KNOXVILLE — Tennessee again found a way to make the basketball game interesting.
The Volunteers again found a way to pull out the victory, though.
After allowing a 17-point second-half lead dwindle to two and watching South Carolina’s Justin McKie have a game-tying 3-point attempt spin in-and-out, Tennessee held on for a 66-62 win against the Gamecocks on Tuesday night that moved the Vols into sole possession of second place, behind top-ranked Kentucky, in the Southeastern Conference standings.
Tennessee (12-5, 4-1 SEC) is off to its best start in conference play since 2008, when the Vols went on to win the SEC and spent a week in February with a No. 1 ranking.
“The thing about such a youthful team,” first-year coach Donnie Tyndall told reporters after the game, “is so many times you don’t know how to win, you play not to lose, and that’s bad, but sometimes you’re so young and dumb, for lack of a better term, you kind of just think you’re going to win the game.
“Our team is so inexperienced. A lot of guys have never played in these settings or these environments and think, ‘Hey, this is what we’re supposed to do.’ Maybe they don’t understand how hard it is, but give our young guys credit. They’re finding a way, and I do think we’ll continue to grow in regards to confidence, for sure.”
The Vols have won their first three SEC road games for the first time since 2009.
“We like playing on the road,” sophomore guard Robert Hubbs told the Vol Network radio broadcast after the win. “We know it’s going to be a challenge each every night. We look forward to it.”
In notching its 15th straight win against South Carolina dating back to 2007, Tennessee shot a season-best 57.5 percent and hit 10 of 18 shots from 3-point range, while the Gamecocks, who beat No. 9 Iowa State in their final pre-conference game, shot a season-low 34.4 percent and shot only 4-of-17 on 3-pointers.
The shooting disparity helped Tennessee overcome 18 turnovers and South Carolina’s 17 offensive rebounds and 36-26 advantage in paint scoring.
“As good as they are defensively, for us to shoot 57 percent is impressive,” Tyndall said. “The 18 turnovers isn’t impressive, and their defense deserves a lot of credit for that. I thought we didn’t settle. We drove the basketball, particularly on five or six possessions late in the shot clock where we didn’t settle and we drove the ball and either got a good look or drew a foul.
“That’s a really good team we just beat.”
Josh Richardson, who became the 47th Tennessee player to score 1,000 career points when he hit a 3 in the second half, and Kevin Punter led Tennessee with 13 points each.
Tennessee led 54-37 on Detrick Mostella’s 3 with 9:27 left and survived four minutes with Richardson on the bench with four fouls to take a 62-49 lead into the final media timeout with 3:30 left.
South Carolina hit back-to-back 3s before Hubbs briefly stemmed the tide with a putback, but Punter missed the front end of a one-and-one, Armani Moore fouled Sindarius Thornwell shooting a 3, Richardson was called for traveling and Moore clanked two free throws.
“I’ve got the least experienced team in our league, and sometimes our guys play not to lose rather than playing to win,” Tyndall said. “There’s a distinct difference, and I thought the last five or six minutes we started to play not to lose. We missed a couple of free throws, we aren’t quite as aggressive, but give South Carolina credit.
“They got stops, they forced the turnovers and they made some timely 3s to get back in it.”
After the Gamecocks made it 64-62 with 32.7 seconds left, Richardson split a pair of foul shots, and Derek Reese iced the game with a free throw after McKie’s miss.
“We knew (when) they were making the little comeback,” said Hubbs, who scored eight points, “we had to stay together and bring everybody in and stay focused.”
The Vols kept their focus on their business even after Southern Mississippi, where Tyndall coached the past two years, announced about two hours before tip-off that it had self-imposed a postseason ban amid an NCAA investigation into potential allegations that occurred there during Tyndall’s tenure.
Tennessee’s coach was asked about the ban after the game.
“All I can say to that is I’ve cooperated (with the NCAA) 100 percent,” Tyndall said. “If need to, I’ll continue to do that. That’s all I can say on that matter.”
The Vols host Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.