The Closing Five: Tennessee Dominates South Carolina Without Nate Ament

BY: Walker Smith

COLUMBIA — Tennessee Basketball put together one of its most complete performances Tuesday night in a 78-59 win at South Carolina with star freshman Nate Ament out for the game. The Vols never trailed during the contest and got contributions from seemingly every player on the floor as the front court put together its most efficient game to date. 

The Gamecocks are at the bottom of the SEC, so it's not a win that head coach Rick Barnes and the Vols will hang their hats on, but there were lots of good takeaways after a rough last week.

Tennessee runs on dunkin' pic.twitter.com/R99qoIIlYg

— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 4, 2026

1: Inside Dominance

One of the biggest complaints about Tennessee is that its big men struggle to score inside despite dominating the glass. Tonight, that problem didn’t exist. Senior Felix Okpara and junior J.P. Estrella led all scorers with 20 and 22 points, respectively. They went a combined 19-25 from the field. Overall, the Vols scored 56 of their 78 points in the paint and out-rebounded the Gamecocks 34 to 23.

“We said that we talked about it all year, playing inside out,” Barnes said. “And again, obviously, I love the way those guys did it.”

It’s a huge improvement over what fans have expected from the front line. They came into this game ranked 294th in the country in 2pt field goal percentage during conference play (48.7%). The team shot 62% inside the arc in this game.

The expectation was for Tennessee to dominate an inferior opponent inside, but it finally clicked for the Vols' frontcourt and could start an upswing for them headed to postseason play.

“I said, ‘You just gotta go after it.’ Defensively, again, most of the time, both he (Estrella) and Felix are always good defensively against teams that spread it out. JP’s getting better with it, but yeah, if he can do what he did tonight, it would certainly go a long way to helping us.”

a combined 42 points and 15 rebounds from these two pic.twitter.com/YlHO9s3zqH

— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 4, 2026

2: Role Players Filled Ament’s Void

Without Nate Ament, it was a question of where Tennessee’s offense would come from. The answer? Everywhere. 

The Vols got scoring contributions from eight different Vols, two of which had 20 or more. On the perimeter, senior Ja’Kobi Gillespie, sophomore Bishop Boswell, and freshman Amari Evans all had five or more points, as well as a season high 8 points from freshman Ethan Burg off the bench. In the frontcourt, Okpara, Estrella, and junior Jaylen Carey combined for 47 points. 

To get this win on the road without the Vols’ best player could go a long way a few weeks from now. It’s been a physical season for Ament, and getting help from the role players helps the coaching staff not feel the need to rush him back.

“He’s had a long year, and I’ve said I don’t think anybody’s gotten beat up in college basketball more than Nate Ament this year,” Barnes said. “I like to think that it could be a blessing in disguise.”

3: Gillespie The Mystro

Ja’Kobi Gillespie was the puppeteer of Tennessee’s show. He tied a season low of 8 points and took the second-lowest amount of shots all year, but was pulling the strings with a career high of 12 assists to just 1 turnover. He controlled all areas of the game and set up Okpara and Estrella with lob after lob, where it felt like a Harlem Globetrotters game at times.

“Got to give a lot of credit to Ja’Kobi,” Barnes said. “(South Carolina was) determined they were going to make it a hard night for him. The fact that he had 12 assists and one turnover, I just thought his command of the game from our standpoint was really impressive. He’s responsible for those guys. He got them a lot of easy ones.”

He also played well on the defensive end with 2 steals and a 134.6 defensive rating according to StatBroadcast. Gillespie did not feel the need to shoulder the offensive load without Ament as he did against Alabama, and he made every teammate on the floor better in the game. 

4: Outside Shooting Difference

The Gamecocks kept the game within reach for the first 30ish minutes, almost solely due to their outside shooting. They hit nine three-pointers, five in the first half. However, South Carolina slowed down eventually, and Tennessee outscored them 30-17 in the final 14 minutes.

Comparatively, Tennessee had another bad outside shooting night, going 4-14 from beyond the arc, including a 0-4 night from Gillespie. It wasn’t a factor in the end, but it was part of the reason that South Carolina was able to keep it within striking distance for a while.

“They were really looking for the three more than maybe normal,” Barnes said. But we were overhelping. ButI thought our response offensively was obviously much better. We didn’t panic. We just stay with the flow that we’ve been playing with.”

5: Amari Evans Stepped Up

Evans got his first start tonight in Ament’s absence, and he did not disappoint. He had 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block in a career high 32 minutes. It was the kind of performance that shows why Barnes and company have loved Evans since day one.

“He really did a good job,” Barnes said. “I thought he was really locked in to what we were trying to get done on both ends of the court. But hopefully it’s going to go a long way as we continue to finish this season out. And we told him the other night, all these guys are closer to being sophomores than they are freshmen. We expect a lot from these guys.