COLUMBIA, S.C. – Jordan Bone was one step ahead of South Carolina all night. A step quicker, a step faster.
That’s why the Tennessee junior point guard was able to keep his team out in front as well.
Bone finished with 19 points and nine assists in the top-ranked Volunteers’ 92-70 win over the Gamecocks on Tuesday, giving the program its second streak of 15 straight wins and its first with all the victories in the same season.
He fell one assist shy of his third double-double this season and two assists shy of tying his season high, set in an 83-70 win against Samford on Dec. 19. He did have his most points since that game, and the nine assists were his most ever against a Southeastern Conference opponent.
“That’s who he is,” senior guard Admiral Schofield said after Tuesday’s win. “He’s very good at running the offense, orchestrating the offense, but also defending. He did both at a high level tonight.
“Dishing the ball, getting guys in spots where they can be successful – you can’t ask for anything more.”
While his stats were impressive, the 6-foot-3 Bone’s bigger contribution might have been how he controlled the game for Tennessee (19-1, 7-0).
He started it with his scoring, accounting for 10 of Tennessee’s first 26 points as it built a five-point lead. His first assist was to Lamonte Turner for a 3-pointer, but his best may have come with 4:46 left in the first half. Immediately after a South Carolina basket, Bone took the inbounds pass and threw the ball the length of the court to John Fulkerson for a layup. Seven seconds came off the clock.
“Watching him play this year, he’s getting more consistent as time goes,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday night. “With Jordan Bowden being down, our substitution pattern, you’re trying to work through that. We don’t want those guys out there for five, six minutes at a time. But there were times tonight that he had to do it. You’re just trying to keep those guys as fresh as you can but know there are certain lineups you’d like to keep out there.
“But Jordan (Bone) has done a good job, he really has. I think he’s really getting a feel for his teammates. And he was terrific in transition. We opened the post up a little bit to let him get down the lane and see what he can do, and he had a nice game for us.”
Bone has been the constant in the lead guard rotation all season. Lamonte Turner, who scored 13 points against South Carolina, missed nine games due to lingering effects from offseason shoulder surgery. Bowden struggled at the start of the season, but has been good off the bench, averaging 16 points this calendar year before a knee injury sidelined him against the Gamecocks.
But Tuesday showed that as long as the Vols have Bone, they’ll be all right.
“My teammates were making shots, and I was finding them,” Bone said afterwards. “It all started with my mindset, my mental approach before the game. I wanted to be as aggressive as possible and take what the defense gave me.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.