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UCLA falls to Tennessee in 2nd round of NCAA Tournament after early lead slips away
By Andrew Olson
Published:
UCLA saw a slim lead slip away before the end of the 1st half against Tennessee and never recovered. The Bruins’ 2024-25 season came to an end on Saturday night with a 67-58 loss to the Volunteers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 2-seed Vols and 7-seed Bruins were locked in a back-and-forth battle early. UCLA logged 9:46 of lead time, all in the 1st half. The Bruins last led 25-24 with 3:21 to go before halftime. Tennessee scored the next 8 points, taking a 32-25 lead into the break.
Skyy Clark tried to bring UCLA back, but it wasn’t enough. Clark had 15 of his 18 points in the 2nd half, including 3 3-pointers.
It was a 37-31 game at the 17:44 mark. The Vols opened it up to 46-31 by 14:14 and cruised the rest of the way. UT’s lead reached 19 points (61-42) with 5:15 to go in the game.
Tennessee was the better shooting team, making 43% of its field-goal attempts (21-of-49) to UCLA’s 37% (20-of-54). The Vols shot 50% from 3-point territory, draining 11-of-22 triples, while UCLA made just 30% (7-of-23). UT won the rebounding battle 36-26, including 24 defensive boards.
Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler led the way for UT.
Lanier was the game’s high scorer with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point line. Lanier brought his season 3-point total to 120, passing Chris Lofton’s previous program record of 118 during the 2007-08 season.
Zeigler had 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, a pair of triples and 5 free throws. He played a team-high 38 minutes and led the way with 6 assists.
A former Florida beat reporter, Andrew writes for the Saturday Tradition News Desk.