LEXINGTON, Ky. — Chaz Lanier scored a game-high 20 points and Zakai Zeigler added 15 points and six assists to lead second-seeded Tennessee past seventh-seeded 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 54.5 percent in the second half, including 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 (30.4 percent).

Jordan Gainey added 13 points for Tennessee (29-7), which advances to its third straight Sweet 16 appearance next Friday in Indianapolis, where the Volunteers 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.

“We went into the locker room with a lot of energy because we knew it was going to be a dogfight going into the game,” Zeigler said. “You knew it was going to be a lot of ups and downs, but the last couple of minutes in the first half we had a lot of energy.

“Getting turnovers and those loud plays, it really picked us up,” he continued. “Going into the locker room, we had a lot of energy.”

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.

“I mean, going into halftime, we knew that (we) wouldn’t let off the gas,” Lanier added. “So we wanted to be a be really make a point at getting at them and being aggressive on the defensive end coming out at halftime. So I feel like we did a great job pressing up and forcing turnovers

The defensive energy led to great offense for Tennessee. The Volunteers came out on fire in the second half, connecting on five of their 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.

“Our offense got us beat tonight. Our offense got us beat,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin. “A lack of execution and the end of the first half stuff.”

Tennessee also dominated the glass, out rebounding UCLA 36-26 for the game.

“We got off to a terrible start,” Cronin said. “We were stopping them, and I don’t have the first half stats, but I think they had nine or 10 offensive rebounds at halftime. Our defense couldn’t have been much better early, but we didn’t do a good job on the glass in the first half, for sure.”

–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media