Tennessee basketball walked away with a 77-62 victory against Wofford in their NCAA tournament opener. It took a complete team effort to get the win, but it was Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler who stood out the most for the Volunteers, and they both accomplished something that hadn't been done since 2008, according to OptaSTATS.

“Tennessee is the second team in the last 30 years to have one player with 25+ points (Chaz Lanier) & another with a dozen assists & no turnovers (Zakai Zeigler) in an NCAA Tournament game. The other was Davidson in 2008 with Stephen Curry (33 pts) & Jason Richards (13 ast/0 TO),” OptaSTATS wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Lanier scored 29 points, shooting 11-for-21 from the field and 6-for-12 from the 3-point line. As a team, they made 48% of their shots and went 10-for-28 on 3-pointers. It was a convincing win for Tennessee, and they were one of the top four seeds in the Midwest Regional to win by double-digits.

After the game, head coach Rick Barnes shared some nice words for Lanier and how he was the key for them to get the victory.

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“I’ve seen some guys — I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy as good of a player as him ever be scared of the moment here. I think they kind of embrace it,” Barnes said via on3's Grant Ramey. “They really love it. I think he was looking forward to it.

“And, again, his demeanor hasn’t changed one bit from the first time I met him to today. He has been the same Chaz Lanier in terms of the way he goes about everything that he does. I wasn’t concerned about that. I think coaches go into the game always thinking, hey, I hope we can make some shots.”

Tennessee will have to bring that same intensity that they had against Wofford in their next matchup against UCLA, who had a big win against Utah State.