University of Tennessee Athletics
South Carolina-Tennessee Postgame Quotes
February 06, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2010
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TENNESSEE HEAD COACH Bruce Pearl: "We played a lot better. We talked a lot about that if we were going to continue to win, we were going to have to play better. The defense has been a constant for us. That is now the second team we have held to 16 points in the second half. The difference tonight was we did a good job of maintaining the defensive effort on the other end. Offensively, I thought we did a better job of valuing possessions. Six turnovers is a low for the last four or five years. Wayne Chism is such a hard guy to cover on the inside. I thought our team did a great job of recognizing him and finding him, and he took full advantage. Other guys stepped up, too. Kenny Hall had 11 rebounds. Bobby Maze obviously was aggressive offensively early, and stepped up to the challenge of guarding Devan Downey. I thought we did a great job defensively on him. He got a lot of his points from the foul line in the second half. I thought it was a really good overall team effort.
"One guy cannot guard Downey. You have got to guard him with a team. The way you hedge him off of ball screens is different than other guys you face. We guarded Drew Lavender (former Xavier point guard) the same way last season. We cupped him. You just try to build a wall. When he gets in the paint and he gets through you, what happens -- fouls and offensive rebounds. People are making fun of his shooting percentage. But he missed 15 shots, but there are 15 offensive rebounding opportunities for South Carolina. They do a great job on the offensive boards. They are fourth in the league in offensive rebounding. It is the way Sam Muldrow scores. It is the way Austin Steed scores. Our guys did a really good job of keeping them off the boards. We had 34 defensive rebounds to their 11 offensive rebounds. Huge. That is very significant as far as the outcome of the margin.
"When Chism is able to do things like that - inside and out, defend like he did and lead the team, he is a very difficult matchup. South Carolina did not have an answer for him. Our guys did a great job of getting him the ball. We took advantage of having Chism, and when we do that we are a great team."
SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH DARRIN HORN: "The key tonight is we were not good offensively, especially in the first half. We were really stagnant. Defensively, we were good enough. They just had 30 points and shot a low percentage in the first half, which was good.
"But to start the second half, we did not play any defense at all. I cannot even count how many easy baskets they got to start that half. And when that lead goes from 14 points to 20 points, as we have talked about all year, we are not really in a situation where it is easy for us to overcome that because we are not too deep and we are not explosive offensively.
"Credit Tennessee - they did the things they had to do to make those plays. Chism outplayed us. He had not finished like that all year long. He is a terrific player. Tonight I thought he did a great job of finishing over the top of our guys. He outplayed our guys, it is really that simple."
Post-Game Notes
- The Vols held South Carolina to only 16 first-half points, marking the second consecutive game UT has held an SEC opponent to less than 20 points in a half. LSU only scored 16 points in the first half on Thursday.
- The Vols have now held SEC opponents to less than 20 points in a half three times. Auburn scored 18 points in the second half against UT on Jan. 14.
- Wayne Chism finished with a career-high 30 points, with 19 of them coming in the second half. It was the most points scored in a game by a UT player this season.
- Chism has scored a combined 50 points in his last two games, and 66 in his last three games.
- Kenny Hall set a career high with 11 rebounds, marking the second time this year he has recorded at least 10 boards. He also scored seven points.
- The attendance was 21,003, the fifth time this year the Vols have drawn more than 20,000 fans.
- The Vols outscored South Carolina 23-3 in points scored off the bench. The Vols are 16-2 when their reserves outscore their opponent's bench.
- Tennessee leads the series 32-23 with South Carolina.
