 "Photo: Mike Conway")
Thousands of Carolina fans left the Colonial Center in a state of shock Saturday afternoon, and not because USC was again blown out at home by a quality opponent. In fact, just the opposite happened as the Gamecocks ran the Volunteers out of Columbia and back to Knoxville after an 81-64 beating.
With the win, USC moved its record back above .500 (13-12) on the year and the team now is 3-9 in the SEC. The loss dropped Tennessee to 18-9 on the year overall and back to .500 in the conference at 6-6.
USC was led once again by its senior point guard and SEC Player of the Year candidate Tre' Kelley who finished with 25 points and five assists, including an 8-10 showing from the free-throw line. It was Kelley's fourth consecutive game scoring over 20 points.
The story of the game, however, was the play of his supporting cast. Dominique Archie continued his strong play, scoring in double figures for the second straight game with 11 points. He filled out the rest of the stat sheet, collecting six boards, four assists, one block and two steals.
Senior guard Bryce Sheldon added 16 points and freshman guard Brandis Raley-Ross broke out of his horrid shooting slump to get 12 points.
Odom was very pleased with Raley-Ross' play.
"He's gone through one of the great droughts since the Nile dried up," Odom said. "It's good to see him break ice again."
Odom said he also hopes Raley-Ross can use this game to regain his confidence and help the basketball team down the stretch.
Tennessee started off quickly, leading 5-2, but that would be their only lead the entire game. The Gamecocks regained the lead and quickly expanded it to 11 points, but the Volunteers went on a quick 9-0 run to cut the lead to two. This would be the closest they would get the rest of the game as the run stopped when Tennessee forward Duke Crews was charged with a technical foul, the first of three for the Vols.
USC took the momentum and never looked back. Kelley made both free throws, which gave the Gamecocks enough momentum to get into the half leading by five, 36-31.
Odom noticed that his players went into a slump midway into the period, but the technical foul by Crews helped them out.
"I was worried then. The momentum was going to switch entirely, and we were going to have problems." Odom said. "But, I think Tre' (Kelley) hit the two free throws off of the first technical, which kind of broke the 9-0 string there and it then gave us a little more confidence to finish up the half."
Another problem for the Gamecocks has been finishing games out. However, that was not the case Saturday. USC started the half on a 16-4 run over the first 5 minutes, which put the game out of reach.
Odom switched to a zone after halftime to contain Tennessee's shooters, and that helped USC play better post defense. Senior forward Brandon Wallace credits this to the switch to zone defense.
"They didn't hit too many threes tonight," Wallace said.
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