Tennessee coach Rick Barnes recaps the Vols' 70-63 win against South Carolina Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The same lead-holding problem that plagued Tennessee basketball in a pair of previous SEC road games this season showed up again Saturday.
The Vols took the lead less than two minutes into the game and stayed in front almost the entire way against South Carolina. But the Gamecocks kept chipping away in the second half, pushing Tennessee to the brink in a game that was tied twice with less than seven minutes to play.
But the No. 21 Vols didn’t wilt this time and never gave up the lead in the face of a roaring road crowd, holding off a feisty South Carolina team to win 70-63 at Colonial Life Arena on Saturday night.
“We just kept executing and we did our job on the defensive end,” sophomore forward Grant Williams said. “Defensively is where it started. Just not allowing them to score and get easy shots. They made some tough ones down the stretch, but other than that we did a good job defensively.”
Lamonte Turner led the Vols and matched his career-high with 25 points. Williams had 14, Admiral Schofield scored 12 and Derrick Walker had a career-high 10 for Tennessee (13-5, 4-3 SEC). And down the stretch those four were on the floor along with James Daniel III to close
Vols coach Rick Barnes said he took a timeout with 5:51 left to set the lineup after giving the group a final breather.
“We had made up our mind at that point in time that we were going to close the game with those guys on the floor,” Barnes said. “That’s how we were going to close the game. We were going to use the full timeout to get a rest and this is how we’re going to finish, have to lock in on the defensive end.
“I’m really happy with the way they finished it.”
South Carolina (12-7, 3-4) shot lights out from 3-point range in the second half, hitting six of its first nine attempts after halftime. Three times Tennessee’s lead was cut to one on a 3-pointer, but the Vols had an answer each time to strengthen their lead behind a season-best 57.5 percent shooting from the floor.
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Then USC forward Maik Kotsar made a running floater late in the shot clock to tie the game 57-57 with 6:25 to play. Turner made a pair of free throws, as did USC’s Hassani Gravett to tie the game 59-59.
Turner made a jumper to break the second tie, waving his arms to the South Carolina crowd as the Vols took a 61-59 lead. Schofield poked away a cross-court pass, scooping it up and tossing it to Turner. Turner returned the pass to Schofield in the corner and he buried a 3-pointer to push the lead to five, 64-59.
South Carolina pulled within two again on a 3-pointer from Wesley Myers, who had 16 points to tie Justin Minaya for the USC team lead. The Gamecocks had a chance to tie the Vols for a third time, but forward Chris Silva missed two free throws..
Williams made a pair of free throws for the Vols, who went a perfect 6 for 6 from the line in the final 2:12.
“Today, I thought our guys showed some great poise at the end,” Barnes said.
The Vols led by as many as nine in the first half, taking the lead with a pair of Williams free throws just 1:43 after tip-off and Tennessee wouldn’t trail the rest of the way.
“We are excited to see how this keeps going,” Williams. “We have to stay tough and play like men. Tonight, I think we did a good job. I think we showed one of our toughest nights of the season.”
Pons plays
Barnes said Friday that freshman forward Yves Pons was close to being ready to play.
And he wasn’t kidding. The freshman checked in with 17:08 to play in the first half and played a season-high 12 minutes. The 6-foot-5 forward had not played since Dec. 23 against Wake Forest.
Tennessee junior center Kyle Alexander discusses the Vols' 59-55 loss to Missouri Mike Wilson/News Sentinel
Slowing Silva
Silva came into the game rolling through SEC play, scoring 19.3 points per game in the conference.
But the combination of Walker, Williams and Kyle Alexander limited the Gamecocks big man to six points on 1 of 5 shooting.
“I think Derrick and Kyle did a pretty good job him,” Williams said. “He got into foul trouble, so that kind of took him out of the game. They did a good job staying in front. He’s aggressive. He’s a physical person. … I feel like we just did a good job on him tonight.”
Up next
Tennessee returns to Knoxville to host Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPNU).