GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team dropped its first game of the 2024-25 campaign, falling at eighth-ranked Florida, 73-43, Tuesday night in its SEC road opener.
Fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier, who grabbed a co-season-high seven rebounds, and senior guard Zakai Zeigler scored 10 points apiece to lead top-ranked Tennessee (14-1, 1-1 SEC) at a sold-out, over-capacity Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
Florida (14-1, 1-1 SEC) raced out to a 12-0 lead in the opening 6:18, as the Volunteers missed their initial nine shots. They got on the board with a pair of free throws at the 13:19 mark and then made the first field goal with 12:38 on the timer.
Tennessee forced nine consecutive misses on the defensive end and clawed within six, but the Gators then made back-to-back 3-pointers—the first by either side—in 34 seconds to go back up by a dozen, 18-6, with 9:51 to play in the half. They continued to extend their lead from there and pushed it to 19, 34-15, at the break.
The Volunteers missed their final 10 field-goal attempts of the session and went into the locker room with a 4-of-29 (13.8 percent) ledger, including a 0-of-14 mark beyond the arc. Despite the offensive struggles, Tennessee did turn in a strong half defensively, holding Florida to 14-of-37 (37.8 percent) shooting, including a 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) tally on 3-pointers.
Tennessee opened the second-half scoring after 50 seconds with its first 3-pointer of the night, but Florida scored the next nine points in 2:08 to go up by 25, 43-18, with 16:24 to go and squash any comeback hopes for the visitors.
The Gators stretched the margin as high as 36, 64-28, with 6:14 to play as the Tennessee offense could not find any footing. The Volunteers did score the next seven points and keep Florida off the scoreboard for three-plus minutes, as they continued to compete despite the cold shooting.
Florida ultimately held Tennessee to their lowest point total (43) and field-goal percentage (21.4; 12-of-56) of Rick Barnes‘ 10-year tenure. The Volunteers also shot just 13.8 percent (4-of-29) from 3-point range.
The Volunteers limited Florida to a 39.7 percent (27-of-68) clip from the floor, including a 30.0 percent (6-of-24) ledger from deep, but the shooting woes and a minus-17 margin, 55-38, on the glass were far too much to overcome on the road against a top-10 team.
Graduate student guard Alijah Martin led all scorers with 18 points for the Gators and junior guard Denzel Aberdeen notched 16. Sophomore forward/center Alex Condon had 12 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore center pulled down a game-best 15 rebounds, the most by a Tennessee foe in 2024-25.
Tennessee now travels to Austin, Texas, for a second straight road game, as it takes the Moody Center court Saturday at 6 p.m. ET against Texas, live on ESPN. Coverage begins at 5:30pm on 103.1FM WIKQ.
