No. 11 Tennessee’s big second half overwhelms Virginia

Chaz Lanier fueled a strong second half as No. 11 Tennessee ran away with a 64-42 victory over Virginia on Thursday night at the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas.

Lanier made four of his six 3-pointers and scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half, helping the Volunteers (5-0) hand the Cavaliers (3-1) their first loss under interim coach Ron Sanchez.

Tennessee will face No. 13 Baylor (4-1) in Friday’s championship game, and Virginia will face No. 22 St. John’s (4-1) in the consolation game.

Tennessee outscored Virginia 15-3 to start the second half and opened a 37-24 lead. Lanier scored the first 11 of those points for the Volunteers, including the 1,000th. points in the North Florida transfer’s career.

The Cavaliers pulled back to within 39-34 on Taine Murray’s 3-pointer with 10:48 left, but Igor Milicic Jr. answered with a triple and Tennessee quickly regained control.

Milicic, who played at Virginia as a freshman and then traded to Sanchez in Charlotte, finished with 14 points against his former school and coach.

An 18-0 run ballooned Tennessee’s lead to 64-38 before coach Rick Barnes emptied his bench.

The Volunteers scored 30 points off 18 turnovers and turned 18 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points. Virginia turned Tennessee’s seven turnovers into just two points.

Dai Dai Ames scored 12 points to lead the Cavaliers, who shot just 28.6 percent from the field.

Tennessee led 22-21 at halftime after Virginia scored the final seven points of the opening half, capped by a long 3-pointer by Andrew Rohde with five seconds left.

The Volunteers took their biggest lead of the first half at 22-14 on Darlinstone Dubar’s layup with 2:51 left, but didn’t score again.

Neither team could get much going offensively before the break. Tennessee shot 30.0 percent (9 of 30) from the field in the first half, one mark better than Virginia’s 29.2 percent (7 of 24).

–Field-level media