The Tennessee Basketball Volunteers left College Station on Saturday with one of their biggest wins this season. A top-10, resume-building road victory is exactly what Tennessee needed to keep their hopes for a 1-seed alive, and it brought Tennessee to 9 Quad 1 wins on the year.

The Vols had to overcome a furious effort from Texas A&M in the first 8 minutes as the Aggies led 17-8 at the under-12 timeout. However, Tennessee settled in and ended the first half on a 28-15 run largely due to 22 points from Chaz Lanier, and took a 36-32 lead into the half. The second stanza was fun back-and-forth basketball only interrupted by a few moments of brutal officiating. Neither team could muster more than a 3 or 4-point lead for most of the 2nd half, but then, in the last 5 minutes of the game, Zakai Zeigler took over. Rick Barnes again decided to isolate Zeigler down the stretch in a close game and it worked beautifully. Zakai scored or assisted on 13 of Tennessee’s last 17 points and the cherry on top was his dagger three that put the Vols up 6 with 20 seconds to go. Chaz Lanier ended the game with a season-high 30-point performance and Jordan Gainey added 14 more important points off the bench.

Tennessee also held the Aggies under their average in offensive rebounds and defended the perimeter well as A&M shot 5-30 from beyond the arc. Tennessee’s last four games are on the road at LSU, home for Alabama, on the road at Ole Miss, and then home for South Carolina. It feels like going undefeated down the stretch is what Tennessee needs to do to secure a 1-seed and even then a win or two in the SEC tournament might be necessary. Tennessee is now 5-1 in their last 6 games and finding ways to win even when things go awry. A trait that will be handy for these Vols if they want to make their first Final 4 in program history.