Chaz Lanier poured in 25 points, all of them in the first half when he knocked down seven 3-pointers, as No. 11 Tennessee built a huge early lead and waltzed to a 77-62 victory over No. 13 Baylor on Friday in the title game of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.
Tennessee (6-0) led by as many as 28 points and easily contained the Bears.
Jordan Gainey added 16 points, Cade Phillips scored 11 and Igor Milicic Jr. finished with 10 for the Volunteers. Tennessee outshot Baylor 52.2 percent to 42.4 percent despite the Bears shooting 53.3 percent after halftime.
Norchad Omier led Baylor (4-2) with 22 points and 10 rebounds, and freshman VJ Edgecombe, a native of The Bahamas, added 20 points.
The Volunteers had all phases of their attack in high gear from the start, scoring the first seven points of the game and rolling to a 16-2 lead after a 3-pointer by Lanier just 3:53 into the contest. Tennessee expanded the margin to 20 points when Gainey hit from beyond the arc with 8:20 to play in the half, and led 42-14 after Jahmai Mashack’s layup with 3:47 left.
Baylor trimmed its deficit to 24 points on Josh Ojianwuna’s putback layup with 22 seconds remaining in the half. But Lanier answered with his seventh 3-pointer in the first half with two seconds left to carry the Volunteers to a 47-20 advantage at the break.
Lanier’s 25 points before halftime were three more than the rest of the Volunteers combined to score over the first 20 minutes. He hit his first five 3-point attempts in the game as Tennessee outshot Baylor 51.5 percent to 31 percent in the opening half and forced nine turnovers that the Volunteers turned into 13 points.
Baylor had no player with more than five points in the first half.
Omier’s 13 points over the first 7:05 of the second half helped the Bears show they had life but Baylor still trailed 57-36.
–Field Level Media
