Redshirt senior guard Meechie Johnson and senior forward Nordin Kapic combined for 33 of the 59 points South Carolina scored in its loss to No. 23 Tennessee on Tuesday night. Kapic tied his season-highs of 13 points and three 3-pointers against the Volunteers.
Despite his last game at Colonial Life Arena ending in a 78-59 loss, Johnson said he doesn't have any regrets about how his career as a Gamecock has gone.
“We’ve had good moments, we’ve had bad moments, ... but looking two years ago, it was one of the most fun times I ever had in my life,” Johnson said.
Outside of Johnson and Kapic, no other South Carolina player recorded double figures, with the closest being redshirt senior guard Kobe Knox with 7 points.
South Carolina's offense was inefficient and relied on harder shots compared to Tennessee's shot selection close to the basket.
Tennessee finished the game shooting 54.1% from the field compared to South Carolina's 36.7%. Both teams had poor efficiency from beyond the arc, as the Volunteers shot 28.6% from the 3-point line on 14 attempts, while South Carolina shot a slightly better 33.3% on its 27 attempts.
The Volunteers were able to stay above 50% from the field by taking close shots inside the paint. 56 of the team’s final 78 points were inside the paint compared to just 18 for the Gamecocks.
Senior forward Felix Okpara tied his season-high of 20 points and helped Tennessee dominate in the paint alongside redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella who led the team in scoring with 22 points.
South Carolina scored 8 paint points in the first half and 10 in the second. The Gamecocks have relied on their ability to shoot from beyond the arc this season, with this game being no different.
Head coach Lamont Paris talked about what he believes went wrong to allow the Volunteers to dominate inside the paint.
“We weren’t doing a great job in our ball screen, in the ball screen coverage,” Paris said. “We wanted to be aggressive … They did a good job passing the ball.”
Tennessee also outperformed South Carolina on the rebounding front. Tennessee out-rebounded South Carolina 34 to 23 overall and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds compared to South Carolina's eight.
Grabbing more offensive rebounds allowed the Volunteers to score 8 more second chance points than the Gamecocks as well. Defensively, Tennessee forced more turnovers, with nine steals, leading to 12 points off turnovers.
The lack of turnovers forced by the Gamecocks prevented them from getting the same fast-break opportunities, and they were unable to stop the Volunteers from going on scoring runs. While South Carolina went on occasional scoring runs during the game, the offense had several scoring droughts where the team was only able to get points from free throws.
To end the game, South Carolina did not score a field goal in the final three minutes of the game.
In the post game press conference, Paris talked about his thoughts on Johnson as a person.
“He’s very thoughtful and generous, extremely generous person with a really good heart,” Paris said. “It’s been really fun to coach him, and … hopefully we can extend that playing well in Nashville.”