Chaz Lanier’s successful debut paced the No. 12 Tennessee Volunteers to an 80-64 opening win Monday night over Gardner-Webb before a crowd of 17,813 inside the Food City Center.
The fifth-year senior, who played at Nashville’s Ensworth School and began his college career at North Florida, scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-5, 207-pound guard averaged 19.7 points last season for the Ospreys, connecting on 51% of his shots from the floor and 44% from three-point range.
Tennessee made 28 of 55 shots against the Runnin’ Bulldogs to improve to 29-0 all-time against Big South Conference programs.
“I thought it was a great opener for us,” Tennessee 10th-year coach Rick Barnes told the Vol Network afterward. “The one thing our staff wants to do is play teams that we know can show us different styles. They put their bodies into us driving the ball, and we’ll see that somewhere down the line, and I liked the way they changed defenses, because we haven’t seen that a lot.”
Gardner-Webb is coming off a 17-16 season that included an 11-5 mark in Big South play, but the Runnin’ Bulldogs are having to replace their top five scorers.
Senior guard Jordan Gainey added 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting for the Vols, while fellow senior guard Zakai Zeigler tallied 13 points and nine assists.
“Jordan was terrific,” Barnes said. “He’s so good coming off the bench, and he plays multiple positions.”
Junior forward Felix Okpara, the transfer from Ohio State who played at Hamilton Heights, had a team-high nine rebounds and scored two points.
“This was one of the toughest days I’ve seen with Felix, because he’s been terrific,” Barnes said. “He’s got a pretty bad hip-pointer. He’s fought through it, and he refuses not to practice.”
The Vols scored the game’s first five points and never trailed in the contest, building a 44-32 halftime lead behind Lanier’s 11 points. Igor Milicic scored the first four points of the second half, when the Vols opened on a 7-0 run to take command at 51-32.
Tennessee returns to action Saturday, when the Vols travel to Louisville for a noon tip on the ACC Network.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.