Three takeaways from Tennessee basketball’s 66-46 win vs. South Carolina
It took a while, and it was ugly at times, but Tennessee basketball finally managed to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to the LSU Tigers and cruise to a dominant victory Tuesday. Rick Barnes’ Vols, ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, beat Frank Martin’s South Carolina Gamecocks 66-46 in Knoxville, Tenn., at Thompson-Boling Arena.
This game was back and forth early with the teams exchanging leads multiple times. However, after trailing 21-19, UT then finished the first half on an 11-3 run. They opened the second half on a 9-2 run and never let it get within single digits again, pulling away pretty easily.
Rocky Top improved to 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the SEC with a critical trip to the Kentucky Wildcats set for this Saturday, Jan. 15. South Carolina, meanwhile, fell to 10-5 and 1-2 in the SEC and will return home to face the Florida Gators Saturday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s victory.
1. Defense led the way.
Early on, Josiah-Jordan James missed two more three-pointers and had everybody questioning why he stays in the game. Well, he stays in because of his elite defense, and it showed as he had a block, a steal and 12 rebounds. That led to a double-double, because his shot finally started falling, and he went 2-of-4 from three with 11 points.
James’ play helped spark the Vols to forcing 23 turnovers. Zakai Zeigler was huge off the bench as well with four steals, and he also scored 11. They held South Carolina to 17-of-49, or 34.7 percent, from the field as well. This was all huge. Santiago Vescovi was having an off-night shooting the ball, going 2-of-9 from three, so they needed got help elsewhere. They got it.
2. John Fulkerson answered Rick Barnes’ challenge.
In addition to the steals and forced turnovers, Tennessee basketball’s defense came away with four blocks. John Fulkerson had two of them. After being called out directly by Barnes for his play in the Vols’ loss to LSU, he came back and was aggressive but still efficient.
Fulkerson finished the game with 10 points and seven rebounds, and he was 5-of-8 from the field. Olivier Nkamhoua made a bit of a splash in the second half but didn’t play as much in this game, as Barnes played Uros Plavsic a bit more. With him not being as effective in this game and the three-point shot not dominating, Fulky needed to step up, and he did.
3. Free throw shooting was a huge issue.
The likely bet here is that this was an outlier, not a trend, but it was an alarming one. Rocky Top shot 11-of-25 from the free throw line, or 44 percent. Luckily for them, South Carolina wasn’t much better, going 6-of-17, or 35.3 percent, which is why, combined with UT’s defense, they only had 44 points. However, this isn’t like the Vols.
Vescovi, in his odd off night, still had 14 points, but he was also 2-of-5 from the free throw line. Kennedy Chandler was 3-for-8, which is why he didn’t reach double figures. Nkamhoua was 2-of-4, and Plavsic was 0-for-2. Tennessee basketball likely won’t do this again, but the issue kept them from scoring 70 points.