ATLANTA (AP) -Tennessee hardly looked like a No. 1 seed, and South Carolina sure didn’t resemble the team that lost by 33 points to the Volunteers less than a week ago.
In a stunning turnaround, the lowly Gamecocks were in position to pull off a major upset against No. 4 Tennessee before Chris Lofton hit a 3-pointer with 11.4 seconds remaining to give the Vols an 89-87 victory in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday.
Big Orange can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s bid to claim a top seed in the NCAA tournament is still alive – barely.
“I think a close game will help us,” coach Bruce Pearl said, looking for the bright side. “We’ve got however many games left in this season, and every single one of them is for a championship.”
While the Vols (29-3) moved on, Dave Odom trudged into retirement. The South Carolina coach announced in January this would be his final season, and he walked off the court slowly, head down, after leading the Gamecocks (14-18) to just one NCAA appearance in seven seasons.
“I would be happier if we had won,” Odom said. “But I couldn’t be prouder.”
While South Carolina prepares to start over, Tennessee has its eyes on the biggest prize. The Vols already claimed their first SEC championship in 41 years and hope to have a “1” beside their name when the NCAA brackets are announced Sunday night.
Wayne Chism led the Volunteers with 23 points, helping them dominate on the inside. Lofton was held to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting, but the senior guard came through when it counted.
After Dominique Archie scored off a brilliant pass from Devan Downey, putting South Carolina ahead 87-86 with 21 seconds remaining, Tennessee hustled the ball upcourt and called timeout to set up a play. While the Volunteers had been doing most of their damage in the lane, they set up a screen for Lofton at the top of the key.
“When he gets that look in his eye, we know to get him the ball,” teammate JaJuan Smith said. “He had it when Coach drew this play up, so we got him the ball.”
Lofton’s open look hit nothing but net, just his second 3-pointer in 10 attempts on the day.
“Wayne got me a good screen, and I got open and knocked it down,” Lofton said. “As a shooter, you always think the next one’s going in.”
Downey came up short on a 3-pointer that could have won it for South Carolina, but the Gamecocks got a final chance when the rebound went out of bounds off a Tennessee player with 1.1 seconds left. Evaldas Baniulis inbounded to Archie, but the pass was low and got stuck between his legs while he was being tightly guarded by Tyler Smith.
The horn sounded without Archie even getting off a shot.
Odom, who came to South Carolina after a successful 12-year stint at Wake Forest, had a lackluster record of 128-104 with the Gamecocks. His only NCAA appearance was a quick one: an opening-round loss in 2004.
Downey scored 26 points and Zam Fredrick had 24 for the Gamecocks, who certainly can’t be accused of giving up as they were after a humiliating 89-56 loss to Tennessee in their regular-season finale last weekend. South Carolina knocked off LSU in the opening round and had a shot at upsetting the powerful Vols.
“I’m so proud of my team,” Downey said. “They embarrassed us twice.”
But Tennessee moves on to face Arkansas in Saturday’s semifinals. The Razorbacks beat No. 18 Vanderbilt 81-75 Friday.
The Vols, who spent one week at No. 1 for the first time in school history and lead the RPI standings, picked up their SEC championship trophy before the game while the school band played “Rocky Top.”
They certainly had no reason to fear the Gamecocks, having beaten them by nine games in the SEC East standings and winning their two regular-season meetings by an average margin of 28.5 points.
It looked like another rout when Tennessee scored the first nine points and raced out to a 19-8 lead. But South Carolina wouldn’t go away, chipping away at the deficit and actually pulling ahead in the final minute of the first half before Tennessee went to the locker room with a 41-40 lead.
The second half was close all the way, with six ties and eight lead changes.
The Gamecocks were outscored 52-38 in the lane but showed they could run with the talented Vols, especially during one up-and-down stretch where the teams combined for five baskets in 35 seconds. It could have gone either way in the final minute.
“Both teams played unafraid,” Odom said. “Each team got to the other team’s basket almost at will.”
Archie dunked an offensive rebound with 43 seconds left to put South Carolina up 85-84. Tennessee worked it inside to Tyler Smith, who went up strong, made the basket and was fouled by Archie with 39 seconds to go. Smith missed the free throw, South Carolina took over and worked it down for Archie’s go-ahead basket.
But Lofton made sure Tennessee reached the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 1991 and avoided Pearl’s third straight one-and-done appearance.
“Today will help them,” Odom said. “They are still the odds-on favorite to win the tournament.”
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