No. 17/16 Gamecocks Host No. 4/4 Tennessee on Senior Night

­­­­COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 17/16 South Carolina (24-5, 12-4 SEC) remains at home for the regular season finale on Wednesday night against No. 4/4 Tennessee (23-6, 13-3 SEC). It’s Senior Night as the team will honor Stephen Clark, Ta’Lon Cooper and B.J. Mack prior to the game.

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. (ET) at Colonial Life Arena with Tom Hart (pxp) and Jimmy Dykes (analyst) on the call for the ESPN2 broadcast. It’s the second straight top-25 matchup for Carolina, who is 4-2 against AP Top-25 opponents this season.

It’s another big game as the two teams are separated by just one game in the race for the SEC Regular Season Championship. Carolina’s hopes remain alive tomorrow night with a victory. The program’s first and only SEC title came in 1996-97 when the Gamecocks went 15-1 in league action.

The Gamecocks snapped a five-game losing streak to the top-five Vols with a 63-59 victory back on Jan. 30. Carolina’s last season sweep of Tennessee came during the 2016-17 Final Four season. It’s the only loss for UT this season on its home floor and the 59 points scored were its lowest so far this season.

The Vols have won six-straight while the Gamecocks have won three-straight after dropping consecutive games for the first time all season in the middle of February.

Tennessee is led by SEC Player of the Year candidate Dalton Knecht, who averages 20.6 points per game, 21^st nationally and second in the SEC. The Northern Colorado transfer shoots 47.8 percent from the floor (202-of-423 FGs) and 40.2 percent from behind the arc (66-of-164 3FGs). He’s averaged 24.7 points per game in league play and is the only player in the country with four 35-point games.

The Vols are a veteran group led by the likes of Zakai Zeigler, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi. Since 2017-18, the team has the most wins (167), postseason wins (15) and best winning percentage (.726) of all 14 SEC programs.

Head coach Lamont Paris has helped engineer the best single-season turnaround in program history as South Carolina has improved its win total 13 games this season, which surpasses the 11-win turnaround under Dave Odom from 2002-03 to 2003-04.

The Gamecocks won the team’s 24th game of the season on Saturday vs. No. 24/24 Florida. The 24 wins are T-4^th most in program history with the 1971-72 and 1996-97 teams. The team’s 12 SEC wins are tied for the second most all-time at Carolina with the 2016-17 Gamecock team.

VENUE: Colonial Life Arena

BROADCAST: ESPN2

PLAY-BY-PLAY: Tom Hart

ANALYST: Jimmy Dykes

RADIO: Gamecock Radio Network  

IN COLUMBIA: 107.5 The Game

  PLAY-BY-PLAY: Derek Scott

  ANALYST: Casey Manning

SIRIUSXM: 84 | SXM APP: 84

WATCH: espn.com/watch

LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast

SERIES: Vols lead, 52-29

IN COLUMBIA: Vols lead, 19-17

SERIES TREND: Gamecocks snapped a five-game losing streak with the program’s first win in Knoxville since 2017 earlier this season.

LAST MEETING: 63-59, Gamecock win on Jan. 30 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.

UP NEXT

Carolina hits the road for the regular sea­son finale at Mississippi State (19-10, 8-8 SEC). Kevin Fitzgerald (pxp) and Daymeon Fishback (analyst) will be on the call for the 2:30 p.m. (ET) tip on SEC Network. The Gamecocks last win at The Hump was a 77-73 win on Feb. 11, 2017.

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