Ta’Lon Cooper scored 18 points and South Carolina notched another big upset with a 63-59 victory over No. 5 Tennessee in Southeastern Conference play on Tuesday night at Knoxville, Tenn.
B.J. Mack added 16 points and Myles Stute had 13 as the Gamecocks (18-3, 6-2 SEC) won their fourth straight game and 11th in the past 13. South Carolina took down the Vols exactly one week after routing then-No. 6 Kentucky 79-62.
The victory also is the Gamecocks’ first road win over a Top 5 program since a 72-66 victory over No. 3 Kentucky on March 2, 1997.
Dalton Knecht scored 31 points for Tennessee (15-5, 5-2), which had a four-game winning streak halted. It was the sixth straight game in which Knecht scored 25 or more points.
Santiago Vescovi added 10 points for the Volunteers, who had won their previous five games against South Carolina by an average of 29.4 points.
Cooper buried a 3-pointer to give South Carolina a 59-93 lead with 40.2 seconds left. Knecht answered with a trey of his own with 31.1 seconds left to restore Tennessee’s three-point deficit.
Stute made two free throws to make it 61-56 with 23.1 seconds left. The Volunteers then experienced a broken play in which the ball went deep in the backcourt before Knecht chased it down and raced back up court to make an acrobatic 3-pointer with 5.1 seconds to play.
Stute then made two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
South Carolina won despite shooting 33.9 percent from the field, including 10 of 29 from 3-point range. Cooper was 4 of 5 from deep.
The Volunteers made 36.2 percent of their shots and were 5 of 21 from behind the arc.
Stute and Jacobi Wright each hit a 3-pointer during a 65-second span as South Carolina held a 46-40 advantage with 11:31 remaining in the game.
Cooper swished a 3-pointer to give the Gamecocks a 51-45 edge with 5:05 remaining.
Mack scored four straight points to increase South Carolina’s lead to 55-46 with 3:05 left.
Knecht made three baskets in 72 seconds as Tennessee crept within 56-52 with 1:44 to play. He then split two free throws to make it a three-point game with 1:07 remaining.
Cooper scored 10 first-half points as the Gamecocks led 30-26 at the break. Knecht tallied 13 points in the half for Tennessee.
–Field Level Media
