Tennessee basketball fell behind early before cruising past Western Carolina in a dominant 84-36 win over the Catamounts on Tuesday night in Knoxville.
The Vols ended the first half on an insane run, Zakai Zeigler flirted with a triple-double and Tennessee’s defense suffocated the Catamounts. Here’s three quick takeaways on the win.
Slow Start, Commanding Response
Western Carolina was one of the worst opponents on Tennessee’s schedule this season and entered Tuesday’s matchup with just three wins and two of them came against non division one foes.
So naturally, Western Carolina jumped out to a 6-0 and then 9-3 lead in the opening minutes of the game. Tennessee was a bit sloppy from the jump but Western Carolina, whose strategy was to chuck triples, started hot. The Catamounts made two of their first three and three of their first five three-point attempts.
But from there, Tennessee took control with a commanding response. First it was a quick strike 11-0 run with a pair of deep triples from Chaz Lanier to get the Vols going.
The run continued in a more slow and steady process. Western Carolina was ice cold from deep after its hot start and finished the first half shooting five-of-28 from the perimeter including nine straight misses from deep to end the first half.
Tennessee didn’t even run great offense themselves but they were solid enough on that end to finish the half with a 23-point lead. The Vols finished the half on a 16-0 run and an extended 35-6 run. That allowed the Vols to completely take control and not look back.
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Zakai Zeigler With A Near Triple-Double
Zakai Zeigler has recorded many double-doubles in his Tennessee career. But he hadn’t yet recorded a triple-double in his career. He flirted with becoming the second Vol to ever record one against the Catamounts.
Zeigler had five rebounds by the first media timeout and had a new career-high 10 rebounds by halftime against the Catamounts. He also finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
The senior point did not have his shot working against the Catamounts and in fact had one of his worst shooting performances of not just the season but his career.
Zeigler shot a putrid two-of-13 from the field and one-of-eight from three-point range, making five free throws to end with 1- points. But while the shot wasn’t falling, Zeigler did just about everything else well. He added a steal and turned it over just twice to go along with his nine assists.
A Dominant Defensive Performance
Western Carolina came out the gates hot but was absolutely ice cold the rest of the way and struggled to create any good looks on the offensive end.
The Catamounts 36 points were just one more than UT Martin scored earlier this season. UT Martin’s 35 points were the fewest in the history of Thompson-Boling Arena.
Western Carolina had the strategy of bombing three-pointers and it did not work well as they made just six-of-39 triples on its way to earning a putrid .500 points per possession.
Tennessee’s ball pressure gave Western Carolina all sorts of issues as the Catamounts turned the ball over a staggering 23 times.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee is back in action on Monday, Dec. 21 against MTSU in its penultimate non conference game of the regular season. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. ET and the SEC Network+ is broadcasting the game.
