If No. 1 Tennessee needed a wakeup call, Middle Tennessee State was more than happy to deliver one Monday night at Food City Center. The Vols rallied from down six points at halftime against an upset-minded Blue Raider team and managed to stay perfect in an 82-64 win.

Tennessee (12-0) got 23 points from Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler had a second straight double-double with 17 points and 15 assists to lead the comeback.

Felix Okpara scored 10 of his 12 in the first half and Jordan Gainey scored all 10 of his points in the second half. Igor Milicic finished with seven points and 10 rebounds.

MTSU (9-4) got 23 from Camryn Weston, who had 17 points in the first half put his team ahead, and Kamari Lands scored 10 points.

The Vols took the lead for good on two Lanier free throws with 12:21 left, their first lead since the 3:07 mark of the first half, then extended the lead to four on the next possession when Lanier hit a transition three on an assist from Zeigler.

Zeigler then threw an alley-oop to a cutting Cade Phillips to get the lead to six, the first of back-to-back Phillips dunks with just under 11 minutes left.

Two Zeigler free throws with 7:14 left made it a seven-point lead at 65-58 after a 6-0 run in just under two minutes.

Lanier drove and scored with 4:46 to go and Gainey hit a three on the next trip down to get the lead back to 11, matching the biggest of lead of the first half.

The Vols led by 11 with 9:31 left in the first half, but turned it over five times in just over two minutes and opened the door for MTSU to make it a game. The Blue Raiders then caught fire, making five threes in the final 6:22 of the first half and closing on a 26-9 run to take a 40-34 lead at halftime.

Weston went on his own 7-0 run to get MTSU back within two at 28-26 with 5:41 left in the first half, then Porter made back-to-back threes two minutes later to put the Blue Raiders ahead 32-30, with the run at 18-4.

Tennessee ended the half making just two of its final 11 shots. The Vols committed six turnovers in the final 10:04 of the half, after just turning it over once before over the first 9:56.

Monday’s win moved Tennessee into a tie for the second best start in program history, tying the 1915-16 team which went a perfect 12-0 in a 12-game season.

Cam Carr leaves Vols, freshman guard Bishop Boswell out with injury

Tennessee sophomore wing Cam Carr left the basketball program on Monday afternoon and will enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. The Vols were also missing Bishop Boswell Monday night, with the freshman guard out with a right shoulder injury.

Carr had been out the last month after suffering a thumb injury that required surgery in late November. Boswell hurt his right shoulder in the second half of the win over Western Carolina last week and is considered day to day.

Tennessee entered the season with 11 scholarship players out of a possible 13 and was already down one player with sophomore center JP Estrella out for the year after undergoing foot surgery last month.

Jahmai Mashack left the game Monday night briefly in the first half after appearing to injure fingers on his left hand, leaving the Vols with just seven scholarship players available. He came back into the game later in the first half with tape on the injured fingers.

Up Next: Tennessee vs. Norfolk State, December 31

Tennessee is back to host Norfolk State next Tuesday, in a 3 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network+ on New Year’s Eve.

The Vols are in the middle of a four-game homestand that started with an 84-36 win over UT Martin last week. SEC play opens at home against Arkansas on January 4, before the Vols go back on the road at No. 6 Florida on January 7, then at Texas on January 11.

The rest of the January schedule includes dates with Georgia, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Auburn and Kentucky.