Tennessee made a triumphant return to its home floor on as the No. 1 team in college basketball on Tuesday.

The Vols, coming off of a last-second road win at Illinois over the weekend, turned made a sluggish start seem like a distant memory in a matter of minutes against Western Carolina, beating the Catamounts, 84-36 to remain perfect at Food City Center.

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Once Tennessee (11-0) shook off its early shooting woes, it mostly looked like the team that has dominated its way to the top of all of the major polls. Offensively, Chaz Lanier paced the Vols in scoring with 19 points while Jordan Gainey and Darlinstone Dubar added 17 and 13 points, respectively off of the bench.

Zakai Zeigler turned in a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, finishing just shy of a triple-double with nine assist.

On defense, Tennessee was as stifling as it has been all season, holding Western Carolina (3-7) to just 21% shooting from the field and an even more abysmal 15% from three-point range.

The Catamounts turned the ball over 23 times, leading to 23 points on the other end for the Vols, while Tennessee out-rebounded them, 48-37.

Maybe Tennessee was still feeling the effects of a road win at the buzzer. Maybe it underestimated Western Carolina.

Whatever the reason, it was the Catamounts that landed a few punches in the first couple of minutes. Bernard Pelote and Cord Stansbury combined for three 3-pointers and put the Vols in a 9-3 hole before the 16 minute mark.

Then Tennessee came to life. The Vols rattled off a 16-0 run, sparked by a Felix Okpara dunk and headlined by back-to-back threes from Chaz Lanier to go ahead 18-9. That run was followed by a nearly three minute scoring drought before Jordan Gainey scored to up the lead to 20-12 with less than 10 minutes left in the first half.

Tennessee wasn't necessarily productive on offense for much of the half, but it hardly mattered with the way it was playing on the defensive end. The Vols had a hand in a number of Catamounts scoring droughts that lasted several minutes.

Western Carolina turned the ball over three times in three minutes at one point and was shooting just 16.7 from the field as the clock ticked inside of five minutes. Gainey, meanwhile, took over one scoring stretch for Tennessee on his own, scoring on a layup, free throw and jumper to push the Vols' advantage to 29-15.

Darlinstone Dubar, who has become more of a factor off of the bench in recent games, got in on the scoring with a floater that was followed by another Lanier score that seemingly all but put Western Carolina way for good late in the half at 31-15.

Dubar stretched Tennessee's run to 10-0 with a 3-pointer a few possessions later and the Vols went into the intermission up 38-15 after closing out the half with a commanding 16-0 scoring edge and holding the Catamounts scoreless for the last eight minutes.

The early-going of the second half went much like the first for Tennessee, only this time the Vols were backed by a comfortable lead.

Lanier laced a 3-pointer and Okpara and Cade Phillips scored inside to open up a 49-17 lead, forcing Western Carolina into a timeout with just under 16 minutes to go.

Tennessee's defense continued to suffocate the Catamounts, who had little chance to trim their deficit. They had made just two shots in the first eight-plus minutes of the half, their third score from the field coming with 10:47 left.

If there was any blight on the Vols' second half performance it was their 3-point shooting. Tennessee struggled from beyond the arc for much of the half, though that didn't matter given the sizable lead they had built up.

The Vols were shooting around 26% from deep and had made just one before Zakai Zeigler buried a 3-pointer just before the seven-minute mark that swelled the lead to 68-29.

It proved contagious, at least for a moment. Gainey hit his first three out of timeout to add to another strong night off of the bench.

Tennessee in inching closer to SEC play as the month of December winds down.

The Vols host and in-state clash with MTSU on Dec. 23 and then wrap up their non-conference slate with Norfolk State on Dec. 31 at Food City Center before opening league action against Arkansas in Knoxville on Jan. 4.

Tennessee will face the Blue Raiders at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.

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