Tennessee basketball, led by Chaz Lanier, looked very impressive in a 77-62 victory over Baylor to win the Baha Mar Championship.
Tennessee basketball had a very successful trip to The Bahamas, winning the Baha Mar Championship convincingly after crushing Baylor 77-62.
The No. 11 Vols (6-0) were led in scoring by Chaz Lanier, who exploded for 25 points, all of which were in the first half. Jordan Gainey and Cade Phillips had double-figures off the bench with 15 and 11 respectively. No. 13 Baylor (4-2) could not get anything going agaisnt Tennessee’s suffocating defense and the Bears were ran off the floor from the opening tip.
Tennessee jumped all over Baylor to start the game and forced an early Baylor timeout after two Lanier 3-pointers had the Vols up 6-0. Lanier kept going and hit three more 3-pointers to have 15 early points and give Tennessee a 16-2 lead at the under-16 media timeout.
The Vols’ early momentum continued with more suffocating defense and great 3-point shooting. The lead was 23-4 with 11:19 to play in the first half. A couple of Gainey triples gave Tennessee a 29-9 lead with 7:48 to play in the half. Things only got worse from there for the Bears, who trailed 42-16 with 2:44 to play in the first as Tennessee had hit nine of its first 20 3-point shots.
The halftime deficit was 47-20 after another Lanier bomb to end the half. He had 25 points at the break, including 7-8 from 3-point range. The Bears tried to close the gap in the second half but the Vols were up 52-28 after the first four minutes of the half and continued to keep the game out of reach.
The pace slowed down considerably in the second half, likely by design for Tennessee. Baylor did cut the lead to 17 with 5:20 to play, but Gainey answered with a big 3-pointer to make it 70-50. From there, the Vols put the finishing touches on their win and early season tournament championship.
