Tennessee basketball is coming off a disappointing 63-59 loss at home against South Carolina on Tuesday night. The Vols were 13.5-point favorites and their first home loss of the season was a major blow to their chances of winning the regular season SEC Championship.
“We all know it’s a tough loss. Give a lot of credit to South Carolina,” super senior guard Santiago Vescovi said postgame. “They have a great team. They’re very physical but moving forward we know the areas we have to improve on.”
The Gamecocks held Tennessee to just 59 points, its lowest total of the season. Tennessee had a number of self inflicted wounds including missing open layups and making only 12-of-20 free throw attempts. But South Carolina also did a fantastic job taking away transition scoring opportunities away from Tennessee and not letting the Vols get open looks from the perimeter.
“We’re not going to beat them being that pathetic on offense as a team,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “We were just a really poor offensive team tonight.”
“We know we missed shots that we shouldn’t have,” Vescovi said. “Free throw line, same thing. We know we’re better than that. If we do those and you do the math I think it’s a completely different game. We’re not having this talk right now. We’re talking about how good we played.”
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But there’s no time for Tennessee to reminisce on the loss. The Vols must watch the tape, learn from their mistakes and move forward.
