South Carolina struggles again against the Vols in lopsided loss

If there was any indicator of how the night would go for South Carolina, it happened on the first possession of the game. 

The Gamecocks missed six shots on the first possession. But they stayed alive with five different offensive rebounds only to come away with nothing in the end. 

Tennessee, on its first possession, went into the post and converted. The Vols took the lead just over 90 seconds into the game.

The Vols never trailed, dominating South Carolina 85-45 where the Gamecocks scored just 19 points in the second half.  

“That seemed like a microcosm of what was to come offensively today,” Lamont Paris said. 

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How it happened

Despite never leading, the Gamecocks (10-19, 3-13 SEC) looked competitive in the first half. They fell behind big early only to chisel away and make it a four-point deficit halfway through the first half. 

But things flipped quickly with Tennessee re-establishing itself while building a 12-point lead at the break. The only reason South Carolina was even in the game at halftime was Hayden Brown, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half. 

Brown, and the rest of the Gamecocks, struggled out of the break. Tennessee ballooned its lead to 21 points just five minutes out of the break. The Vols hit six of its first 11 shots while South Carolina missed five of seven with a pair of turnovers.

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“I thought the shot selection in the first half wasn’t too bad. I didn’t think it was too bad,” Paris said. “In the second half, the lead started to balloon and we started taking some shots that normally don’t go in quite as high of a percentage. A lot of it was that and their defense. But we had some looks we didn’t make.”

As the game wore on and players’ minutes continued to build Saturday, the heavy minute-load for guys in an overtime loss to Alabama started to show. 

Tennessee ran away with things, smacking South Carolina for 47 second-half points and never trailing by single digits for the majority of the game. 

“I was trying to be as smart as I could in the practices leading up to this game,” Paris said. “A lot of minutes by a lot of guys in a game that was pretty emotionally draining for a young group. I thought we came out OK but as we moved on in the game and the minutes started to get up that affected showed itself.” 

South Carolina shot just 33.3 percent from the field after halftime and also just 2-for-10 from three with as many turnovers as field goals (8). A South Carolina team more on the finesse side of things, Paris said, struggled with Tennesse’s physicality. 

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“Their physicality is one of their biggest strong suits. They amped it up,” Brown said. “It wasn’t just the first half and that cooled off. If anything it got more physical in the second half. That’s just tough for a lot of people. They wore us down.” 

It’s South Carolina’s fifth-straight loss to Tennessee while it’s the sixth consecutive loss in Knoxville. 

Two observations

The offense bogs down again–After playing well offensively over the last month, the Gamecocks struggled. They averaged an anemic 0.818 points per possession while shooting just 35.2 percent from the field. It didn’t help to get largely inefficient nights from GG Jackson and Meechie Johnson, who combined for just 11 points on 5-for-21 shooting and missed all nine of their three-point attempts.

Physicality gap shows itself–This Tennessee matchup is a nightmare for South Carolina, a physical team against a South Carolina team also on the finesse end currently. The Gamecocks didn’t answer the bell, allowing 12 offensive rebounds and also nearly double the points in the paint. A struggling Tennessee offense had its way offensively from the jump, shooting 58.1 percent from the field while making 10 of 23 threes.

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Key stat

46 and 18–Tennessee finished with 46 points in the paint and also 18 second-chance points. Most of those came on offensive rebounds. The Gamecocks allowed the Vols to the rim way too easily and it resulted in another lopsided loss.

Turning point

After being on the wrong side of an 11-0 run early, the Gamecocks fought back to make it just a four-point deficit halfway through the first half. South Carolina promptly allowed a three-pointer on the other end. That led to an 11-2 run while the Vols effectively put the game away. They never trailed by single digits after that.

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Up next

South Carolina is back on the road Tuesday. They play at Mississippi State, a team fighting to get into the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs won the first matchup at Colonial Life Arena 66-51. Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. on the SEC Network. 

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