Tennessee looked like the 2010s Los Angeles Clippers ‘Lob City’ teams during UT’s blowout win over South Carolina on Tuesday night in Columbia. Tennessee had its way with the alley-oop lobs as it consistently lived at and above the rim against the Gamecocks.
The Vols beat the Gamecocks by a score of 78-59, with Tennessee scoring 56 points in the paint. The Vols also went 7-of-7 from dunk attempts with several of those coming by way of the alley-oop. But while one guy has to finish at the rim, someone else has to throw the initial pass – and often that was Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
The senior guard from Greeneville, TN, racked up a new career-high 12 assists during Tuesday night’s win over the Gamecocks. He only scored eight points on 3-of-9 shooting, but his productivity came on the passing side of things as he totaled 34 minutes on the court.
Gillespie distributed the wealth, too. He had six assists in the first half and six assists in the second half to make it an even dozen on the night. Gillespie was just two assists shy of tying Zakai Zeigler, Lamonte Turner, LaMarcus Golden, and Rodney Woods for the fourth-most single-game assists mark in Tennessee history.
ran the show
career-high 12 assists for Ja’Kobi pic.twitter.com/B3RLXBA9Qv
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 4, 2026
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Gillespie now has 157 assists on the season, which is 17 away from a new single-season career high. He’ll have plenty more chances to break that mark with one more game in the regular season and the postseason tournaments still on the horizon.
Tennessee’s JP Estrella finished with 22 points, while Felix Okpara finished with 20 points on his own. The Gamecocks had no answer for what Tennessee wanted to do in the paint, and things only got worse when the Vols started flying through the air.
One of the highlight moments on Tuesday’s game came when Estrella dropped the hammer on a South Carolina defender in the second half.
oh that was nasty pic.twitter.com/xr1amzedRC
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 4, 2026
Tennessee’s win on Tuesday was a much-needed reset for the Vols after dropping back-to-back games last week. The Vols will try to keep the momentum rolling forward in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.
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