Tennessee basketball: 3 takeaways from Vols win vs. Gamecocks
Tennessee basketball bounced back and won its fourth SEC game beating the Gamecocks 70-63. Here are three takeaways from the Volunteers’ win.
Tennessee basketball won its fourth game in SEC play Saturday. In a hard-fought game, the Vols closed the deal late against the South Carolina Gamecocks. This was a massive win for a Tennessee team that was in danger of dropping two SEC games in a row.
With the win, Tennessee moves to 4-3 in SEC play. The win could prevail the Vols to a top 5 standing in the SEC depending on what happens tonight in Rupp Arena.
This league is deep, any win, especially a road win, the Vols pick up down the stretch will help receive the much-wanted byes for the SEC Tournament. On the other hand, South Carolina falls to 3-4 in SEC play and is in dire need of some big wins to get in the hunt of the NCAA Tournament.
After a 1-1 split in the last two games, the upcoming schedule does favor the Vols. On Tuesday night Vanderbilt heads to Knoxville followed by a road trip on Saturday the 27th to take on Iowa State in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. LSU and Ole Miss come to Knoxville after that which are two very winnable games.
The Vols played well and deserved the hard-fought win. Here are three takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s win against South Carolina.
1. Deeper rotation helped late
Rick Barnes said before the game that Tennessee basketball’s rotation was going to look much different. He was lying. Vols went to freshmen forwards Yves Pons and Derrick Walker early in the first half.
That would mark Pons first action in an SEC game. He looked young and lost at times, but we also saw a lot of promise from the athlete that can dunk the basketball from anywhere on the court.
Derrick Walker took full advantage of the most playing time in his young career. Before tonight’s game, Walker’s career high in points was five; he only had 22 total points for the season. He surpassed his career high in the first half when he 8 points in 10 minutes. We saw Walker in the game late in the most crucial of moments.
Have we seen the end of John Fulkerson’s minutes? Tough to tell, but I should note Fulkerson didn’t play in today’s game. If Walker continues to play the way he did today it will be hard to take those minutes away.
2. Defense was destructive (sometimes)
Finally, the Vols brought it defensively, well sometimes. Tennessee’s defense had points in the first half where South Carolina struggled to dribble let alone score. The Gamecocks were 8-22 with seven turnovers. The Vols took advantage scoring eight points off the turnovers and added three blocks and four steals.
Tennessee ended up holding South Carolina to 37% from the field even after the Gamecocks got hot from the 3-point line in the second half. The Vols ended up scoring 19 points off of 14 forced turnovers.
3. Lamonte Turner a.k.a Lamon-TREY
Lamon-TREY! Sophomore guard, Lamonte Turner had one of his best games as a Vol. Turner took his opportunity and made the most of it due to Jordan Bowden’s foul trouble in the first half. Turner shot a perfect 4-4 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line in the first half. He had 14 points in 16 minutes.
The second half wasn’t much different. Turner added 11 points and was a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line. We saw Turner shoot higher percentage threes which correlated to a perfect 3-3 from 3-point range. Tuner was the guy with the ball in his hands to put the game away. Standing ovation for you Lamonte.
Bonus takeaways
1. Easy on the rim
Tennessee’s big guys did not like the rims in Colonial Life Arena. Derrick Walker had a huge slam in the first half. All I could think in my mind was Bill Raftery saying, “Send it in, Jerome!”
Kyle Alexander wanted some of that action when he was on the finishing end of an alley-oop slam on an end bounds play.
And if that weren’t enough on the poor rims, Grant Willams wouldn’t be outdone when he slammed on Chris Silva creating a picture worthy of framing.
2. Tennessee basketball had a block party
Kyle Alexander had two blocks adding to his total of 8 in the past three games. Grant Williams had two blocks, and one was essential to continue a Vols run. Tennessee had a total of seven blocks.