No. 19 Tennessee ends non-conference schedule with 105-54 blowout of South Carolina State

Tennessee Basketball’s fine-tuning is done. The Vols finished the non-conference schedule with a 105-54 win over South Carolina State Tuesday night at Food City and now turn their attention to the 18-game grind of the SEC schedule.

Tennessee (10-3) was led by Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s 21 points, eight assists and three rebounds. Jaylen Carey had another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Nate Ament had 16 points and seven rebounds.

JP Estrella had a double-double of his own with 12 points and 10 rebounds, Felix Okpara had nine points and five boards and Amari Evans scored a career-high 14 points to go with five rebounds and two assists.

Jayden Johnson scored a game-high 25 points for South Carolina State (1-14).

What was a 41-25 Tennessee lead at halftime quickly became a blowout after the break, with the Vols scoring 31 of the first 38 points of the second half to go up 40 with 11:48 left.

Tennessee outscored South Carolina State 64-29 in the second half, shot 60.9% from the field and out-rebounded the Bulldogs 52-16. The Vols continued their struggle at the foul line, going 19-for-33, with 11 of the 14 misses coming in the first half.

Looking back at the non-conference schedule

Tuesday’s win was Tennessee’s 44th straight non-conference home win, setting a new program record. It’s the sixth straight season the Vols have gone undefeated at home in non-conference play.

Tennessee’s best win in the non-conference schedule was 76-73 over then-No. 3 Houston on November 25 in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, following a blowout of Rutgers a day earlier.

The Vols followed with a three-game losing streak, though, giving up a 12-point lead with 15 minutes left against Kansas the next day in Vegas, then losing at Syracuse on December 2 and to Illinois in Nashville on December 6.  

The skid stopped with another bright spot, with Tennessee throttling then-No. 11 Louisville 83-62 at home on December 16, before the blowouts against Gardner-Webb and South Carolina State. 

Up Next: SEC play starts Saturday at Arkansas

Tennessee starts SEC play on Saturday at No. 18 Arkansas, kicking off a loaded January schedule with a 3 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. 

The Vols open the home conference schedule Tuesday against Texas in a 9 p.m. ET start on ESPN2 at Food City Center. 

Tennessee later in the month goes to No. 22 Florida (January 10), to No. 14 Alabama (January 24) and to No. 23 Georgia (January 27), while also hosting Texas A&M (January 13), Kentucky (January 17) and Auburn (January 31).