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^ , THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 30, 2001 GAME SCHEDULE / WOMEN'S BASKETBALL vs. Duquesne, 7p.m. Friday SWIMMING AND DIVING at Davidson Invitational, Friday MEN’S BASKETBALL vs.Colorado State, 7:30 p.m. Saturday EQUESTRIAN in Division I Invitational, Saturday USC easily beats Wofford BY PRESTON BAINES THE GAMECOCK It’s becoming a trend for this season’s South Carolina basket ball team. Once again, USC played its best in the opening minutes. The Gamecocks thwarted the Wof ford attack early Wednesday night and remained ahead for the rest of the game on their way to a 64-49 victory. The Terriers started off ice cold in front of the home crowd, help ing Carolina (3-2) take a 20-10 lead midway through the first half. Wofford’s shooting game bore no resemblance to the strong attack shown in last week’s 85-82 loss to Clemson. The Gamecocks came into the game worried about Wofford’s three-point shooting prowess. But Carolina used its decided height advantage to guard the outside. The Terriers shot just 25 percent in the first half and 30.4 percent in, the second half. “We gave all the respect we could muster to the Wofford team, particularly to the perimeter,” USC head coach Dave Odom said. “I felt if we didn’t mix our de fenses tonight and if we played our very best brand of man-to-man de fense and pressed out on the perimeter, I didn’t know if they could make enough shots over our defense to beat us,” Odom said. Sophomore Rolando Howell had been in a slump the past few games but came up big Wednes day. Howell had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. “We brought him (Tuesday) and worked him a little extra hard and talked to him,” Odom said. “I Colorado St. at USC 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Frank McGuire Arena Radio: 560AM-WV0C think we kicked him where we needed to kick him and loved him where we needed to love him.” Howell was also happy with his improvement. “I haven’t been helping this team a lot,” Howell said. “I haven’t been playing my type of game. I came through tonight, and hope fully this is the start of a break through for me.” Carolina grabbed a 20-10 lead at the 10-minute mark in the first half and built its lead up to 27-12 at the 5:17 mark. But Wofford would end the half scoring the fi nal sik points to cut the lead to nine. The Terriers wouldn’t be silent, however, and hung around for much of the game to pull within six, 35-29, in the second half. At that point, a Rolando Howell layup and a Jamel Bradley three-point er helped Carolina pull away. Bradley had 15 points on the night off five three-pointers. All nine of his shots were from three point range. Odom has said he would like to see Bradley take more two-point shots, and Bradley has been work ing on that area of his game. ♦ BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 7 Sophomore Michael Boynton looks to see significant playing time this year. PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN Volleyball ends with hard loss to UNC BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK It’s over. After beating the North Car olina Tar Heels 3-1 last weekend to close out the season, the Lady Gamecocks appeared to be poised to have little trouble in the first round of the NCAA volleyball tournament. Unfortunately, the Lady Tar Heels had different plans, as they repaid the favor Thursday night by downing USC 3-1 and ending the Lady Gamecock’s season. North Car olina will advance to the second round to face Pepperdine tonight at Chapel Hill. “It’s always an emotional con test when North and South Car olina play each other. They had the home court advantage and seemed very motivated - they played relentless defense,” Christopher said. “This Gamecock team has been won derful. We will miss our seniors, Liz Price, Nia Mackie and Milicia Perovic, next year, but we return an outstanding bunch. We talked before the match about our ex pectations as far as wins and loss es go, and this is not the way we wanted to end.” Niece Curry was the leader on the court for the Gamecocks on Thursday night as she notched in 20 kills. Star player Cally Plum mer injured herself in the first game, but still pulled out a strong showing with 19 kills. Yajaira Cadet had 10 kills, and Megan Hosp had three service aces. USC was outdug by the Lady Tar Heels 83-73. In game one, UNC took a quick 7-3 lead. During the Tar Heels’ run, Plummer injured her right ankle. Sam Alban stepped up for the Gamecocks, stopping the UNC run with a kill. Despite the Heels’ 16-8 lead, USC managed to cut the lead to four at 20-16. However, they weren’t able to pull in for the win as North Carolina took game one by the score of 30-25. Game two showed a resur gence by Plummer as her team quickly picked up a 12-7 lead. Na dia Sefferovich was next on USC’s injury list, as she suffered a leg injury when a North Carolina player collided into her leg. The Gamecocks persevered but al most lost their hold on the match when the Tar Heels tied it up at 30. However, a kill by Plummer ensured a 32-30 game two victory for the Gamecocks. In game three, the Lady Game cocks found themselves down 7-4 but pulled back to take the a 13-12 lead. UNC responded with a 13-2 run, but the Lady Gamecocks pro Yajaira Cadet dives to keep the ball alive for Carolina this past week in a game versus North Carolina, photo by robert gruen duced a run of their own and were down only two at 25-23. USC would only get two more points in the game, however, as UNC took game three, 30-25. The Game cocks hit a meager .082, while North Carolina hit .234. Game four was pivotal for the Lady Gamecocks as a loss would end the match and their season. UNC took an 11-9 lead before breaking loose to take a demand ing 18-12 lead. South Carolina fought back to pull within four at 22-18. But UNC would not be de nied. The Lady Tar Heels went on a 7-1 run that would give the match, 30-21. The Lady Gamecocks finish the season with a 20-6 record, while UNC goes into the second round with a 23-8 record. Clemson does number on No. 25 Lady Gamecocks BY COURTNEY KELLER THE (iAMECOCK The 25th-ranked Lady Game cocks ended their four-game win ning streak after falling to the Clem son Tigers on Wednesday night, 71 63. The Gamecocks haven’t won a game against Clemson since the 1994-95 season and haven’t won at Littlejohn Coliseum since the 1989-90 season. Wednesday’s match between the rivals marked their 47th court meeting, with Clemson leading the overall se ries 29-18. “We have to really credit the Clemson team. They did a great job in putting up a fight against us,” said USC head coach Susan Walvius. Carolina came into the game af ter defeating then-No. 9 Duke in over time in the Duke Women’s Basket ball Classic. The Lady Gamecocks were hoping to have another great start like they did during the 1998-99 season, when they went 59. “The best way not to win is to fo cus too much on winning,” Walvius told her team before the game. “Since this game is always a battle, our focus will be to do the little things well like we did against Duke.” “I didn’t know what to expect,” Walvius said afterwards. “Clem son is a very good team, and they always play tough at their place.” The Lady Gamecocks (4-1) and the Lady Tigers (3-1) both strug gled during the game, combining for 26 turnovers and 2-11 three point shooting. Clemson, howev er, managed to lead by as many as 10 points in the first half. Never theless, the Gamecocks would close the first half down only two, 28-26. “We struggled offensively and when things didn’t go well, we put our heads down,” Walvius said. “This was one of our uglier offen sive performances. We had no point-guard leadership, and we didn’t deliver the ball where it needed to be on the court like we did versus Duke. We’ve got some nice talent, but we didn’t play as a team. We looked a little timid and we went in with an attitude to try not to make mistakes.” The Lady Gamecocks cut Clem son’s lead to four with 34 seconds left in the second half, but the Lady Tigers made seven straight free throws to seal the win. USC was led in points by guard Shaunzinski Gortman with 17, forward Jocelyn Penn with 11 and Ines Ajanovic with 10. Carolina only led twice in the game. Clemson finished with four players in double figures. Julie Aderhold led the Tigers with 16 points, 14 coming in the second half to help the Tigers build a 13 point lead. “We had some good individual _■___ performances, but this isn’t about individual play. If we want to win against good teams, we can’t do this,” Walvius said. “I know we wanted to win this badly and it was important for us to hold onto the top 25 ranking, but this game boils down to us trying not to lose. When you get out here and try not to lose, you’re gonna lose. So we have to count on the little things to make a difference.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksportsCuihotmail.com. Florida can help TJSC get to Citrus CHRIS FOY GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM A positive trend has begun to take hold in Columbia during this time of year: the eagerly awaited announcement of USC’s bowl bid. Now, obviously, with the SEC Championship game pushed to Dec. 8, plans have to wait. But being prepared never hurt anyone, so here are a few | things to keep in mind about our postseason as well as for all of college football. 1. Count on the Citrus: The most likely scenario for us to miss out on the biggest non-BCS bowl is for Florida to lose to Tennessee this weekend or for the SEC East team to lose in the SEC Championship game. Quite frankly, this weekend’s game doesn’t concern me. The Vols haven’t beaten the Gators in the Swamp since 1971. UT has as much of a shot at beating Florida as Clemson has of going to a respectable bowl. And sorry, Tigers, the Tangerine Bowl doesn’t classify (if you even make that). The conference champion- ® sh ip should be a breeze for the East representative as well. There have been a few West teams who have managed to upset East teams this season, but it won’t happen when the SEC crown is on the line. 2. Save your money: I know this is going to shock most of you, but the Citrus Bowl doesn’t care how good we are. OK, maybe they Hn hut T can nrnmise von thev’re more concerned about making money than playing host to a decent matchup. It’s $60 a pop for Citrus Bowl tickets, and Outback ticket prices have risen to $50. Thanks, bowl officials. As if the average college student isn’t poor enough, you’re to going to rip us off^ so you can make a few extra bucks. 3. After SEC Championship, all bets are off: Carolina students are . pulling for Florida until it locks up a high enough bowl bid to help our chances. That’s fine, but some people say they always pull for the SEC against non-conference opponents. That’s crap. In the regular season we proved we are the best all-around conference. In the postseason, it’s all right to root. for teams like Florida to be embarrassed in front of a national * audience and have to live with jt - until next season. It won’t reflect too poorly upon our conference. Let me make this perfectly clean the SEC is the toughest conference % in the NCAA. Period. The Big 12 has two very good teams, but one’s an ; - underach iever that starts a non-hall of fame former pro quarterback’s -, son while a good quarterback sits on the bench. Never mind the fatt that he set practically every school passing record. You can throw Colorado State, in this list, too. They’re good, but they’re not great. They did pull r»FFnno holl rvf an uncot fhnnoh Let’s face it, folks, the Big 12 is the only other conference that could even compare to the SEC. * Big 10? Ha. ACC? Maybe in five • years, though I must say they’re . in the right direction. The SEC is I the best because it offers the 1 highest level of competition. But ^ just because it’s the best overall conference, doesn’t mean you have to be let down if some teams get knocked off their high horses every now and then. Those are just a few thoughts • going into bowl season. For now,. go out and support your basket ball team. They haven’t yet reached the level of prominence as our football team, but Odom is going to do a lot for this program.. Let’s show h im the respect he deserves and give the Coliseum the atmosphere it deserves.