Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes speaks with a referee during an NCAA basketball game between Tennessee and Alabama at Thompson-Boling Stadium at the Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, on February 28, 2026. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes remains concerned about his team’s ability to close out games at this stage of the season.
The No. 23 Volunteers (20-9, 10-6 Southeastern Conference) will have a chance to allay some of their fears when they face South Carolina (12-17, 3-13) on Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina.
Tennessee, which is on a two-game losing streak, has been eliminated in four contests this season after maintaining a double-digit lead in the first half.
“It’s not a short lead. It’s about playing for 40 minutes. That’s what it is. It’s about being able to play for 40 minutes,” Barnes said. “And you expect to score. Basketball is sometimes a running game, but it doesn’t have to be that way, because it’s really hard to stay focused when players are turning the ball over and going down the other side and not letting go and not fretting about what they’re doing.”
Ja’Kobi Gillespie collected 26 points and seven assists in the Volunteers’ 71-69 loss to Alabama on Saturday. He also tied a career high with eight stolen bases and became the first player in SEC history to record as many as eight steals in two separate conference games.
Tennessee held the Crimson Tide to 28 points in the first half and led by 13 with less than 12 minutes left. In fact, the Volunteers led for over 36 minutes and never trailed until the final 30 minutes of the game.
“At the end of the day, they had one more play than us,” Barnes said. “We needed to make a stop, but we couldn’t. We needed to make a big comeback, but we couldn’t.”
JP Estrella had 12 points and six rebounds, and Jaylen Curry added 10 points and nine rebounds, respectively. Felix Okpara chipped in with eight points and nine boards.
Tennessee star freshman Nate Ament suffered what appeared to be a right knee injury just 11 minutes into the game. The Vols’ second-leading scorer (17.4 ppg) and leading rebounder (6.4 rpg) grabbed three boards but had just two points on 1-for-5 shooting before leaving the game.
Ament’s status for Tuesday’s game against the Gamecocks is in question.
South Carolina’s season has been in shambles, with two straight losses and nine losses in the last 10 games. The poor performance continued on Saturday with an 87-68 loss to Georgia.
Meechie Johnson was the only bright spot for the Gamecocks, recording 20 points and four assists. It was his ninth game with 20 or more points in SEC play.
South Carolina trailed by 13 points at halftime and finished the game shooting just 37.3 percent (22-for-59) from the field.
“Overall, it wasn’t a good day offensively,” South Carolina coach Lamont Parris said. “I thought I overcame the barrage of attacks well in the first half of the game… but my performance was just not good in the second half… and I fell asleep.”
Eli Ellis and Kobe Knox each added 12 points for South Carolina, which has lost four of its last five games at home.
–Field level media
