COLUMBIA, S.C. - One good stretch of basketball only temporarily interrupted the resounding conclusion to Tennessee's February free fall.
The Volunteers ended a month that began with hopes of an NCAA tournament push with its most lopsided loss of the season, replacing the one that happened 11 days ago.
South Carolina, losers of four of its five previous games, ran out to an 18-lead and responded to a strong push from Tennessee to complete a season sweep of the Vols with a 82-55 rout at Colonial Life Arena on Saturday afternoon.
After winning four straight games to end January and enter the NCAA tournament discussion, Tennessee (15-14, 7-9 Southeastern Conference) went 2-5 in February and now enters the final week of the regular season fighting to maintain a winning record and remain in position to land a National Invitation Tournament spot.
Tennessee's abysmal guard play gave them no chance against the Gamecocks (21-8, 11-5) and their swarming defense, which again held the Vols to 60 points or less for the fifth time under fifth-year coach Frank Martin.
When a change to the starting lineup didn't pan out, Tennessee tried to complete a surprising rally from 18 down by playing most of the second half without a true point guard on the floor.
The result: Tennessee finished with more turnovers (20) as field goals (18) and recorded a season-low three assists, its lowest in a game since recording just four assists in the season-opening loss to Chattanooga.
The Vols had just seven assists in a 25-point loss at Kentucky on Feb. 11.
Robert Hubbs III led Tennessee with 16 points, and though Grant Williams scored eight points to fuel the Vols' mid-game push, the freshman did not score in the second half.
P.J. Dozer (19 points) and Duane Notice (15) led South Carolina, which only needed 15 points from Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC's leading scorer at 21.2 points.
After trailing by eight at halftime, Hubbs scored on a drive to make it 38-34 in the opening minutes of the second half, but then Notice caught fire with three 3s to push South Carolina's lead back to 13 (51-38) with more than 14 minutes left.
The senior made one triple from in front of his team's bench after an offensive rebound and later made back-to-back treys from the same spot in the corner, the second coming after Kyle Alexander's missed dunk produced a long rebound and run-out for the Gamecocks.
It was part of what eventually became a 17-4 South Carolina run, and baskets by Thornwell and Dozier pushed South Carolina's lead back to 17 (55-38) with 13:29 left as Tennessee went nearly three minutes between scores.
Rakym Felder's 3 at the 9:46 mark made it 60-42 as South Carolina restored its first-half lead.
The Vols never threatened again.
Tennessee made a significant change to its starting lineup by inserting redshirt freshman Lamonte Turner for his first start since the Arkansas game on Jan. 3 and freshman Kwe Parker for his first career start.
The tweak didn't produce any positive results, though, as the Vols turned the ball over eight minutes in the opening 8:10 of the game without recording a single assist.
South Carolina jumped out to an 8-2 lead before Tennessee made it 8-7 on Shembari Phillips's three-point play.
The Gamecocks threatened to blow the Vols out of Columbia by going on a 19-2 run over the next nearly seven minutes to open up a 27-9 lead on the struggling Vols, who looked out of sorts and dead in the water.
South Carolina did most of its damage offensively close range while also forcing Tennessee to miss eight consecutive shots at the other end.
Only after falling behind by 18 did Tennessee show some life as the Vols outscored the Gamecocks 21-11 over the final 8:18 of the first half.
Offensively Williams came alive with eight points during the stretch, while Hubbs knocked down a pair of jumpers and Kyle Alexander chipped in a three-point play, and defensively the Vols switched to zone to force South Carolina to settle for more perimeter shots.
Thanks to the tweak and greater urgency, Tennessee cut its deficit down to eight (38-30) by halftime.
Tennessee closes the regular season next week with games at LSU (Wednesday) and at home against Alabama (Saturday).
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.