BATON ROUGE, La. -- — Zakai Zeigler scored 17 points, Felix Okpara added 15 and No. 5 Tennessee defeated LSU 65-59 on Tuesday night.

Chaz Lanier added 14 points and a season-high nine rebounds for the Volunteers (23-5, 10-5 Southeastern Conference), who struggled offensively in the first half but built a 15-point lead on Cade Phillips' free throw with 3:24 left.

By the time LSU (14-14, 3-12) trimmed Tennessee's lead down to 64-59, just 11 seconds remained.

Vyctorius Miller scored 17 points and Cam Carter had 12 for LSU, which lost its second straight game against a team ranked in the top five.

Takeaways

Tennessee: The Volunteers have won six of seven, four of those by single digits. Tennessee outscored LSU 32-20 in the paint.

LSU: With hustling perimeter defense and active hands, LSU kept most of the game competitive by holding the Volunteers 4.4% below their usual shooting average of 45.4% and well below their scoring average of 74.7 points this season. The Tigers just couldn't shoot well enough to pull off the kind of SEC stunner that Georgia had against No. 3 Florida earlier in the evening.

Key moment

After Zeigler hit a driving floater off the glass as he was fouled, he missed his free throw, but Okpara put back the rebound to make it 51-42 with eight minutes left. Tennessee pulled away from there.

Key stat

Tennessee outrebounded LSU 44-28 and converted 17 offensive rebounds into 27 second-chance points.

Up next

Both teams play Saturday. Tennessee hosts No. 6 Alabama, while LSU visits No. 24 Mississippi State.

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