wraps up its non-conference slate December 31st at 3:00pm against Norfolk State, live on SEC Network+ from Food City Center.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
