Tennessee 78-South Carolina 59 Game Summary
COLONIAL LIFE ARENA
- South Carolina honored six seniors before the game: Forward Nordin Kapic, guard Mike Sharavjamts, guard Kobe Knox, guard Eli Sparkman, guard Myles Stute and guard Meechie Johnson.
- Tennessee was without second leading scorer Nate Ament. The freshman is averaging 17.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. He was injured in the loss to Alabama on Saturday. The Vols came in one a two-game slide.
- The Gamecocks got off to another slow start, falling behind 11-3 that forced Lamont Paris to call a time out at the 16:30 mark of the first half. At the point, South Carolina was 1-of-6 from the field, and the Volunteers were winning the rebound margin 8-1.
- Mike Sharavjamts scored the Gamecocks first two-point basket with 8:23 remaining in the half. South Carolina ended the half shooting 31 percent overall. They were 5-of-15 from three and 4-of 14 from inside the arc. Tennessee ended up winning the rebounding battle 18-12 in the opening 20 minutes after the fast start.
- South Carolina pulled within 25-21 on a three-pointer by Grant Polk at the 6:48 mark of the first half. Tennessee answered that spurt with an 8-0 run to push the lead back to double digits. Nordin Kapic, who led the USC offense in the first half with 10 points, stopped the run with a three-pointer at the 4:10 mark. Tennessee led 40-28 at the half.
- Kobe Knox knocked down a jumper at the 16:18 mark of the second half to pull the Gamecocks within 46-40. But that was as close as South Carolina would get the rest of the way. Tennessee responded with a 16-7 run to take command by double digits for the remainder of the game.
- South Carolina finished shooting 36.7 percent from the field. The Gamecocks did make a respectable 9-of-27 from three-point range, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The Volunteers finished with 22 assists on 33 made field goals. Many of those baskets were on dunks.
- Johnson led the Gamecocks with 20 points. The senior has reached double figures 24 times this season and has hit the 20-point plateau 12 times. He also added five rebounds and four assists to lead the way in both categories for the Gamecocks. Johnson is averaging right at 20 points per game in SEC play. Kapic came off the bench to score 13 points, tying his season high.
- Tennessee has won 13 of the last 15 games against South Carolina. JP Estrella led the charge with 22 points and Felix Okpara added 20 points. Ja’Kobi Gillespie finished with eight points and 12 assists. The Volunteers had a 56-18 advantage on points in the paint and 18-10 on second chance points. Tennessee only made five baskets outside the paint – four three-pointers and one two-point basket. The visitors also won the rebounding advantage 34-23.
- South Carolina falls to 12-18 overall, 3-14 in the SEC with one regular season game remaining. The Gamecocks have dropped three in a row and lost 10 of 11 games. South Carolina came into the contest on Tuesday tied with LSU for last place in the SEC. Ole Miss is one game ahead of both teams. The regular season finale will be Saturday at Ole Miss with a 1 pm scheduled tipoff. No, 23 Tennessee improves to 21-9 overall and 11-6 in the SEC.
Two games remaining and counting, and Hopefully Donati will pull the plug on this dying experiment in futility and ineptitude that coach 1/4 Zip has built.