South Carolina Basketball: Road Trip to Knoxville Unkind to Gamecocks

Thompson-Boling Arena was rocking on Saturday night despite the recent struggles for the home Volunteers. South Carolina basketball came in having played much better the last three weeks of the season, but the Gamecocks were thoroughly eviscerated the last time these teams matched up. As a career Gamecock killer, Volunteer senior and South Carolina native Josiah Jordan-James returned for this game after missing the previous four contests.

The game began with some ugly shooting for the Gamecocks, but Josh Gray grabbed an astonishing four offensive rebounds during the game’s first minute as the Gamecocks shot 0-6 in the opening 60 seconds. Vols’ Head Coach Rick Barnes immediately made a substitution to inject some energy into his squad’s rebounding efforts, and it worked as the Gamecocks only grabbed 13 more rebounds for the rest of the half.

The Gamecock basket must have had a lid on it because the visiting team scored just five points in the game’s first eight minutes. An 11-0 Volunteer run saw the lead extend to 17-5 before Hayden Brown’s driving and-one stopped the bleeding…momentarily, at least. The Vols kept scoring, but Hayden Brown and Jacobi Brown kept Lamont Paris’ squad in the game.

Josiah Jordan-James did what he does: he knocked down jumper after jumper against his home state school. He came off the bench and canned three quick jump shots in five minutes of early game action, including two 3-pointers. Zakai Zeigler controlled the game when the Vols had the ball, masterfully guiding his offense to bucket after bucket until a small lull at the end of the half. The Gamecocks just couldn’t keep up, as they shot just 36.7% from the field and 16.7% from the perimeter. Tennessee’s shooting was a much more efficient 56.7% from the field and 40% from distance.

The second half started with everything going the Vols’ way. The 12-point halftime margin grew to 21 just five minutes into the second period. No one dressed in black but Hayden Brown could seem to buy a bucket in the second half. Meanwhile, the Vols dominated and extended their lead to a game-high 41-point margin. The Vols were scoring, yes, but their defense was suffocating as no Gamecock who shot more than once shot better than 50% for the South Carolina basketball team.

Zeigler finished the game with a double-double, notching 13 points and 11 assists. Jamai Mashack and Olivier Nkemhoua had big games, as well, with the sophomore and senior chipping in with 24 points, 7 assists, and 13 rebounds combined. Jordan-James, the Gamecock killer, didn’t play very much but still managed to drop in a game-high 18 points off the bench in his first game back from injury.

Tennessee won the rebounding battle 34-30, outshot the Gamecocks 58.1%-35.2%, and made six more 3-pointers than South Carolina. Perhaps most impressively, the Volunteers finished with an incredible 29-4 assist-to-turnover ratio, while the Gamecocks’ ratio was a pathetic 8-14. The Gamecocks have now lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Vols and fall to 3-13 in SEC play this season. These last two losses to Tennessee are the two most lopsided losses in the history of this matchup.

The Gamecocks will be on the road again on Tuesday as they travel to Starkville to take on the surging Mississippi State Bulldogs.