KNOXVILLE — There are nights when anything can happen in college basketball.
Then there are Tennessee-South Carolina matchups.
The No. 11 Volunteers snapped out of their February funk Saturday inside Thompson-Boling Arena, routing the Gamecocks of first-year coach Lamont Paris 85-45. The outcome essentially duplicated Tennessee’s 85-42 drubbing in Columbia on Jan. 7, and it resulted in the Vols sweeping the season series by 83 points.
“It feels like deja vu all over again,” said Paris, who guided the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to last year’s NCAA tournament. “They’re a physical team, and that had an impact on the game. They’re on one end of the spectrum physically in terms of how physical they play, and we’re probably more toward the finesse side of things at this current point with our roster.
“In a game where there aren’t many fouls called, and the refs were extremely consistent and consistently didn’t call a lot of stuff, that doesn’t bode well for us.”
Saturday’s game contained just 14 fouls and was played in a brisk 101 minutes.
When asked how Tennessee had pummelled another Southeastern Conference program by 83 combined points this season, Vols sophomore guard Zakai Zeigler’s eyes got huge before he managed to say, “Some days the basketball goes in the basket, and some days it doesn’t. They are a pretty good team, but it was just our night tonight.”
Senior guard Josiah-Jordan James scored 18 points in 21 minutes for the Vols, who improved to 21-8 overall and to 10-6 in SEC play with their third triumph of a frustrating month. Zeigler added 13 points and dished out 11 assists.
“This group of guys has been very resilient,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “We’re always disappointed when we don’t win, and there are times when you win and you don’t play well, but these guys care about each other and have embraced each other in a great way. At no point in time during this have they not practiced hard and not been locked in into what we’re trying to do.
“The one thing we’ve talked about all year is being more disciplined defensively by not fouling, and neither team got to the bonus.”
Hayden Brown scored 18 points to lead South Carolina (10-19, 3-13), and five-star freshman GG Jackson tallied five points after being held scoreless in the first meeting.
A Zeigler 3-pointer helped stake Tennessee to an 11-5 lead at the first media timeout, and his second make from long range put the Vols up 17-5 at the 13:03 mark of the first half. James, who returned from an ankle injury that kept him out four games, connected on a pair of 3-pointers within the first 10 minutes as well.
“We were getting the ball from side to side, and we were hitting shots,” James said. “In preparing for those guys, we knew the looks that we were going to get, and we did a great job of executing from the start.”
Santiago Vescovi’s layup with 3:30 remaining gave Tennessee its largest first-half lead at 34-19.
The Vols led 38-26 at the break behind 10 points from James, who was 4-for-5 from the floor. Tennessee shot 56.7% in the first half (17-of-30) and committed just three turnovers.
A Vescovi 3-pointer 18 seconds into the second half extended the advantage to 41-26, and his short jumper less than three minutes in made it 47-30.
“We’ve had a tough February, but we’ve had a chance to win every single one of those games probably with the exception of one,” Barnes said. “I think this group has been real with each other and transparent, and I think they’ve shown resiliency. The one thing they haven’t done is stop working.”
Tennessee played Saturday without Tyreke Key (ankle) and Julian Phillips (hip flexor).
Division II redo
There was a bit of a TSSAA Division II feel to Saturday, with Tennessee freshman guard B.J. Edwards out of Knox Catholic vying with Gamecocks freshman guard Eli Sparkman from Baylor School. Each played 10 minutes, with Edwards tallying two points and Sparkman three.
“It was really cool to play against him,” Edwards said. “Playing against him at Baylor was fun, and we talked after the game. It was good seeing him and playing against him.”
Baseball Vols win
Tennessee won its fifth consecutive baseball game of the season, downing Dayton 4-1 on Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to improve to 5-2.
Vols starting pitcher Chase Burns worked into the seventh inning and racked up a career-high 12 strikeouts. He was replaced by Seth Halvorsen, who retired all eight batters he faced.
The finale of the three-game series with Dayton (0-5) is at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
Updated with more information at 10:10 p.m. on Feb. 25, 2023.