![\"Tennessee](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772587995_808_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nCOLUMBIA, S.C. \u2014 J.P. Estrella scored 22 points, Felix Okpara added 20 and No. 23 Tennessee rolled past South Carolina 78-59 on Tuesday night to stop a two-game skid.<\/p>\n
The Volunteers (21-9, 11-6 Southeastern Conference) were a force inside, even without injured starter and second-leading scorer Nate Ament, a 6-foot-10 freshman.<\/p>\n
Tennessee shook off Ament’s absence with post players Estrella and Okpara dismantling South Carolina’s defense with dunks and layups.<\/p>\n
Ja’Kobi Gillespie, the Vols’ leading scorer at 18.7 points per game, was held to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting. But he had a career-high 12 assists as he regularly found Estrella and Okpara close to the basket. <\/p>\n
The Vols held a 56-18 scoring edge in the paint as Estrella and Okpara combined to make 20 of 27 shots.<\/p>\n
Meechie Johnson, who was honored on senior night, scored 20 points to lead the Gamecocks (12-18, 3-14), who\u2019ve lost 10 of 11.<\/p>\n
The Vols took a 21-10 lead eight minutes in and continued pounding the ball inside. South Carolina had no answers as Tennessee’s big men lurked near the basket awaiting passes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey (23) grabs a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against South Carolina, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. Credit: AP\/David Yeazell<\/p>\n
South Carolina cut the Vols’ lead to 46-40 on Kobe Knox’s basket with 16 minutes left. But Estrella had three more inside buckets during Tennessee’s 10-4 charge to take control.<\/p>\n
Tennessee shot 54% (33 of 61) from the field, its highest percentage in an SEC game this season. The Vols remain in the hunt for a double-bye in the league tournament with one regular-season game left.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Tennessee: Hosts No. 24 Vanderbilt on Saturday. <\/p>\n
South Carolina: Ends the regular season at Mississippi on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2014 J.P. Estrella scored 22 points, Felix Okpara added 20 and No. 23 Tennessee rolled past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,319,217,231,772,1544,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-637826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116168334824627889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}