Despite a career-high 25 points from John Fulkerson, Tennessee falls to South Carolina in Columbia, 63-61.
Fulkerson's 25 points and 9 rebounds led Tennessee. Yves Pons added 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Tennessee scored just five points in the final five minutes of the game. With less than a minute left in the game, a Santiago Vescovi turnover led to two free throws from South Carolina's Maik Kotsar to take the lead. With nine seconds left, a controversial charge was called against John Fulkerson, putting South Carolina on the charity stripe again, where Kotsar made another pair of free throws.
Trailing by two points with three seconds left, Josiah-Jordan James, in his first game back from injury, intentionally missed a free throw, rebounded the ball, but missed a baseline jumper as time expired.
Tennessee turned the ball over 20 times against the Gamecocks. South Carolina scored 16 points off of those turnovers.
The Vols have six games remaining in the regular season. Next up for Tennessee, a home game on Feb. 18 against Vanderbilt.
