Zakai Zeigler threw up during the second half of Tennessee's basketball game Saturday afternoon.
It was South Carolina that he left feeling sick.
A pair of Zeigler 3-pointers 12 seconds apart with a Kennedy Chandler steal in between enabled the No. 22 Volunteers to take a 46-37 lead with 14:37 to play during their eventual 81-57 blowout victory at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. South Carolina coach Frank Martin called a timeout, and Zeigler used the opportunity to take care of a nagging matter.
"In the first half, it felt like my stomach was hurting," the 5-foot-9 freshman from Long Island said afterward on a Zoom call. "This happened this week at practice, too, and I told my team that I was going to throw up but that I didn't know when. I kept drinking water and had the towel waiting. When I spit it out, I was like, 'Glad that's out of the way.'
"I've been sick in games where coaches have pulled me out and told me I wasn't playing anymore, but this situation was different."
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes admitted that a little bit of residue landed on him before Zeigler made it all the way to the trash can. When Zeigler came back and sat down, Barnes asked if he was OK and said that Zeigler responded with, "I'm good."
The teams went back out on the floor, and Zeigler connected on a jumper at the 13:48 mark to give Tennessee its first double-digit advantage at 48-37.
"I ran to the garbage can, came back, and Coach was like, 'Do you know what play we're running?'" a smiling Zeigler said. "That was the next thing he said to me."
Zeigler scored 18 points, shot 4-of-5 from 3-point range, and collected three assists and three turnovers to complement the play of junior guard Josiah-Jordan James, who racked up 20 points, six rebounds, three steals, three blocks and two assists. James was 4-of-9 on 3-point tries, while Tennessee finished a robust 14-of-27 as a team (51.9%).
Tennessee improved to 16-6 overall and 7-3 in Southeastern Conference play, with the Vols having scored 171 points in their past two games.
"I think that everything is coming together," James said. "We're playing really hard in practice, and Coach is preaching just playing with speed, getting the ball in the paint and playing inside out. That's been great, but it's also good to see shots go in. It's been really fun playing offensively and defensively, but especially offensively, the last couple of games."
Said Zeigler: "We're just knowing our hot spots, and we're passing the ball better, too."
Chandler did his share in Tennessee's surprisingly easy triumph as well, tallying 11 points, 10 assists and three steals while committing one turnover. His 3-pointer with 10:08 remaining essentially sealed the game at 59-41.
"I think we've always shared the ball well, but when you shoot the ball as well as we did today, it makes it all look good," Barnes said. "It really does. I think we're taking better shots because I think we're moving the ball better, but we can still get better.
"We've got to get better, but this was a total team effort with the way everyone contributed, and I thought our poise was really good."
Tennessee made four 3-pointers within the first four minutes, with James accounting for two and Santiago Vescovi and Olivier Nkamhoua making one each. James would amass 11 points to help the Vols build a 19-13 lead at the 12:58 mark of the first half, but they cooled off considerably in taking a 33-29 lead into halftime.
The cooling was temporary, as Tennessee overwhelmed the Gamecocks (13-9, 4-6) by a 48-28 count after intermission.
"We can take a lot of confidence from this," James said. "It wasn't easy out here today, but we got the job done and by a big margin at that."
Odds and ends
Nkamhoua sustained an ankle injury during the second half, but Barnes did not believe it was serious. ... James is from Charleston, South Carolina, and used 33 tickets for Saturday's game. He thanked his teammates for helping out. ... Tennessee leads the series with South Carolina 50-28 and has won eight of the past nine meetings. ... Vols sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson, who scored eight points, tied Kentucky's Darius Miller (2008-12) for the most career games played in SEC history at 152.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.