No. 2 Tennessee catches fire in 2nd half to put away No. 7 UCLA

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Chaz Lanier scored a game-high 20 points and Zakai Zeigler added 15 points and six assists to lead No. 2 Tennessee past No. 7 UCLA 67-58 in a second-round Midwest Region game on Saturday night.

With the support of a large and loud partisan crowd inside Rupp Arena -- just 171 miles north on I-75 from the Knoxville campus -- the Volunteers shot 55 percent in the second half, making 7-of-11 from beyond the arc to pull away from the Bruins.

Tennessee finished the game shooting 11-for-22 from 3-point range while UCLA was just 7-of-23.

Jordan Gainey added 13 points for Tennessee (29-7), which advances to its third straight Sweet 16 appearance next Friday in Indianapolis, where they will face the winner of Sunday's Kentucky-Illinois contest in Milwaukee.

Skyy Clark scored 18 points and Tyler Bilodeau added 15 to lead UCLA (23-11), which failed to reach the Sweet 16 for a fourth time in five seasons.

Tennessee, which overcame 18 turnovers, used an 18-5 run that bridged the first and second halves to take the lead for good. The Volunteers built their lead to as many as 19 and were never threatened the rest of the game.

The first half featured seven lead changes and four ties. Aday Mara's jump hook with 3:21 remaining in the opening half gave UCLA its last lead at 25-24.

From there, the Volunteers scored the final eight points of the half to take a 32-25 lead at the break.

Tennessee came out on fire in the second half, connecting on five of its first eight shots from the field, including three straight 3-pointers -- two from Lanier and one from Gainey.

By contrast, the Bruins went cold, missing five straight from the field and going nearly four minutes without a point as Tennessee's 9-0 surge gave the Volunteers a 46-31 lead.

--Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media