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Tennessee defeated Texas A&M 77-69 on Saturday afternoon in College Station.
The Vols trailed big early on, but battled back before halftime to take a lead going into the break. The teams went back-and-forth in the 2nd half, but the Vols made just enough plays down the stretch in order to come away with a huge win over the Aggies.
Here are 3 takeaways from Tennessee’s enormous road victory:
Chaz Lanier’s monster first half
Texas A&M led by as many as 9 points in the 1st half, but Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier helped bring the Vols back. He poured in 22 points before the break and made 6 3-pointers. His 1st half also included a vicious dunk over A&M’s Andersson Garcia.
Lanier’s big-time scoring punch brought the Vols all the way back from down 9 to up 4 at the half. Lanier was responsible for 22 of Tennessee’s 24 points in the first period. He went 8-of-10 from the floor, 6-of-7 from 3-point range and chipped in 3 boards as well.
His performance was crucial to Tennessee breaking up A&M’s momentum at a time when the Aggies’ home crowd was impacting the game. Lanier finished the game with 30 points, which is a new season-high for any Tennessee player.
Tennessee’s perimeter defense held up
Tennessee is one of the best defensive teams in the country and the Vols proved that again on Saturday afternoon.
Specifically, Tennessee’s defense shined on the perimeter. The Vols held Texas A&M to just 5-of-30 shooting from beyond the arc. That included a 1-for-15 performance in the 2nd half. It was a dreadful performance for an Aggies team that came into the night shooting just 31% from distance on the season.
Wade Taylor had an especially poor night from downtown. He went 0-for-9 from 3-point range despite shooting 35% from distance on the season. Zhuric Phelps, A&M’s other top perimeter player, managed to shoot just 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
For Tennessee, this isn’t anything new. The Vols are No. 3 in the country at defending the 3-point line with opponents making just over 28% of their tries so far this season. But still, it was good for the Vols to get this kind of performance in a spot when they really needed it.
Postseason implications
As Tennessee looks ahead to the postseason, this result could have big implications for its seeding in both the NCAA Tournament and the SEC Tournament.
For the NCAA Tournament, the Vols entered Saturday as a projected No. 2 seed according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. However, Tennessee does still have a path to earning a No. 1 seed if it can keep winning big games like this one.
As for the SEC tourney, Tennessee is still in pursuit of a coveted double-bye to the quarterfinal round. With this win (and A&M’s loss), Tennessee is now just a half game back of a top-4 seed. The Vols are also now only 2 games in the loss column behind Auburn and Alabama, who are tied for 2nd place in the league standings.
Tennessee will face LSU on the road on Tuesday night.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
