The No. 22 Vols had their best offensive night in nearly two months when they defeated Texas A&M 90-80 Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
After being held to their lowest points total of the season at Texas, Tennessee rebounded for its fourth 90+ point game of the season and its fourth-straight SEC win.
In their win Tuesday night, the Vols shot 51% from the field — their highest since 53% at Kentucky on Jan. 15 — and made 11 threes on 42% from three-point range, a nice bounce-back after making 5 at a 27% clip in the Texas loss.
Five different Vols finished the game in double figures. Kennedy Chandler led with 16 points along with 7 assists and 3 steals. Olivier Nkamhoua finished with 15 points and 7 rebounds, while Josiah-Jordan James and Zakai Zeigler each finished 14 points. Santiago Vescovi totaled 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting from three.
The Vols (15-6, 6-3 SEC) hope that offensive breakout will carry over as they face South Carolina (13-8, 4-5 SEC) for the second time this season in Columbia.
“We just want to be consistent and know that we can play with the way that we practice, and if we can do that, we’ll see how it all unfolds for us,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said.
The Vols handled South Carolina 66-46 the last time these two teams met on Jan 11. The Vols did not shoot the ball particularly well that night (43.6% from the floor) but rode a combination of good defense — 23 forced turnovers — and balanced scoring to the win.
That win, however, came in the friendly confines of Thompson-Boling Arena. The Vols are 2-4 on the road this season, including a 1-3 mark in SEC road games. Additionally, South Carolina has been hot over the last two weeks, winning three of its last four games.
Barnes knows he cannot take anything for granted strictly because the Vols beat the Gamecocks by 20 points three weeks ago.
“I would say it’s tough to win on the road, anywhere,” Barnes said. “Neutral sites, you would like think it’s a 50/50 toss-up, anybody can get those. When you go on the road in conference, winning a conference road game is really hard to do.”
South Carolina has settled into its rotation with a trio of Gamecocks averaging double-digit points for the season. South Carolina is led by Erik Stevenson with 11.2 points per game, followed closely by James Reese V (10.9) and Jermaine Couisnard (10.1).
Stevenson is averaging 17.0 points in the SEC home game, and Reese V was the Gamecocks’ leading scorer with 15 points the first time these teams met this year.
South Carolina’s defense has made strides since falling to the Vols. The Gamecocks rank 30th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, while holding their opponents to 40.1% from the floor, the third-best mark in the SEC.
“I think they’re playing with confidence, which they should,” Barnes said. “You guys know my feelings towards (South Carolina’s head coach) Frank Martin and he’s a terrific coach and he’s never going to let his guys not continue to get better and they’ve done just that where they seem to feel really good about where they are with their rotation as a team and guys are into roles they want to be in . . . Every time you play against Frank and his team, they’re going to get after you on the defensive end, and now they’re really getting some good stuff out of their zone press.”
This brings the Vols back to consistency, their theme of the season.
Tennessee has been dealing with the same handful of problems all season, from routine scoring droughts each night to their frontcourt taking a massive step back to an unwillingness to take open shots.
As the Vols begin the second half of the SEC schedule — which includes 5 road games — there is little room for the same errors night in and night out.
“It’s a hard league and a great league,” sophomore guard Justin Powell said. “You just have to go out there every night knowing that you have to be on your A-game. Nobody is going to be perfect, but you have to be pretty close to perfect. In the end, you’re just trying to figure out what the best thing is to do to get the win that night.”
