When Tennessee senior guard Chaz Lanier went off for 25 points on 7-of-10 shooting from 3-point range against Baylor in late November, it was fair to wonder whether the North Florida transfer had another eruption like that in him this season.
He did.
In Saturday afternoon’s 77-69 triumph at No. 7 Texas A&M, the No. 6 Volunteers fed off Lanier’s season-high 30-point performance to capture their biggest Southeastern Conference road win of the season. Lanier went 8-of-13 from 3-point range, joining Allan Houston, Chris Lofton and Jordan McRae as the only players in program history to produce eight 3-pointers in a game.
“It’s always nice to see the ball go in the hole,” Lanier said in a news conference after the Vols improved to 22-5 overall and to 9-5 in SEC play. “I just saw where A&M was really sinking in the paint, and my guys were just finding me at the 3-point line. They were making great passes, and I just knocked them in.”
Lanier made his first five 3-point attempts in the Baha Mar Championship win over Baylor in the Bahamas, and the former standout for Nashville’s Ensworth School connected on his first five 3-point tries against the Aggies. Tennessee made 13 3-pointers as a team in College Station, which was a season high.