Tennessee basketball is looking to end its losing streak at two games Tuesday night when they face off against South Carolina in Columbia. The Vols will have to do it without one of their star players as Nate Ament will miss the game with a right leg injury.
The star freshman leads Tennessee with 19 points per game in SEC play and is second only to Felix Okpara with six rebounds per game. He’s scored 24.7% of the Vols points in conference play and that takes into account his two point performance in just 11 minutes of action against Alabama due to injury.
It’s a major loss for Tennessee due its lack of other reliable scoring options and because of the number of things Ament does well on the court.
“Everything,” point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said of what Tennessee misses when Ament is out. “Nate does a lot on the floor that you may not notice and he can score the ball. So I feel like we just missed him all around.”
So where does Tennessee turn without Ament? With a player as productive and versatile as Ament, it will take more than just one player.
“I think it’ll be all hands on deck,” Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey said Monday. “I think Bishop (Boswell) will have to step up more. I think Amari (Evans), I think Ethan (Burg), I think Troy (Henderson) needs to be ready. I think Mo (Amaree Abram) needs to be (ready). All of those guys, everybody that we have, they need to be ready to step up and contribute in some way.
“And it might not be scoring, but defensively, some minutes here or there where there’s no breakdowns. But it’s going to be all hands on deck type situation I think for all, for everybody involved.”
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As far as minutes go, Amari Evans will likely see his workload increase the most. The freshman played a season-high 28 minutes against Alabama with Ament going down. Evans played well against the Crimson Tide, scoring seven points on three-for-six shooting from the field while also grabbing eight rebounds.
“I thought Amari (Evans) came in and he did what he does,” Gainey said. “And he did it at a high level. And I’d say like a couple games before he wasn’t at that level for whatever reason. But I felt like he raised his level of play during that situation, where it just didn’t completely fall off. Again, he’s not Nate. He doesn’t do what Nate does, but he was, I thought a bright spot and a star in his role during that time.
Amaree Abram played for the first time in a month on Saturday against Alabama. The senior shooting guard played just two minutes but could see his role increase Tuesday. The same is the case for Ethan Burg and Troy Henderson.
Tennessee has to do more than replace Ament’s minutes though. They also have to replace his scoring. The Vols front court needs to step up and relieve pressure off Gillespie, who bore an abundance of it in the 29 minutes Ament missed due to injury against Alabama.
After struggling in his first game back from injury at Missouri, JP Estrella played better against Alabama. The Vols need him, Jaylen Carey, DeWayne Brown and Felix Okpara all to provide an offensive boost against the Gamecocks Tuesday night.
Tennessee enters the final week of the regular season 20-9 (10-6 SEC) while South Carolina enters the week 12-17 (3-13 SEC). The Vols opened as 10.5-point favorites against South Carolina according to the FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under is set at 142.5.
Tipoff between the Vols and Gamecocks is at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday night at Colonial Life Arena. Kevin Fitzgerald and Perry Clark are on the call for the SEC Network.
