NASHVILLE -- South Carolina beat Tennessee at its own game -- in its own state -- Friday afternoon at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

The Gamecocks forced 21 turnovers and scored repeatedly in transition to eliminate the No. 14 Vols from the SEC men's basketball tournament with a 79-71 victory before a partisan crowd of 19,547.

"South Carolina really outplayed us today,'' said UT coach Bruce Pearl, whose team heads to the NCAA tournament next week with a 21-7 record. "I thought they did a good job in transition and beat us down the floor several times.''

UT, which received a bye in the first round as the top seed in the SEC East, has not gotten past the second round since 1991. The Vols have lost four of their last six games.

The Gamecocks (17-14), the East's No. 5 seed, scored 28 points off the Vols' turnovers and had 10 fast-break points to UT's 2.

South Carolina advances to play Kentucky in the semifinals today.

"We did very little different than the first two times we played them, other than play better,'' said South Carolina coach Dave Odom, whose team dropped both its regular-season games to the Vols. "The thing we did today, we played every possession as though it was the most important and the last.''

And now UT's next loss will be its last of the season. The Vols, expected to be a No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, will learn Sunday whom and where they'll play.

It might not matter who UT's playing if sharpshooter Chris Lofton doesn't get on track. Lofton was held to 12 points on 4-on-14 shooting.

"I looked at the Alabama (vs. Tennessee) tape last night ... they did a great job of denying him the ball and not helping (on defense) off him,'' Odom said. "We took Rocky (Trice) and put him on Lofton and gave him no help responsibilities.''

Odom's strategy opened the door for C.J. Watson to step up and score a team-high 23 points, but overall it worked as intended.

Lofton missed his first six shots and didn't score until there was 10:32 remaining in the game. Lofton's first points came on a 3-point shot -- one of the three he hit in nine attempts -- and drew the Vols within 50-41.

South Carolina responded with an 11-3 run, taking its biggest lead of the game when Brandon Wallace dunked to make it 61-44 with 5:15 remaining.

Lofton heated up in the closing minutes, hitting four of his final eight shots, but the Vols couldn't draw closer than nine.

"We lost as a team, but I played a key role in it,'' Lofton said. "I hate losing so much; I don't like talking about it.

"We have a lot of people disappointed, and it's our fault.''

Pearl also placed blame on his team's inability to generate offense in the paint, where the Gamecocks held a 40-22 scoring advantage.

UT center Major Wingate had eight points and five rebounds, but also five turnovers. Forwards Andre Patterson and Stanley Asumnu had three turnovers apiece.

"That's a lot of turnovers from your inside players when they didn't get a lot of touches,'' Pearl said. "I would have liked to have gone in there much more.''

South Carolina's 6-foot-8 forward, Renaldo Balkman, had a lot to do with it. Coming off the bench, Balkman was extremely active with three steals and several deflections. He was just as aggressive on offense, knifing to the basket en route to 16 points. When the Gamecocks' missed, Balkman was there with four offensive rebounds.

"When he plays well, they win,'' Pearl said. "He was a big factor on the inside.''

UT jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but South Carolina battled back, taking its first lead on a Balkman dunk that made it 18-16 with 8:36 left in the half.

The Vols regained the lead, 26-25, on an Asumnu free throw at the 2:44 mark, but Dwayne Day hit a jumper to put South Carolina back up for good.

The Gamecocks led 33-27 at the half and hit their first four shots of the second half to extend the lead to 42-33 with 16:22 left.

Tre Kelly scored a game-high 25 points for South Carolina.

"We were able to throw some great runs at them earlier in the season,'' UT forward Dane Bradshaw said. "In both games they were right there with us. They were able to do that for 40 minutes today, and we weren't able to get over the hump.''

Technical: Pearl wasn't sure why he was accessed a technical by referee Ted Valentine in the first half.

"I said I thought it was a travel," Pearl said. "I think I might have got it because I jumped up and down."

Pearl, who was arguing that South Carolina should have been called for a travel, stayed within the coaching box.