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7 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, November 26, 2001 * t~v r\ t^i m Oi GAME SCHEDULE I VI I I W I I 1 ’ MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. ETSU, 7:30 p.m. Monday CONTACT US I-^ V I |-^C I MEN’S BASKETBALL at Wofford, 7p.m. Wednesday ■ V VI M I L WOMEN’S BASKETBALL at Clemson, 7 p.m. Wednesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I I II I I k V WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Duquesne, 7 p.m. Friday Writeusatgamecochsports@hotmail.com I f I m. I TV y SWIMMING AND DIVING at Davidson Invitational, Friday USC topples Duke LADY GAMECOCKS 4-0 AFTER OVERTIME WIN BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK The Lady Gamecocks upset the No. 7 Duke Lady Blue Devils Sunday afternoon in overtime, 87 81, at the Duke Women’s Basketball Classic. Guard Shaunzinski Gortman, who was named the MVP of the tournament, was on fire for USC, scoring 25 points and pulling in 12 rebounds. But after the game, Gortman was more impressed with her team’s defensive play than its offense. “Coming into this game, we were all motivated to play defen sively,” Gortman said. “I was thinking that if I could play well defensively, then my offense would come and we would win the game.” With six minutes left in the first half, the Lady Blue Devils found themselves down 25-13. Off two free throws, a 6teal and a three-pointer from Vicki Krapohl, Duke managed to narrow the margin to six. But the Lady Gamecocks held onto their lead and built it up as they cruised into halftime with a 35-26 lead. The Lady Blue Devils weren’t through, though, and fought their way back. Duke’s Rometra Craig stole the ball from Kelly Morrone and nailed a layup to pull her team within three, 56-53. The Lady Gamecocks managed to pull back away briefly before the Lady Blue Devils narrowed the margin to one with two minutes remaining in the game off a layup by Iciss Tillis. With the clock run ning down, Alana Beard hit two free throws to give Duke a three point lead with 47 seconds re maining in the game. Morrone kept the game alive for the Gamecocks, however, as she notched the three-point goal with 21 seconds remaining. Duke was unable to capitalize in the fleeting moments of regulation, and the game was sent into overtime with the game tied at 72. In overtime, Duke struck first with a field goal by Monique Currie. USC pulled back to being down by one, 76 75, before Morrone stole the ball from Trillis. Morrone passed to Gortman, who made the layup that gave the Gamecocks a lead they wouldn’t re linquish. Gortman made six of eight free throws as the overtime wound down, and the Lady Gamecocks walked away with a six-point victory. USC head coach Susan Walvius was thrilled with her team’s perfor mance against the Lady Blue Devils. “I’m really proud of our team,” Walvius said. “We came out there, and we had the mentality that we would fight for 40 minutes, and we fought for 45 minutes. We came out with the win. I didn’t think it was al ways pretty, and we got a little care less with the ball, but we fought hard.” Morrone agrees, and thinks this South Carolina squad is ready to make some noise. “I think we are a team that is ris ing to challenges this year,” Morrone said. “That’s what we are all about. For us to come in and get a win, that gives us all the confi dence in the world to take the next step.” USC 72, Missouri 60 Before squaring off against the Blue Devils, the Lady Gamecocks downed the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the Duke Women’s Basketball Classic. Gortman had a team-leading 18 points and sev en rebounds. Junior forward Jocelyn Penn knocked in 15 points. “I’m happy with the way we Tournament MVP Shaunzinski Gortman powered past Duke and Missouri in the Duke Women’s Basketball Classic, special to the gamecock picked up our defensive intensity today,” Walvius said. “We played an aggressive man-to-man de fense. We were well prepared to play Missouri, and it showed. The team was very focused today and took a very good Missouri team out of its offense.” Kerensa Barr led the Lady Tigers with 19 points. Gortman and Morrone were both named to the All-Tournament team. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com. Soccer edged out in first round BY KYLE ALMOND TI1K CAMKCOCK UAB’s Flavio Monteiro scored a header goal in sudden-death overtime Sunday at the Graveyard to defeat South Carolina and bring the Gamecocks’ season to a sudden halt. Monteiro finished off a corner kick at the 96:47 mark in overtime and gave the Blazers a 3-2 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. “We know that, at any single moment, he can do the special things it takes to win a game,” University of Alabama Birmingham head coach Mike Getman said of Monteiro. The ju nior forward’s golden goal sent the Blazer bench into a frenzy and left a dejected Gamecock team searching for answers. USC (12-5-2) looked to have the upper hand as the match pro gressed, pressuring their oppo nents and coming close to scoring a game-winner. The No. 14 Gamecocks had already came back twice from behind in the game. However, a fantastic individual effort by Monteiro spoiled Carolina’s hopes at continuing its season. “[Monteiro] just got there first,” said Carolina head coach Mark Berson, who was coaching for the 15th time in the NCAA Tournament Berson said he was proud of his team’s effort and looked posi tively at what turned out to be a dismal afternoon for his team. “It’s hard enough to come back from behind once in a game,” Berson said. “To come back twice was exceptional. Our guys never quit.” UAB (15-5) grabbed an early lead in the 12th minute of play when Martin Rey slotted home a rebound off a kick-save by Michael Bachmeyer. The one-goal advantage lasted until early in the second half, when USC’s Ryan Daley convert ed a penalty kick to tie the game at the 48:16 mark. Rey put the No. 23 Blazers back on top in the 76th minute when he took advantage of a deflected pass in the USC box. The goal was Rey’s third of the tournament, as he also had the game-winning penalty kick in Friday’s 1-0 first round win over Furman. But USC’s Jordan Quinn took less than a minute to tie the game again when he beat the UAB goal keeper to a cross by Ryan Barber. Tied at two, the teams traded scoring chances until the end of regulation. USC threatened nu merous times in overtime and outshot its opponents 13-8 in the game, but it was the Blazers who would have the final say. “This was a great NCAA game,” Berson said. “This is what it’s all about.” Getman shared the same sen timent and praised his players for their gutsy performance. “I’m very proud of our team for Joey Worthen fights for the ball in a game against Drury earlier this season, file photo fighting through two overtime games in the NCAA Tournament and winning them both,” he said. “It’s very special.” The Blazers finished the regu lar season with losses in three of their last four games, but they pulled it together this week when it mattered the most. “We’ve struggled the last cou ple of weeks in the regular sea son,” Getman said. “We had a lot of injuries and we really lost our rhythm and a couple games we probably shouldn’t have. “Our feeling coming into this week was, if we can get through the first game and get our rhythm back, that our confi dence would come back and we would have a good chance to keep rolling through the tourna ment.” The Blazers will face Clemson next week in the third round. Clemson beat Kentucky 1-0 on Sunday in three overtimes. Berson and the Gamecocks will have a tough time getting over this heartbreaking loss, but they have nothing to be ashamed of after a solid year in which they were ranked week in and week out. “You don’t erase a great sea son with one loss at the end,” Berson said. “I think this team has done a great job this year.” Comments on this story’?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com. Volleyball defeats ACC champ UNC Lady Gamecocks end regular season with win BY PRESTON BAINES THE GAMECOCK The No. 23 USC volleyball team capped off its regular season in style, beating ACC tournament champion and archrival North Carolina to win the battle of the Carolinas. “It was a good match with a lot of momentum swings,” said USC coach Kim Christopher. “Offensively, we played very solid. It was a good match, a fun match. North Carolina is a really good team, and it was a great win for us today.” The big thr.ee, Cally Plummer, Yajaira Cadet and Megan Hosp all contributed to the victory. Plummer had 13 kills, and Cadet had 12. Plummer added six aces, while Hosp had a team-leading 12 digs. USC (20-5,10-4 SEC) won three of the four games in the match. The scores were 30-32,31-29, 30-22 and 30-25. The first game included many changes in momentum. UNC got off to a good start and took a 14-8 lead. But USC quickly countered with a big run and took a 25-20 lead. Then the Tar Heels finished the game in a flurry to win. “In the first game, we played pretty well until the end,” Christopher said. As has been the case through most of the season, USC got stronger the later it got in the match. The Gamecocks controlled most of the second game even though UNC kept it close throughout. USC got off to a 5-1 lead, but the Heels came back to tie it at seven. The Gamecocks went back out in front after that and stayed ahead the re mainder of the game as the teams traded points. In the third game, UNC got off to a quick 5-3 lead but USC came back quickly to take a 6-5 lead and the teams traded points until the Heels took a 10-9 lead. The Gamecocks then took the lead and ran away with the game, leading by as many as nine at one point, 26-17. USC cruised comfortably to win the game. The fourth game was nip and tuck until USC took control at the end. UNC led early, 4-1, but the Gamecocks battled back to tie it at nine. USC would grab the lead un til the Heels came back to knot the score at 22. USC then took final control of the match on a Nadia Sefferovich kill that gave the team a 27-24 lead. It would be all they needed, as they coasted to a 30-25 lead. The Gamecocks’ next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. USC will find out when and where they will play at 3 p.m. today. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com. Dave Odom is 1-2 in his first year at the helm for South Carolina, photo b> robert gruen Duke, UCLA wipe out Gamecocks in Maui USC wins first game of tourney, drops last two to top-tier teams BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK They say you can’t truly mea sure how good a team is until it plays the best. This past week, the University of South Carolina men’s basketball team (1-2) played in the Maui Invitational against some of the best teams in the NCAA. After defeating Chaminade in the opening round, they dropped a pair to Top 5 opponents UCLA and Duke. USC 74, Chaminade 61 Although his streak of 39 con secutive starts came to an end, senior guard Jamel Bradley still led the way for his team, scoring 17 points in the Gamecocks’ vic tory over the Silverswords. Fellow senior guard Aaron Lucas was second in points scored, with 14. Lucas left the game early, however, because of heat ex haustion. At the half USC had a com manding 40-23 lead thanks to solid play and 16 turnovers from the Silverswords. But Chaminade wasn’t through, as they pulled within seven at 66-59 with 1:09 left. But eight straight free throws, in cluding six by Bradley, were enough to put away the Silverswords for good. Duke 81, USC 56 With their win over the Silverswords, the Gamecocks were matched up in the second round with the defending national champion Blue Devils. USC man aged to tie the game at 25 with 5:12 remaining in the first half, but Duke went on a 19-0 sun to put the game out of reach f;>r good. The Blue Devils went into halftime with a comfortable 44-25 lead. Mike Dunleavy, son of former Gamecock great Mike Dunleavy, was in charge for the Blue Devils, scoring a team-leading 24 points, with 22 coming in the first half. In fact, Dunleavy’s eight field goals were more than the Gamecocks hit (7) in the first half, and he scored only three less points. USC shot a meager 29 percent in the half. In the second half, the Gamecocks would only be able to pull within 15 before the Blue Devils took off again to secure their 25-point win. Lucas led USC with 13 points, while Carlos Powell had 11. UCLA 89, USC 77 Behind an astonishing 73 per cent shooting, UCLA put away the Gamecocks in the consolation game to go home with third place. Bruin forward T. J. Cummings led his team with 25 points and nine rebounds. The sophomore was ac curate, too, making 11 of his 12 shots. After the game, USC head coach Dave Odom was impressed with his opponent’s play. “They were extraordinary in the first half. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a team shoot like that against us in the first half,” Odom said. “I think when we watch the tape we’ll find they had a lot of layups, open looks and easy bank shots because of our defense. It’s amazing we were as close as we were. If that’s not enough to give you a wakeup call defensively, I don’t know what would be.” For the second time in three games, Bradley was the star for the Gamecocks. The guard was six of 12 on three-pointers and fin ished with 21 points. Powell notched in 17 points, while Lucas pulled in 15. Rolando Howell had six rebounds as well as four steals. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com.