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PHOTO BY AARON HARK/THE GAMECOCK Jordan Smith and the Gamecock men’s soccer team had their season ended Saturday by Coastal Carolina In double overtime. Men’s soccer team ousted in first round of NCAA Tournament ^4* Coastal Carolina 2 7 (19-2-2) eusc 1 (11-8-1) BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK A rocky season for the USC men’s soccer team ended Saturday when Coastal Carolina, defeated the Gamecocks 2-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game, which was played at USC, was only 28 seconds away from a penalty-kick shootout when Coastal’s Bobby Crovo scored a gold en goal to win in double overtime. The Gamecocks (11-8-1) played the Chanticleers (19-2-2) much closer than the two teams’ earlier meeting this season, when Coastal won 3-0. They even held an early 1-0 advantage off a 36th-minute goal by Dave Moore. But Coastal roared back late to earn a spot in the second round against Clemson on Wednesday. “Obviously, we are devastated at this point to lose with 28 seconds left on the clock,” USC head coach Mark Berson said. “Our team showed character today, as they did all season. It was extraordinary play for both teams, and give credit to Coastal because they did a great job today coming from behind.” The Gamecocks started the sea son 7-0-1 and were ranked in the top five in a few national polls. But USC struggled offensively for a stretch and closed out the season 4-8. The Gamecocks have gone to the NCAA Tournament three of the lastfour years, but they don’t have a single win to show for it. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Men CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 the Gamecocks—highlighted by Chuck Eidson’s pass to Rolando Howell for an alley-oop dunk — tied the game at 59. With 6:26 left in regulation, the Carolina Center’s electronic equipment delayed the game for more than five minutes. First, the shot-clock buzzers sounded in the middle of play. Then the scoreboards blacked out, caus ing the refs to call for a delay. When everything was appar ently in order, the Gamecocks in bounded the ball only to have the buzzers go off yet again. When play resumed, the teams worked to a 61-61 tie before Powell’s 3 pointer broke the tie and put the Gamecocks up for good. Eidson nearly completed a triple-double, finishing the game with 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. Eidson moved up to 10th on the all-time assists list and is within six steals of be coming USC’s all-time leader in that category. “Chuck made one great play after the other, plays that win ners make,” Odom said. Odom, although happy about the victory, was not without crit icism for his team’s play, partic ularly with Howell and Powell getting into physical confronta tions with ETSU’s Zakee “Starting lineups are going to change until I feel comfortable, just like they did last year.” DAVE ODOM use MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH Wadood. One conflict ended in technical fouls for Wadood and Howell. “You don’t show how tough you are in individual confronta tions,” Odom said. “You do it by running back on defense and get ting tough rebounds.” Odom was also concerned about the performances of Howell and Kitchings, who are coming off of ankle injuries. Kitchings showed signs of rusti ness, as he missed three oppor tunities for put-back dunks and was only 3-for-15 from the field. “Tony and Rolando aren’t in any kind of shape compared to where they need to be,” Odom said. Odom said the inconsistency from his lineup will lead to ad justments in future games. “Starting lineups are going to change until I feel comfortable, just like they did last year,” he said. USC’s next game will be Friday against South Carolina State at the Carolina Center. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO BY ERIC SUTTON/THE GAMECOCK Rolando Howell looks for a teammate to pass to during USC’s season-opening win against East Tennessee State on Sunday. Women CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 Ciocan and two from Kelly Morrone—gave the Gamecocks a 15-point lead midway through the first half. Penn had 13 points by the break. The Tigers got 12 points from Lakeia Stokes to keep pace with Carolina before halftime. Ciocan opened up the second half with a 3-pointer, but the Tigers, behind Khaili Sanders’ 10 points, closed the gap to seven points. “I think Cristina’s the best point guard in the country, for her size and for what she does,” Walvius said. “She needs to pick up some of the scoring for us, and you can see that she’s capable of that. She’s a great player.” USC rallied with an 11-2 run, including six points from fresh man Sarah Burgess, to keep Clemson (0-1) at bay. Morrone also scored in double figures for Carolina (10 points), while Burgess contributed nine. Despite being outrebounded as a team, the Gamecocks’ Petra Ujhelyi grabbed 12 boards to lead all players. USC’s stifling defense pro duced 13 steals and limited the Tigers to a 38.7 shooting percent age in the game. Sunday evening, the Gameco cks used an outstanding perfor mance from Penn to defeat the College of Charleston 83-54. “I really liked the way we played in the first five minutes,” Walvius said. “Good teams are consistent; I don’t think we were consistent today with our effort. “I thought we had a lot of de fensive breakdowns. The coach ing staff at College of Charleston was very prepared for us. They exploited our defensive system very well, and we haven’t seen that very often.” Penn had 14 of her 45 points as USC raced out to a 23-5 lead early in the game. The Gamecocks (2-0) shot 44.7 percent from the field in the first half, while limiting the Cougars (0-2) to 30.4 percent. The Cougars “were a small and “I don’t think very many people will have an answer for Jocelyn, to tell you the truth. Jocelyn does so many things for this team with her hustle. She’s a leader for our team, by example, with her emotion and determination.” SUSAN WALVIUS use WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH scrappy ream, uui wejusi warn ed to go out and work hard. I wanted to just play well,” Penn said. Walvius believes that Penn’s play and leadership will make other teams scramble to try to stop her. “I don’t think very many peo ple will have an answer for Jocelyn, to tell you the truth,” she said. “Jocelyn does so many things for this team with her hus tle. She’s a leader for our team, by example, with her emotion and determination.” The inside game was also working for Ujhelyi, as she scored 12 points and snared 13 rebounds. However, it was the outside game that confounded Carolina, only making four 3-pointers and shooting 23.5 percent from behind the arc. While Penn was the story again for USC, Burgess also turned in a solid performance with eight points, seven rebounds and five steals. She said she is de veloping well offensively but still lifts iu iiiipruve uii nci uciciisc. “My defense is not very good right now, but I like to get into the passing lanes,” Burgess said. “My teammate Linda (Hoglund) told me I was worried about offense, and I’m thinking too much. I just want to work on my defense and get better.” Despite not being able to find much offense early in the second half, the Gamecocks went on an 18-5 tear to put the Cougars out of reach. But Walvius doesn’t think her team has gotten to the point where it is firing on all cylinders. “We don’t expect, as a basket ball team, to be perfect right now,” she said. “We’re not play ing our best basketball right now. We’re looking to improve.” USC will spend its Thanksgiving in the Virgin Islands, playing a pair of games against Oregon and Boston College. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail. com Royal Z Lanes Presents: holiday glo bowl «■ karaoke T**8- Afov:' 27 q£ifll I > *"*-*an, I specks I 8*$«#ed I 4>* *i v If ^Usic I ,?«pai Karaoke set up on the bowling concourse for all to participate All You Can Bowl v u shoes + fun, sl£.00 per person Don't Forget: college oite Wednesdays 11 pm-^m^ I after work oite Tuesdays 11pm-2am Royal Z Lanes 8512 Two Notch Rd Columbia, SC 29223 788-9208 j It you are under the age of 21, it is against the law to buy alcoholic beverages. All ABC regulations are enforced. For Games Played During The Winter Break Dec. 6, 2002 until Jan. 13, 2003 Temple Wofford Citadel Ole Miss. Dec. 2, 2002 Dec. 16, 2002 Jan. 2, 2003 Jan. 8, 2003 Special distribution of student tickets will be Monday, Dec. 2 and Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 9am until 4pm. Distribution will be in Room 205 of the Russell House. Student tickets will also be available on game day at the Arena Ticket Office Student Ticket window from 9 am until halftime of the game. Validation will cost $15.00 for the games. Validations will be available at distribution or at the Coliseum on game night. -Students are not guaranteed a student ticket to each game, only the right to a ticket as long as student tickets are available. -Remember, the good seats go early, so get your ticket as soon as you can. Handicapped or disabled students can get assistance by calling 777-6742 Football CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 six meetings with their rival. There were positives for the Gamecocks. Williamson finished with four catches for 140 yards, in cluding a 70-yard touchdown re ception in single coverage. He ran a similar pattern for a 43-yard play when the Gamecocks regained the lead. “We feel like if that pass is go ing to work, why not stay with it?” , Williamson said. “So we stayed l with it, good things happened.” But Holtz compared this game to the rest of the season. Turnovers and a lack of big plays really hurt the Gamecocks, he said. The Gamecocks were cruising along with a record of 5-2 before falling to LSU 38-14. They led that game 14-6 at the half, but the of fense sputtered the second half and the next three games — scor ing just 17 points in 14 quarters. Carolina finished 4-of-ll on third-down conversions Saturday, about average for the season. “We never got third-down re sults all year,” Holtz said. “Our third-down play hurt us, and, mainly, we got hurt across the middle.”