UCLA knocked off by No. 2 Tennessee in second round of NCAA tournament

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The March Madness ride for the UCLA Bruins came to an end on Saturday night as they were eliminated by the Tennessee Volunteers, 67-58, at Rupp Arena in Kentucky. 

It was the team's earliest exit from the tournament under head coach Mick Cronin's six-year tenure so far.

"Our offense got us beat tonight," said Cronin. "When you're gonna play at this level, you're not [gonna] shut teams out. You're not shutting Tennessee out. Offensively we weren't good enough."

Fresh off of a dominant 72-47 win over Utah State in the opening round of the tournament, the Bruins went to battle with a tough Volunteer squad. Tennesse, which came into the tournament as a two-seed after finishing second in the SEC tournament, took care of business in their first-round matchup against Wofford.

In the end, Tennesse's guard play was simply too much to handle for UCLA. Chaz Lanier (20 points, 4 rebounds) and Zakai Zeigler (15 points, 6 assists) had their way all night long as they led the Volunteers to victory. Lanier finished 4-5 from three-point range, passing Chris Lofton for the program's single-season three-point record.

On the other end of the court, Tennessee was able to prevent the UCLA attack from making any major runs. Their 58 points scored was the lowest mark in a loss all season long.

A strong start from the Bruins allowed them to keep the game within range as Tyler Bilodeau and Aday Mara pitched in 13 early points to help the squad claim a 25-24 lead with 3:21 left in the opening half. 

However, another effective Volunteer, Jordan Gainey (13 points, 3 assists), paired up with Lanier as the two went on an 8-0 run of their own to close the half. Tennesse took a 32-25 lead into the locker room.

The second half allowed the Volunteers to continue their hot shooting from beyond the arch as they opened the final 20 minutes with a 25-13 run to pull in front 58-39. They finished the game 11-22 from beyond the arch, while the Bruins shot just 7-23 from range. 

"I think it was the press that got it started, I think that killed us," said Bruin guard Skyy Clark, commenting about the runs that Tennessee made late in the first half and early in the second. "Some turnovers, some fouls...[we] gave them some easy points at the free throw line, especially fouling the wrong person."

Clark, who ran into some early foul trouble, was forced to spend more time on the bench than the squad would have liked. The junior averaged 8.2 points this season and shot 45.9% from the field.

As the deep shots continued to rain down, UCLA just couldn't manage to put together a run of their own. Tennessee's big three, Lanier, Zeigler, and Jahmai Mashack, combined for eight of the team's triples on the night. 

Despite strong efforts from Bilodeau (15 points, 4 rebounds) and Clark (18 points, 2 steals), the Bruins ultimately fell short of their desired result. The final buzzer sounded as they allowed the Volunteers to dance onward to their third consecutive Sweet 16 appearance. 

"This season was a lot of fun," said Clark. "There were a lot of ups and downs, but we stuck together through it all and I'm super proud of everybody."