Tennessee is winning this basketball season in orange, white and black.
Wearing “Dark Mode” uniforms for the first time, the No. 3 Volunteers overwhelmed Syracuse 96-70 Tuesday night in an ACC/SEC Challenge pairing inside the Food City Center. Chaz Lanier poured in 26 points and Zakai Zeigler added 14 while dishing out eight assists as Tennessee convincingly earned its first 8-0 start since the 2000-01 season.
The Vols have led all eight contests by at least 26 points.
“It was really a pretty good performance,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. “When you’re making shots, it all looks good, but that doesn’t always mean you’re running a great offense.”
Jordan Gainey and Cade Phillips each added 12 points for Tennessee, while Igor Milicic had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Former Cleveland High standout and current redshirt junior walk-on Grant Hurst collected four points in two minutes.
The Vols shot 53.8% from the floor and outrebounded Syracuse 39-26.
Zeigler entered Tuesday averaging 7.9 assists per game, which was three more than anybody else in the Southeastern Conference. He was fouled on a made 3-pointer and added the free throw to give the Vols their largest lead of the first half at 30-18, which came at the 8:50 mark.
Tennessee built a 45-35 lead at intermission despite shooting just 2-of-15 from 3-point range, but a Milicic 3-pointer in the first few seconds of the second half sent the Vols on their way to another easy win. A Gainey 3-pointer with 13:15 to play extended Tennessee’s advantage to 65-43, and the Vols would shoot 8-of-14 from long range (57.1%) in the second half.
“In the first half, we settled for too many early threes,” Barnes said. “In the second half, I thought our threes were much better.”
Syracuse is among four ACC teams Tennessee has on its nonconference schedule, with the Vols having previously routed Louisville (77-55) and Virginia (64-42). The Vols face Miami next Tuesday night in New York City.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.