Score one for freshness.
Tennessee’s well-rested and fourth-seeded Volunteers opened play in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals Friday afternoon by wearing down a 13th-seeded Texas team that was playing its third game in as many days. The Longhorns were within three at halftime but were overwhelmed early in the second half as Tennessee rolled to an 83-72 win inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Senior guards Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler scored 23 and 19 points, respectively, as the Vols led wire to wire and avoided a repeat of last year’s embarrassing 73-56 quarterfinal loss to Mississippi State. Zeigler also tallied six assists and now has 230 for the season, breaking the program standard of 227 that Rodney Woods compiled in 1974-75.
“Last year we came into this tournament, and we weren’t ourselves,” Zeigler said afterward in a news conference. “We really got out-toughed. Coming into this game, we knew that if we were going to lose the game, it wasn’t going to be because we got bullied or out-toughed.
“I feel like we went out there and played a tough game.”