#19/20 Vols End Non-Conference Play with 105-54 Win Over South Carolina State

Tuesday, December 30

Knoxville, TN

8 PM ET

University of Tennessee

10-3,0-0SEC

105

South Carolina State

1-14,0-0MEAC

South Carolina St.

Tennessee

105

#19/20 Vols End Non-Conference Play with 105-54 Win Over South Carolina State

December 30, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats VIDEO: Rick Barnes Postgame VIDEO: Jaylen Carey & Amari Evans Postgame Highlights Photo Gallery

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men's basketball finished off the calendar year with a wire-to-wire victory over South Carolina State, 105-54, Tuesday night at Food City Center.

The triumph, which featured a team-high 21 points from senior guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie, gave No. 19/20 Tennessee (10-3) its 44th straight non-conference home win to break the school record that stood for over 76 years. The program also registered its highest point total since Jan. 15, 2019—nearly seven full years ago—and its sixth-largest margin of victory in the shot-clock era (1985-2026).

The Volunteers conceded just two made field goals in the first 11 minutes of the game, forcing a dozen South Carolina State (1-14) misses during that time, as they built a 19-7 advantage. The Bulldogs then connected on four of their next nine attempts and cut their deficit, 28-21, with 4:26 left in the half.

Tennessee, however, soon answered with an 8-0 burst in just 89 seconds, capped with a 3-pointer from Gillespie, to make it 36-21 with 2:47 on the timer. The lead reached 16 points, 41-25, at the break, as the home team shot 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from the floor and conceded a 30.0 percent (9-of-30) ledger at the other end.

The Volunteers opened the second frame with a 9-0 surge in the opening 100 seconds—that made it 12 straight points extending to the stretch run of the first stanza—and doubled up the Bulldogs, 50-25, with 18:20 left.

Aided by a possession in which it grabbed seven offensive rebounds and concluded it with a Gillespie 3-pointer, Tennessee went on a 17-2 run in 4:10 to go up by 40, 72-32, with 11:48 to go. The cushion ballooned to 45 points, 79-34, just 3:23 later. It reached 49, 88-39, with 6:06 remaining, at which point the Volunteers had a 45-12 edge on the glass.

The final margin of 51, which came via a 3-pointer by senior guard Amaree Abram with 34 ticks left, was the largest of the night. Tennessee scored 64 points in the second half, its most ever in a stanza under 11th-year head coach Rick Barnes and the co-fifth-most in a frame in program history.

Gillespie's 21 points, 14 of which were in the first half, came on a 7-of-12 clip from the floor and a perfect 4-of-4 ledger at the line. He added a game-high eight assists and had zero turnovers in 28 minutes of action.

Forward Nate Ament produced 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. A fellow freshman, guard Amari Evans, set career highs in points (14), rebounds (five), made field goals (five), made 3-pointers (two), blocks (one) and minutes (13), while tying his top mark in assists (two).

Junior forward Jaylen Carey and redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella became the first Tennessee tandem since Feb. 4, 2024, with double-doubles in the same game. The former had 13 points and 10 rebounds (six offensive), while the latter had 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting, 10 rebounds (seven offensive) and a career-high-tying three assists.

Senior forward Felix Okpara stuffed the stat sheet with nine points on 3-of-3 shooting, five rebounds, a game-leading four blocks and two steals. Sophomore guard Bishop Boswell and freshman guard Troy Henderson had six assists apiece, each setting career highs. That gave Tennessee three players with at least a half-dozen assists for the first time in the last 20 years (2006-26).

The Volunteers finished with 30 assists on 39 made field goals, their most assists in any game under Barnes and their highest total versus a Division I opponent since Nov. 17, 2009. The 30 assists also tied for the fourth-most in any contest in program history.

Sophomore point guard Jayden Johnson, the MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, scored a career-high 25 points for South Carolina State, 17 of which came in the first half. He shot 9-of-17 from the field, 4-of-6 beyond the arc and 3-of-4 at the line. The rest of his teammates combined for 29 points on a 10-of-38 field-goal clip, including a 2-of-14 ledger from deep.

As a team, the Volunteers shot a blistering 60.9 percent (39-of-64) from the field, their most since Nov. 17, 2024. They shot over 60.0 percent in both halves on a contest for the first time since Jan. 3, 2023, as well.
The 39 made field goals for Tennessee marked its third-most of the last 15 seasons (2011-26) and its top figure since Dec. 18, 2020.

Barnes' team amassed a 56-18 edge in paint points, a 22-4 figure on fast breaks and a 47-12 advantage in bench scoring. The victors also had a 52-16 final tally on the glass, including a 20-6 number on the offensive end.

The Volunteers scored triple-digit points for the 69th time in program history, including eighth in Barnes' tenure and the first since Nov. 17, 2024. They also logged a 50-point win for the seventh time in the shot-clock era, including the sixth against a Division I foe and first since Dec. 4, 2022.

Tennessee begins conference play Saturday at 3 p.m. with a top-20 clash against No. 18 Arkansas, live on ESPN2 from Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

To keep up with the University of Tennessee men's basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES
• Barnes now owns 846 victories in his career, regaining sole possession of first place among all active Division I head coaches and of sole ninth place all-time (min. 10 years in Division I).
• Tuesday marked the first matchup between the Volunteers and Bulldogs, with South Carolina State the last of three opponents on Tennessee's schedule it has not played before.
• Tennessee improved to 4-0 all-time against the current MEAC membership, including 3-0 under Barnes, who is 10-0 against such foes in his career.
• The Volunteers have now played and defeated a MEAC school in each of the last three seasons—they beat Norfolk State in 2023-24 and 2024-25—after playing just one current member previously.
• Tennessee has now won 44 consecutive non-conference home games, a streak that extends across six complete non-conference slates and dates to the 2020-21 season opener on Dec. 8, 2020.
• The Volunteers' 44 straight non-conference home victories eclipse, per Elias Sports Bureau, the program record that was set from Dec. 7, 1940, to Dec. 10, 1949.
• Tennessee, which went 8-0 at home in non-conference play this year, now has double-digit victories before the start of SEC play for the fourth consecutive season, dating to 2022-23.
• Tennessee has logged double-digit offensive rebounds in all 13 games this year, with 15-plus in eight outings, 18-plus four times and 20-plus thrice, with a high of 23.
• The Volunteers have grabbed at least 35 total boards in 12 of 13 contests, with 43-plus in eight, 47-plus in six and 50-plus in four, with a top tally of 54.
• Tennessee's plus-35 margin in bench scoring marked the third straight game it set a season-best figure and was above the plus-30 mark, as it recorded a 34-3 figure Dec. 16 against Louisville and a 52-20 count Dec. 21 versus Gardner-Webb.
• The plus-18 margin in fast-break points set a season best, marking the third straight game setting or tying a season high, with the plus-13 ledger Dec. 21 against Gardner-Webb the previous top figure.
• Tennessee's 56 paint points eclipsed the 54 in a Nov. 12 game versus North Florida for its highest total of the season.
• The Volunteers' last wire-to-wire victory was Nov. 17, 2025, against Rice, while the last contest in which they never trailed was three days later versus Tennessee State.
• The Volunteers attempted 24 free-throws in the first half, but connected on just 13 of their attempts at the line.
• While Johnson scored 17 first-half points for South Carolina State, the rest of the roster amassed just eight in the opening 20 minutes.
• Tennessee last played a game in which it was over 60.0 percent from the field in both halves on Jan. 3, 2023, versus Mississippi State, posting a 17-of-27 (63.0 percent) first-half ledger and a 19-of-25 (76.0 percent) second-half count.
• The last time Tennessee shot over 60.0 percent in a half was Feb. 15, 2025, when it went 17-of-26 (65.4 percent) after the break against Vanderbilt.
• Tennessee last shot over 60.0 percent in a game on Feb. 8, 2025, at Oklahoma when it notched a 29-of-48 (60.4 percent) line.
• The 60.9 field-goal percentage Tuesday marked the best for Tennessee since a 37-of-58 (63.8 percent) showing on Nov. 17, 2024, against Austin Peay.
• Tennessee has now made at least 39 field goals three times in the last 15 seasons (2011-26), all under Barnes, with Tuesday's showing joining a 42-of-72 showing on Dec. 18, 2020, against Tennessee Tech and a 40-of-62 performance on Feb. 2, 2019, at Texas A&M.
• The Volunteers' 64 points in the second half marked their most in any frame under Barnes, eclipsing the 59 they scored after the break on Feb. 3, 2018, versus Ole Miss.
• The 64 points also marked the most in a half by Tennessee in any game since Nov. 17, 2009, when it had 66 before the break versus UNC Asheville.
• The Volunteers have now scored at least 64 points in a half on 10 occasions, eclipsing that number in just four of those outings.
• Tennessee, which posted its sixth 50-point half of the year, has now scored 50-plus points in a half 21 times in the past three seasons (2023-26) after doing so 11 total times in the prior four campaigns (2019-23) combined.
• The Volunteers now own 17 victories by 40-plus under Barnes, with 13 of them in the last six seasons (2020-26) and eight in the last four years (2022-26) alone.
• The 51-point margin of victory marked the third-largest of Barnes' tenure on Rocky Top, trailing only 54-point wins over both Alcorn State (Dec. 4, 2022) and Tennessee Tech (Dec. 18, 2020).
• The aforementioned wins over Alcorn State and Tennessee Tech join additional victories against UNC Asheville (by 75 on Nov. 17, 2009), Middle Tennessee State (by 69 on Nov. 20, 2007) and non-Division I Arkansas-Monticello (by 57 on Nov. 14, 2007) as the only larger triumphs for the program in the shot-clock era.
• The Volunteers' seventh win by 50-plus points in the shot-clock era was by exactly that total versus The Citadel on Dec. 17, 2003.
• Tennessee is now 107-9 (.922) when allowing 60 or fewer points under Barnes, including 64-4 (.941) when allowing under 55 points.
• Tennessee is now 65-4 all-time when scoring 100-plus points, including 8-0 under Barnes, with this the first time the program hit that mark since a 103-68 win over Austin Peay on Nov. 17, 2024.
• The 105 points tied for the 25th-most in program history and for the second-most in the Barnes era, behind only a 106-87 triumph at Arkansas on Jan. 15, 2019.
• Tennessee last had 30 assists in a game on Jan. 4, 2014, when it had exactly that many versus Tusculum, while it last did so against a Division I foe on Nov. 17, 2009, when it logged a school record 34 against UNC Asheville.
• The 30 assists tied for the fourth-most in program history and marked just the sixth time Tennessee has ever hit that mark.
• The Volunteers last collected back-to-back wins by 35-plus points on Nov. 13 and Nov. 17, 2024, when they defeated Montana (92-57) and Austin Peay (103-68), respectively.
• Tennessee had two players record a double-double in the same game for the seventh time—five are in the last three seasons (2023-26)—in the Barnes era, including the first since Feb. 20, 2024, at Missouri.
• Tennessee not only had three players with six-plus assists in the same game for the first time in the last 20 seasons (2006-26), but also had three with five-plus for the 11th time in the Barnes era, including the first since Dalton Knecht, Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler did so on Feb. 17, 2024, against Vanderbilt.
• Before Gillespie, the last Volunteer with eight-plus assists and no turnovers in a game was Zakai Zeigler, who returned Tuesday night to a game Food City Center for the first time since graduation, in a March 20, 2025, win over Wofford in Lexington, Ky., in the NCAA Tournament.
• Gillespie amassed 20 points in a contest for the 20th time in his career, including the sixth as a Volunteer.
• Evans' career-best 14 points gave him a third consecutive outing with six-plus points after he had just five total points in Tennessee's first 10 games.
• Evans, who set a career high with five rebounds to eclipse the prior top tally of four he recorded thrice, and sophomore guard Ethan Burg both logged the first blocks of their career during the second half.
• Evans' prior career high in made field goals was three in a Dec. 16 game versus Louisville, which was also the contest in which he tallied his only prior made 3-pointer, while his top minutes mark was 12:26 in a Nov. 24 matchup with Rutgers in Las Vegas.
• Carey scored in double figures for the 26th time as a collegian, grabbed double-figure rebounds for the 10th time and produced a double-double for the seventh time.
• In his first season as a Volunteer, Carey already has double-digit points on six occasions, double-digit boards in four appearances and a double-double in three contests.
• Okpara's game-best four blocks tied his season high—the prior such game was Nov. 12 versus North Florida—and equaled his most as a Volunteer, with this his fifth time reaching that number.
• Estrella logged double-figure points for the seventh time—all are in 2025-26—and pulled down double-digit rebounds for the third time, with all three coming in double-double showings.
• The three assists for Estrella matched the career high he set earlier this season in a Nov. 8 victory over Northern Kentucky, an outing in which he also had a double-double.
• Estrella became the first Volunteer with seven offensive rebounds in a game since March 28, 2025, when Okpara achieved the feat against Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.
• Boswell's prior career high in assists was five on Nov. 24, 2025, versus Rutgers in Las Vegas, while Henderson's previous best was five on Nov. 8, 2025, against Northern Kentucky.