For the first time in Tennessee basketball history, the Volunteers have made it 3 consecutive trips to the Sweet 16. No. 2 seed Tennessee outlasted 7-seed UCLA on Saturday night for a 67-58 victory in Lexington.

Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler led the way for UT.

Lanier was the game’s high scorer with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point line. Lanier brought his season 3-point total to 120, passing Chris Lofton’s previous program record of 118 during the 2007-08 season.

Zeigler had 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, a pair of triples and 5 free throws. He played a team-high 38 minutes and led the way with 6 assists.

The Vols and Bruins were locked in a back-and-forth battle early. UCLA logged 9:46 of lead time, all in the 1st half. The Bruins last led 25-24 with 3:21 to go before halftime. Tennessee scored the next 8 points, taking a 32-25 lead into the break.

Skyy Clark tried to bring UCLA back, but it wasn’t enough. Clark had 15 of his 18 points in the 2nd half, including 3 3-pointers.

It was a 37-31 game at the 17:44 mark. The Vols opened it up to 46-31 by 14:14 and cruised the rest of the way. UT’s lead reached 19 points (61-42) with 5:15 to go in the game.

Tennessee was the better shooting team, making 43% of its field-goal attempts (21-of-49) to UCLA’s 37% (20-of-54). The Vols shot 50% from 3-point territory, draining 11-of-22 triples, while UCLA made just 30% (7-of-23). UT won the rebounding battle 36-26, including 24 defensive boards.

Tennessee improves to 29-7 on the season. The Vols move on to Indianapolis, where they will play either 3-seed Kentucky or 6-seed Illinois in the Sweet 16.

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.