Zakai Zeigler dished out the assists, Chaz Lanier racked up the points and Tennessee cruised past Wofford 77-62 Thursday night in an NCAA tournament first-round pairing inside Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.
Playing in his first NCAA tournament game after spending the previous four seasons at North Florida, Lanier scored 29 points to pace the Volunteers (28-7), who are seeded second in the Midwest Region. He was 6-of-13 from 3-point range, with his six makes matching a Tennessee record for an NCAA tournament game.
“These are the moments you dream of,” Lanier said afterward in a news conference. “Wofford was a well-coached team, and we were resilient for a full 40 minutes. I’m just super excited and happy for the next round.”
The Vols will play seventh-seeded UCLA (23-10) in the second round on Saturday (9:40 p.m. on TBS and truTV). The Bruins beat 10th-seeded Utah State 72-47 in the final game of the night in Lexington.
Zeigler tallied 12 points and 12 assists, setting Tennessee’s career assists record in the process. The 5-foot-9, 171-pounder entered Thursday needing two assists to break Johnny Darden’s 715 that were compiled from 1975-79, and he now has the new standard at 726.
“It’s a really big blessing,” Zeigler said. “I was finding the hot hand and seeing the open guy. I wasn’t trying to force too much, but breaking that record that was held for almost 50 years is a really big blessing and means a lot to me.”
Lanier and Zeigler were the only Vols in double figures, but Jahmai Mashack turned in another complete game with nine points and seven rebounds.
Tennessee improved to 29-27 all-time in the NCAA tournament, with current Vols coach Rick Barnes responsible for a 10-6 record that includes a 6-2 mark in the past three events. His 10 NCAA tourney triumphs are the most in program history.
Wofford, which won the Southern Conference tournament earlier this month as the sixth seed, finished its season at 19-16. Jackson Sivills scored 15 points and Corey Tripp 14 to lead the 15th-seeded Terriers, but senior center Kyler Filewich scored only two points and was 1-of-7 from the floor.
“They’re a 2 seed for a reason, and they did a good job executing their game plan on both ends,” Wofford coach Dwight Perry said. “They’re a tough and physical team, and obviously Chaz Lanier really got going. Overall, I couldn’t be more proud of this group’s effort.
“We fought until the end, and obviously we lost to a really good team.”
Tennessee led 10-8 seven minutes into the game before a Zeigler 3-pointer and two Lanier jumpers pushed its advantage to 17-8 by the second media timeout. Igor Milicic Jr.’s jumper provided the Vols their first double-digit lead at 19-8, and an ensuing Lanier 3-pointer midway through the first half capped Tennessee’s 12-0 run.
Lanier had 14 points at halftime as the Vols took a 36-27 lead into the break.
Jeremy Lorenz made a 3-pointer to pull Wofford within 48-40 with 13:33 remaining, but that would be the closest the Terriers could get, as Tennessee countered with an 8-3 run and was never threatened again.
“Before we came here, we had already scouted everybody that we knew we could possibly play against,” Barnes said. “Now we’ve got a day to get ready. We won’t do much physically, because we were in a really physical game tonight.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.