With this season's first basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and South Carolina on the line, the home team made the plays down the stretch to beat the Gamecocks 56-55 on Jan. 11 in Knoxville.
Saturday evening in the return meeting, it was South Carolina that stepped up.
The Gamecocks' Maik Kotsar hit four free throws in the final 21 seconds, and Keyshawn Bryant took a charge from Tennessee's John Fulkerson with 10.4 seconds to play for a 63-61 win at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.
The Vols (14-11, 6-6 Southeastern Conference) return to competition when they host Vanderbilt (9-16, 1-11) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Tennessee led 58-52 with 3:40 to play and looked to be in control, but the combination of shoddy ball-handling and bad free-throw shooting led to the visitors' demise. The Vols turned the ball over four times in the final stretch, including the charge by Fulkerson on their final full possession.
After the charge, Tennessee fouled Kotsar, who knocked down two free throws to put the Gamecocks (16-9, 8-4) up by three. South Carolina fouled Josiah-Jordan James with three seconds to play, and after making the first free throw, he intentionally missed the second. James was able to corral the miss, but his attempt at the tying shot fell short.
Tennessee was 17-for-28 on free throws and turned the ball over 20 times, with six of those by Fulkerson, who finished with a career-high 25 points and had nine rebounds. Yves Pons, who missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity at the line with 2:30 to play - he had a chance to put the Vols up by eight - had 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. James had nine points and five assists, and Santiago Vescovi had seven points and five assists but also four turnovers.
"At the end of the game, you absolutely can't turn the ball over," coach Rick Barnes said during his postgame interview on the Vol Network. "It's a tough loss; we've got a good basketball team now, we're playing hard, but the end of the game when it's winning time, we didn't get it done. You've got to give them (South Carolina) credit for it.
"We had a couple of key defensive breakdowns. What frustrates me about that is a guy misses a free throw, doesn't let it go and gives up a defensive possession. It's a tough way to lose. We had the lead with under a minute, and all we had to do was get a shot. Who knows what would happen? We get it on the glass, maybe go get it, but we didn't do that."
SATURDAY'S STAR
Whereas Fulkerson made the plays down the stretch in the first meeting with the Gamecocks - including taking a last-second charge that sealed the win - it was Kostar who made the plays this time, scoring 13 points to go along with eight rebounds while playing a team-high 38 minutes.
STANDOUT STAT
Tennessee led by six with 3:40 to play, but in the final eight possessions, the Vols had four turnovers and just two shots, including the last-ditch effort by James. There was also the miss at the line by Pons that would have put the Vols up eight had he made both of his free throws in the 1-and-1.
TURNING POINT
It was any moment during that final stretch, when the Vols had so many chances but couldn't even get up quality shots due to turnovers.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Vols were 3:40 away from joining an ever-growing NCAA tournament bubble, but two things that have defined this season's team - toughness and execution - left them in the worst possible moment. There are enough games down the stretch that still provide chances for the Vols, but those same games aren't nearly as winnable as the one they just let slip away.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.