COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored just eight points on a night Tennessee was without fellow star Nate Ament. That could have been a recipe for disaster. Instead, Gillespie turned in one of his best point guard performances of the season. The senior was in complete control as the Vols’ routed South Carolina 78-59 on Tuesday night.
Tennessee found its offensive success inside against South Carolina as Felix Okpara and JP Estrella combined for 42 points in the win while the Vols scored 56 points in the paint.
“Got to give a lot of credit to Ja’Kobi (Gillespie),” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of the front line’s big night. “(South Carolina was) determined they were going to make it a hard night for him. … I just thought his command of the game from our standpoint was really impressive. And he’s responsible for those guys. He got them a lot of easy ones. And when I say easy, it’s not easy for him to get there, but he got it up and they were able to play over top of South Carolina a little bit.”
Gillespie finished the night with a career-high 12 assists while turning the ball over just once. He assisted on four of Okpara’s 10 baskets and three of Estrella’s 10 baskets. The senior point guard successfully threw five alley-oops.
On a night South Carolina attempted to take him out of the game, Gillespie did not force the issue. He instead repeatedly made the right play and set his teammates up for success.
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“Probably,” Barnes said on whether it was Gillespie’s best game running the offense. “They were making it tough on him on ball screens. But I could tell he got a feel for the game and just in playing in flow and with our concepts. He just saw it. I thought the game was really played slow for him tonight, which is when he’s really at his best, when he’s seeing everything. And he was able to get where he needed to go and made some terrific passes.”
It’s a sign of growth from Gillespie. He came to Tennessee as a scoring guard who played point guard. It’s been an up-and-down journey for him to understand and execute what Barnes wants out of his point guard.
Gillespie failed to make a three-pointer for just the second time all season. He scored just eight points on three-for-nine shooting from the field. Yet, Gillespie was highly effective and showed another element of his game where he can attack defenses.
“He’s improved over the past six, seven games right now,” Okpara said of Gillespie. “I feel like the game is just slowing down for him. We trust him too. We’re right there beside him and are making it easy for him. Just getting ready for the lobs and posting up hard. Just making his job easy.”
Gillespie is averaging seven assists over Tennessee’s last five games despite totaling only two assists in the Vols’ win at Vanderbilt. We’ll see if he is more effective spreading the basketball as Tennessee hosts the Commodores on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville in the regular season finale.
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