Gamecocks Routed By The Volunteers

South Carolina's men's basketball team was outmatched in almost every which way against the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday afternoon.

When you're a program that's in it's infancy under a new coaching staff, unless you're a program with gobs of talent on the roster, there will be growing pains that the team has to endure throughout the season, and that's exactly what the Gamecocks dealt with on Saturday against Tennessee. By the time the game reached the fifteen minute mark of the first half, it was clear to everyone in the Colonial Life Arena how this game was going to play out for both teams.

The Gamecocks and Volunteers wound up with polar opposite starts to the game, with South Carolina struggling to make any shots even when they got open looks, while the Volunteers seamlessly kept finding ways to put the ball in the bucket, no matter who was shooting or where they were shooting from.

The Gamecocks saw the most success offensively when Meechie Johnson started driving to the basket more in the first half, going four for five inside the three point line and drawing two shooting fouls leading to four more points at the charity stripe.

Defensively, Carolina was shell shocked by the Volunteers collectively ability to shoot the basketball, as Tennessee made three of their first four shots from the court to start the contest, in spite of Gamecock defenders being in relatively good position. The Volunteers off-ball movement as the frist half progressed was crisper, lacked unwarranted movement and began to catch South Carolina more on their heels.

In the second half, things didn't get much better for South Carolina, as the Volunteers continued to have their way with the Gamecocks defense, beating them off the dribble, finding good shot selections and making the most of second chance opportunities when crashing the glass.

The Gamecocks struggled the most today from the behind the arc offensively, as they only made two of their first twenty shots, and with Tennessee's size advantage in the front court, if Carolina missed, they typically immediately had to head back to the other end of the court.

The Gamecocks will take the court again next Tuesday night when they go on the road to take on the Kentucky Wildcats.

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