KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Rocky Topped.

South Carolina men’s basketball added to its resume of impressive wins this season with its most historic notch on the belt yet, stunning No. 5 Tennessee 63-59 in its own gym.

If last week’s upset over Kentucky was surprising, this was Earth-shattering. Tennessee (15-5, 5-2 SEC) entered the game a perfect 10-0 at home with an average margin of victory of 22.6 points. Nobody in SEC play had even played the Volunteers closer than 19 points on their floor, and South Carolina (18-3, 6-2 SEC) had not won a road game against a top-5 opponent since Mar. 2, 1997, at Rupp Arena over No. 3 Kentucky.

Emphasis on past-tense.

Right now, everything feels like it was in the past. The 11-21 record from last year is long gone. The two losses to Tennessee which stuck out on his first season like sore thumbs feel like forever ago. And even last Tuesday’s win over Kentucky, at the time the biggest victory for the Gamecocks in years, feels like old news.

It never felt secure for the Gamecocks, but the formula remained. Slow the opponent down. Control the tempo. Defend tightly on the perimeter. Hit some timely 3-point shots.

South Carolina did everything it did to Kentucky last week on the road this time, starting with a 7-0 run out of the gate. Myles Stute returned from a two-week absence forced by a shoulder injury with three crucial 3-pointers, a trio of the 10 South Carolina knocked down for the game.

A pair of Ta’Lon Cooper buckets on possessions where the shot clock went under five seconds late in the first half symbolized the game plan, and how it was frustrating Tennessee.

Even after halftime, Tennessee never found its form. The groans from an increasingly frustrated and shell-shocked orange-clad crowd grew. At one point the home team missed 11 of 12 field goal attempts through a crucial second-half stretch, and Dalton Knecht — who entered play averaging 32 points per game in SEC play – scored just 18 points on 17 field goal attempts through the first 35 minutes before heating up in crunch time.

Knecht's late rally gave Tennessee one final gasp. It was impossible to keep him down forever. He scored 13 straight Tennessee at one point to bring the deficit as close to three with under a minute to go with a 3-pointer and then down two points with just 5.1 seconds left when he stuck an acrobatic triple from the left wing. Food City Center becoming a confusing mixture of fans who left too early turning around and those who stayed suddenly drawn back in.

But this was not to be their night. It was South Carolina's game, and it is beginning to feel like a season approaching a dream sequence after this one.

And when Stute canned two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to make it a two-possession game and knock Tennessee out once and for all, Gamecock fans everywhere had to pinch themselves.

The dream rolls on, and nobody wants to wake up.

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