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Inside: USC women’s track wins Florida Fourway; Shawn Singleton discusses Southerners and athletics Schedule ■ Men’s basketball vs. Vanderbilt, Wed. ■ Women’s basketball at Arkansas, Thu. ■ Track at ETSU Invitational, Fri.-Sat. ■ Swimming at Auburn, Fri. ■ Men’s tennis at USC Invitational, Fri. Monday, January 24,2000 'CIlC (SfoJUCCOCk " Page B1 Gators chomp Lady Gamecocks by Shannon Rooke Assistant Sports Editor Sixty-two points and a valiant comeback effort weren’t enough for the USC women’s basketball team in their matchup against SEC rival Florida on Sunday. The Lady Gators got off to an early lead, hitting field goals on their first five drives. Florida would hold onto that lead for ' the remainder of the game, winning 76-62 and moving to 2-3 in the conference. Taking a while to get into the speed of the game, Carolina came within one point of the Lady Gators with 55 seconds left in the first half on a steal and easy layup from Jocelyn Penn. Pemt came off the bench and recorded 10 points, four assists and one steal in the game. The Lady Gamecocks picked up the pace enough in the sec ond half to keep the Florida lead to within Iff. The USC mo mentum lasted until the last four minutes, when the Lady Gators went on a 13-4 run. Shaun Gortman led the Gamecocks in point totals throughout the game. She finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and one of USC’s five steals. “Shaun has repeatedly stepped up enough to do what the coaching staff has asked of her,” head coach Susan Whlvius said. “I’d like to see her continue to grow as a player on the court, and that’s the area that she is working on for right now.” The point totals for Florida were evenly distributed, as each of the five starters scored in the double digits. Leading her team was guard Tiffany Travis with 19 points, two rebounds and two steals. Tombi Bell recorded 18 noints and _ three of her team’s 14 steals and also tallied six rebounds. As she analyzed Florida’s final run, Walvius said she felt her team rushed its offensive deci sion-making. “We were pretty dissapointed with the fi nal minutes of the game.” she said. “I think that we could’ve been a lot more patient with our offense.” However, with the youth on her team, she said she knows it can only get better as the years goon. “A lot of the mistakes we were making out there were young mistakes,” she said. “Many of the teams in our league have the luxury of keeping young players on the bench and working with them. We don’t have that same luxury right now as a team.” After breaking her nose in a practice ses sion early last week, Ines Ajanovic had it reset for USC’s win against Vandeibilt last Thursday. Ajanovic was told that she will have to go through the process again, however, when she was elbowed in the face late in the second half against Florida. Proving the importance of the matchup, Ajanovic returned to the court after stopping the bleeding and putting a bandage over her nose. She ended the game with three points and four rebounds. After only sinking five of their attempted 25 3-point shots, outside shooting has turned out to be an area for the USC squad to focus on for their next matchup. “Again, we rushed things offensively instead of just letting the team create chances for us,” Whlvius said “I thought that we shot the ball a little too quickly, especially on the outside of the arc.” Although the Lady Gamecocks dropped from 28 turnovers against Vanderbilt to 21 on Sunday, Whlvius said that number is still too great for the skill level of her squad “The number has gotten better, but 21 turnovers is a po tential 42 points that we could have had I think we need to grow in taking care of the basketball, but I think that we can definite ly improve on it.” Next, the Lady Gamecocks attempt to redeem themselves as they go on the road for the first of two games against Arkansas and look to increase their 14 SEC and 11-7 overall record As for last night’s loss and what they can do to for the rest of their SEC season, Whlvius is confident in her team’s ability. “I felt we made a good effort to come back,” she said. “But we know we still need to work on placing more value.on the ball and getting rid of those turnovers. So while it’s disap pointing, we have to take it one game at a time and find some kind of structure.” Florida 11-6, 2-3 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. * FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B 5 MIN 43 Naomi Mobley, f 5 80 01 22 10 12 2 11 1002 32 44 Tonya Washington, f 6 20 1 50 046 10 0 13 2403 36 04 Tamara Stocks, c 6 10 0 02 253 85 14 0303 26 05 Tombi Bell, g 5 90 08 12 24 63 18 5303 27 12 Tiifany Travis, g 6 16 0 17 811 22 19 4202 36 10 Nikki Tibbs 0-20 20 000 0100000 4 13 Erin O'Neil 0 00 00 000 0100100 4 22 Shona Rucker 0 20 0 0 010 1202101 11 24 Kelly Freeman 0 30 01 220 201310 0. 18 25 Monique Cardenas 0 10 00 001 1000000 6 Team 2 5 7 Totals 28 71 1 8 19 26 19 30 49 16 7617 15 014 200 South Carolina 11-7,1-4 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 34 Shannon Segres, f 2 80 40 000 0240200 25 44 Annie Lesler, f 3 30 02 432 5483211 19 00 Petra Ujhelyi, c 3 40 00 011 2361001 22 32 Shaunzinski Gortman, g 7 15 0 31 307 74 15 3501 34 51 Shanta Jeffcoat, g 2 52 50 014 5261310 35 05 Ines Ajanovic 1 61 40 113 4031100 8 10 Kelly Morrone 3 92 61 203 3293301 3 11 Chrishna Hill 0 30 31 200 0010000 3 33 Casie Key 0 00 00 000 0000100 11 45 Jocelyn Penn 4 70 02 243 74 10 4401 1 55 Linda Hoglund 0 00 00 100 0000000 22 Team 13 4 Touts 25 60 5 25 7 15 11 26 37 21 6216 21 2 5 200 Amy Goulding Photo Editor USC center Petra Ujhelyi attempts to snare a rebound earlier this year against the Russian National team. The Lady Gamecocks saw their one-game SEC winning streak halted Sunday against Florida. Bulldogs wallop Carolina; USC extends losing streak by Rick Johnston Staff Writer After a close loss to No. 4 Auburn, the Game cocks traveled to Athens, Ga., Saturday for a meet ing with the Geoigia Bulldogs in a game pivotal to USC’s postseason chances. A win was not in the cards, however, as the Gamecocks fell flat on their faces, 90-62, plung ing into the cellar of the Southeastern Confer ence. The game was almost completely epitomized in its first five minutes. The Gamecocks were l-of-5 from the field and committed four fouls, with two on sophomore guard Aaron Lucas. The Bulldogs, however, couldn’t miss. Lai by sophomore D. A. Layne, who canned three straight 3-pointers and was responsible for ! 11 of Georgia’s first 21 points, the Bulldogs pulled ™ ahead 5-0 and never looked back. The Gamecocks were further plagued by fouls, putting themselves in the bonus with 12:33 to go in the first half. Lucas and freshman guard Chuck Edson each picked up their third fouls on back-to-back 3-point attempts by Geoigia. Freshman forward Calvin Clemmons also committed a foul on a Geoigia offensive rebound, giving the Bulldogs tiiree straight trips to the free throw line. After the game, USC coach Eddie Fogler said of the fouls, “I’ve never seen that before. Well, maybe in a junior high school game.” The foul accumulation left USC without its two point guards for the rest of the half. The Gamecocks went into the locker room down 48-18, shooting an abysmal 21.4 percent from the field, while the red-hot Bulldogs shot 64 percent. ^ “I’m not sure that we realized how unintel ■ifcently we were playing,” Fogler said. ^ “We just didn’t play as smart as we should have,” Lucas agreed. At fust, it seemed as if the second half would be more of the same for the Gamecocks, as Eid son picked up his fourth foul with 13:43 to go in the game. But, things started to pick up for Carolina, as Layne was ultimately held to one 3-pointer in the second half. Eidson, despite foul trouble, went on to score 15 of his team-high 17 points. A pleasant surprise off the bench was fresh man forward Ivan Howell, who scored nine points late in the game, all on 3-pointers. Afterward, the questions of the season still lingered for USC: Why have the Gamecocks played well against some of the top teams in the nation while playing flat against a sub-par team? “I guess that’s the question among every body,” Lucas said. “I have no answer for that. Wfe’re still young, but we’ve played a lot of games, so that’s not an excuse anymore.” Although the Gamecocks had a less-than stellar performance, Fogler is still confident. “You don’t play Syracuse, Auburn and Michi gan State as well as we played them just by luck,” Fogler said “That being said, we are capable.” Lucas, however, said the game was the worst the Gamecocks have played since he has been at Carolina, even ranking it worse than last year’s 84-37 loss to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. “Against Syracuse [last year], we played and just got beat,” Lucas said. “Tonight, we didn’t play at all.” The road doesn’t get any easier for the Game cocks. Carolina plays host to No. 20 Vander bilt on Wednesday, then travels to No. 16 Ten nessee. Next week, USC plays No. 9 Florida in Columbia, then travels to Rupp Arena to face No. 18 Kentucky. South Carolina 9-9,1-4 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 14 Herbert Lee Davis 1 41 30 012 3130000 23 ' 33 Damien Kinloch 3 70 00 041 5260210 21 12 Marius Petravicius 1 50 02 412 3240301 18 05 Aaron Lucas 1 50 30 001 1323301 20 31 Chuck Eidson 7 10 2 41 100 04 17 2205 19 00 David Ross 0 30 20 001 1300001 14 04 Ivan Howell 3 33 30 010 1190100 5 10 Jamel Bradley 2 52 40 001 1061000 16 15 Travis Kraft 2 11 2 90 010 1060301 17 20 Jo Jo Cadray 0 00 00 000 0002 0 0 1 3 32 Calvin Clemmons 2 50 00 210 1240000 10 35 Antonio Grant 1 40 31 240 4130001 17 50 Tony Kitchings 1 70 00 013 4121210 17 Team 3 1 4 Totals 24 69 10 31 4 9 17 12 29 20 62 9 16 211 200 Georgia 9-9, 2-4 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 11 Adrian Jones 3 42 32 314 52 10 7501 26 51 Shon Coleman 3 50 02 217 8182401 23 04 Anthony Evans 5 70 00 014 53 10 0201 17 03 Moses White 1 40 02 203 3144201 25 32 D.A. Layne 6 10 5 7 3 5 01 11 20 2 2 0 0 21 02 Sean Faulkner 0 00 00 000 0000000 4 12 Jay Crowell 1 10 00 000 0020000 4 13 Badi Oliver 1 10 00 002 2020000 9 14 Jamil Hardwick 0 00 00 000 0000100 4 15 Michael Patrick 1 30 02 222 4041001 5 25 Nick Temen 3 40 01 202 2372200 16 33 Shawn Fields 1 4 0 02 3 1 2 3041100 15 34 Robb Dryden 4 50 02 212 31 10 2121 25 44 Ryan lewis 3 30 03:3 00 0090000 6 Team 2 3 5 Totals 32 51 7 10 19 24 9 32 41 12 9021 20 2 6 200 i. Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports Freshman center Marius Petravicius is sandwiched between Georgia defenders Anthony Evans, left, and Shon Coleman, right, during USC’s 90-62 loss Saturday.