Wayne Chism scored a career-high 30 points and led Tennessee (18-4, 6-2 SEC) to a 79-53 dismantling of South Carolina (13-9, 4-4 SEC) on Saturday night in front of a packed house at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Vols, fresh off of a tough road win at LSU on Thursday night, didn’t arrive back in Knoxville until after 3:00 am Friday morning. Coaches were concerned that fatigue and lack of preparation time could be a factor.
But Tennessee looked inside to its senior big man, Wayne Chism, and he responded. Chism was nearly unstoppable when his teammates were able to get him the ball in the paint.
“I’m glad they did that. That was very good,” joked Chism after the game. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“Coach has been letting them know about pounding the ball into the post because I have sealed very good on the inside,” said Chism. “If I have a mismatch, they will go to me.”
According to Wayne, it was the best game of his career.
“It was the best game I’ve ever played since I’ve been playing basketball,” Chism said. “This left hand is beautiful. I just like this left hand.”
Bobby Maze and Scotty Hopson, the only other Vols in double figures, each scored 11 points.
South Carolina superstar Devan Downey, a player Tennessee was very concerned about, scored 26 points on just 5-20 shooting and was never able to control the game. Not a bad defensive effort considering Downey is averaging 31 points in conference play.
After the game, Bruce Pearl cited defense, rebounding, and ball security as keys to victory.
“Six turnovers is a low since I’ve been here. We usually turn it over more because we usually play faster,” said Pearl. “We’ve talked about defense and rebounding being a constant and then valuing possessions.”
Pearl was also impressed with the play of freshman Kenny Hall, who led the team with 11 rebounds and scored seven points in just 18 minutes of play.
“He saw Brian sitting over there and said, I better get this thing going again or he’s going to come take my spot,” Pearl joked.
“We want Kenny to get involved in the stat sheet more and be more productive,” Pearl said. “I thought offensively he was. He got himself to the foul line and had 11 big rebounds. He showed that he’s got a chance to be Wayne in a year. That’s the beginning of the maturation process. He’s got a long way to go to get there but that’s the direction he’s going in.”
Tennessee next plays Vanderbilt in Nashville on Tuesday night.
Brian Williams update.
Brian Williams was declared eligible to play in last night’s game but did not see action. Pearl said even though Williams has been working hard and has dropped quite a bit of weight during his suspension, it will take some time for him to get fully back into game shape.