Columbia, S.C. - Chris Lofton had 18 points and Tennessee overcame a 15-point, second-half deficit to continue its best start in five years with a 76-69 victory against South Carolina on Sunday. At first, the Vols didn't look anything like the surprise club that won at Texas and topped the Southeastern Conference in scoring. But behind Lofton's outside shooting - he was 6 of 7 from 3-point range - Tennessee moved to 10-1, its best mark since starting 16-1 in 2000-01.
South Carolina (9-5) held Tennessee to 9 of 29 shooting in the opening half and were up 40-25 on Brandon Wallace's basket with 18:14 to go.
That's when Lofton and the Vols got hot, hitting 10 3-pointers the rest of the way to win the SEC opener for both teams.
Lofton had a 3-pointer to cut South Carolina's lead to 40-30. Then
Dane Bradshaw,
JaJuan Smith and
Jordan Howell added threes for the Vols. By the time Lofton added his fifth 3-pointer with 13:39 left, the lead was down to 47-42.
C.J. Watson tied things at 57-all on his basket and Smith followed with an old-fashioned three-point play that put Tennessee up 60-57.
And the Vols kept up their outside shooting to close things out as Smith, Lofton, Watson and Bradshaw all made threes down the stretch.
After its poor first-half shooting performance, Tennessee hit 18 of 28 shots (64.3 percent) including 10 of 13 from long range. Watson added 17 points, Bradshaw 14 and Smith 13
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