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1THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, December 6, 2002 9 t^| rri r^i game schedule fl 1 I y ' I ' SWIMMING AND DIVING at Auburn, Friday I I I I ^ I i VOLLEYBALL at North Carolina (NCAA Tournament Second Round), Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I I f I I 111 7 P-m- Friday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com _B_ B —B_ F>—* MEN’S BASKETBALL at N.C. State, 6:30 p.m. Sunday S ~ «w Penn scores record 50 in rout Senior outscores Wofford all by herself W Wofford 46 d-4) 8 use 99 (6-0) BY NICK YOUNG THE (lAMECOCK A lurking ice storm, freezing cold weather and a small crowd of 525 people couldn’t stop Jocelyn Penn. It seemed that nothing could stop the senior forward Wednesday night at the Carolina Center. In USC’s 99-46 win over Wofford, Penn outscored the en tire Terriers squad with a school record 50 points. She also grabbed 11 rebounds and recorded her fourth double-dou ble of the season. After scoring a school-record 26 points in the first half, Penn’s teammates began to keep her updated of the full-game record of 50, set by Shannon Johnson in 1996. “I really didn’t know until there were about seven minutes left in the second half,” Penn said. “My teammates were telling me how many points I had and how many I needed to get into the record books.” • Penn’s teammates weren’t the only ones trying to help her get the record. USC head coach Susan Walvius pitched in, too. “It wasn’t until the last three minutes that we said, ‘Well, she needs a few buckets to get there. Let’s try to get the record for her because she works hard,’ ” Walvius said. “I think the Wofford coach was a little upset that we left Jocelyn in for that long, and our starters in, for that matter. We’re working hard to play well and we’re working hard to play our best, and we wanted to reward Jocelyn.” Wofford head coach Ed Wyant seemed to be upset with Walvius’ decision to keep Penn and most of the Carolina starters in, especially when the Gamecocks began to press and foul to preserve time on the clock with less than a minute left. Wyant responded by triple teaming Penn in the waning sec onds of the game when she was two points away from the record. But one of the Terriers fouled Penn, and she knocked down both free throws to tie the record. After Penn’s last shot went down, the Gamecocks (6-0) used a full-court press to get the ball back, and they fouled a Wofford player with six seconds left. After Wofford’s foul shots, USC’s Cristina Ciocan got the ball and rushed down the court to help Penn set the new record. Penn re ceived the pass in triple coverage and got a shot off, but the last-sec ond jumper fell short. “I wanted that last basket too bad; it went in and out,” Penn said. “I knew I was on 50, but I just wanted it too bad.” The win was a satisfying one for Walvius and the No. 23 Gamecocks as they tried to re “It wasn’t until the last three minutes that we said, ‘Well, she needs a few buckets to get it. Let’s try to get the record for her because she works hard.’ ” SUSAN WALVIUS use WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH bound from Tuesday night’s 30 turnover game against Georgia Southern. “The team responded nicely af ter yesterday,” Walvius said. “We were careless last night, and tonight we had unselfish guards doing a great job distributing the ball. We had better defense and a cleaner offense as we improved the running game.” Petra Ujheyli and Kelly Morrone recorded 16 and 10 points and were integral parts in the Gamecocks’ last-minute push to help Penn reach the record books. Walvius said that it was Morrone’s idea to foul in the last minute, and all of the coaches agreed. Ujheyli offered moral and verbal support. “We definitely wanted to sup port her because she’s been awe some for us,” Ujheyli said. “We all wanted to do this for her.” The Gamecocks will resume play Dec. 16 against Middle Tennessee State at the Carolina Center. They have the week off for exams. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Jocelyn Penn tied a school record Wednesday night with 50 points against the Wofford Terriers. Hoyas’ Sweetney lights up Carolina WASHINGTON (AP) - Mike Sweetney scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Georgetown's men’s basketball team held USC without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes in a 67-59 win over the Gamecocks on Thursday. Georgetown (5-0), which has never lost to Carolina (4-1), trailed 45-42 with 12:31 remaining after a basket by Rolando Howell. But for the second time in the game, Sweetney would score six points in an 11-0 run to give Georgetown a 53-45 lead it would not relinquish. The Gamecocks, who made five straight free throws to get within three, would not make another field goal until a Carlos Powell 3 pointer with 51 seconds to play made the score 60-53. » Powell led South Carolina with 18 points. USC’s leading scorer, Chuck Eidson, was held to just two points. Eidson also committed eight turnovers. Sweetney scored 14 in the first half to help Georgetown build an 11-point first half lead. The Gamecocks will try to re bound from their first loss of the season when they travel to North Carolina State on Sunday. FILE PHOTO BY AARON HARK/THE GAMECOCK Berna Dwyer, second from right, had 10 kills In the volleyball team’s NCAA Tournament win over American on Thursday night. Volleyball gets past first round * _ _ » r* American i IIUJ (26-8) eusc 3 (22-6) ° BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE SAMECOCK For this year’s Gamecock vol leyball team, the mission is to get to the Sweet 16 and beyond in the NCAA Tournament. After Thursday night’s victory in Chapel Hill, N.C., USC is one step closer to its goal. The 24th-ranked Gamecocks eliminated the American Eagles 3-1 in the teams' first-round match, with game scores of 30-10,30-28,23 30 and 30-19. USC will make a return to the , -second round for the first time * -$ince 2000. ♦• “It is great to get to the second .jpund. This is just thegfourth time i ;we have made it to the second round,” USC head coach Kim Christopher said. “This is a new season. I am thrilled about our blocking and setting a season high. I thought we played a com plete match despite all of the ob stacles we have had so far.” USC’s Niece Curry had one of the best nights of her Carolina ca reer. The sopho more was credited with 18 kills and a .773 hitting per centage. She also Curry assisted on nine blocks. Seniors Cally Plummer and Bema Dwyer both recorded dou ble-digits in kills. Plummer had 13, and Dwyer notched 10. Megan Hosp dished out 46 assists as well. The Gamecocks (22-6) will take on host North Carolina in the sec ond round Friday at 7 p.m. Comnients on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Dishing out some more Rothys MATTROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Here’s another edition of irrelevant awards to please people like me. The end of the semester is upon us, and so is the end of2002. There has been an awful lot that has happened in the world of sports, though not nearly enough to write a bunch of decent columns. Nevertheless, I tried anyway. But what better way to cele brate a semester past — and a lack of anything good to write about — than with a rousing round of Rothy Awards? BEST CONDIMENT DISPENSERS IN DIVISION I BASKETBALL: While I haven’t been to all 300 or so are nas, all I know is that the Carolina Center beats them all hands down. When you’ve seen as many relish and onion dis pensers as I have, you know when you’ve got a winner. There are many amenities in the Carolina Center to be proud of, but never before could I say USC had the best condiment dispensers. Now I can. MLB TEAM MOST LIKELY TO IMPROVE ITSELF THROUGH FREE AGENCY: Give this to the Philad elphia Phillies. When they open their new stadium in a year or two, it’ll be nice to see David Bell and Jim Thome at the cor ners in the infield. The Phils have a lot of good, young pitch ing, and they can be a really good team in 2003. But only making the playoffs again would be more phantastic. “THE COMMODORES” AWARD: Because he’ll be once ... twice ... three times a retiree: Michael Jordan. Maybe M.J. finally real izes the Wizards are pathetic, even with him on the court. But it’s about time he makes up his mind for good. I hope, this time, “Air Jordan” is grounded per manently after this season ends. WORST USE OF ORANGE IN A UNIFORM: It goes without saying that Clemson always gets this award, but not far behind is the New York Islanders organiza tion. Capitalizing on the trend of interestingly designed alternate jerseys, the Isles incorporated a dark orange as the main color. Even though there is some navy blue, there’s very little white, which makes that much orange just plain ugly. But, still, not nearly as ugly as Clemson. BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL RIVALRY: Carolina-Clemson? Michigan-Ohio State? Alabama Auburn? No, it’s none of these. It’s Army-Navy. Despite both team’s troubles over the last several years, there’s no other college football game across the nation that is as filled with as much pomp and circumstance as this one. You know each team is going to fight hard to beat the other, and there’s plenty of honor and pride on the line. THE REVOLVING DOOR AWARD: It must be hard to find a good leg these days; at least maybe for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags will use their fourth placekicker of the season when Danny Boyd trots onto the field Sunday at Alltel Stadium. Hayden Epstein, Tim Seder and Richie Cunningham couldn’t fill the position in Jacksonville, but will Boyd be the next one.to take the trip out the door? THE SECOND-THOUGHTS AWARD: This goes to University of Arizona football coach John Mackovic, who called his tight end, Justin Levasseur, a “dis grace to his family” and an “em barrassment to the team” dur ing a game against UCLA last month. This week, Levasseur was charged with trafficking 87 pounds of marijuana. Though Mackovic apologized for the original incident, you know he’s having second thoughts now. U.S. CONGRESS ALL-ATHLETIC TEAM: This recognizes Congres smen with past playing, coach ing or Ownership experience. On the team are Rep. J.C. Watts (R Okla.), Rep. Tom Osborne (R Neb.), Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who was a coach decades ago. THE “FACE IT, YOUR KID'S A LOSER” AWARD: Michel Croteau is suing a bantam hockey league in New Brunswick, Canada, for $300,000 because his son Steven wasn’t the league MVP despite leading his league in scoring. He claims psychological damage was done to his son; I say the father must have some. Losing is a fact of life, so this kid — and his fa ther — should deal with it. Rothenberg is a fourth-year sport management student. BRIEFLY Swimming teams third in Auburn USC’s swimming teams be gan the first day of competition at the Auburn Invitational on Thursday with the men’s and women’s teams each in third place. Highlighting the first day was the women’s 200-meter freestyle relay (Anna Nyiry, Heather Skaggs, Carolynn McHugh, Jennifer VanAssen), which placed first and set a new school record with a time of 1 minute, 30.76 seconds. “We are really excited with our 200 free relay and finishing with an automatic qualifying time,” USC swimming head coach Don Gibb said. USC also had several swim mers earn NCAA “B” qualify ing standard times. Th| meet will finish tomor row. SPORTS CHALLENGE Final Results CHAMPION: Matt Rothenberg (82-48) The assistant sports editor held a healthy lead for most of the season and never faltered, winning by four games over his nearest competitor. “M-Ro” was consistent throughout, and he now looks to follow up his title with a Basketball Sports Challenge championship next semester. 2. Mary Hartney (78-52) The editor in chief took a brief lead at the beginning of the competition but gave way to Rothenberg before too long. She was always in contention, however, and even had a shot at forcing a playoff week. But her teams couldn’t come through for her in the final week. 3. Chris Foy The Gamecock readers The Gamecock staff guests (75-55) A three-way be for third is a disappoinbng finish for Foy, the defending champion. But it was a very respectable finish for the readers and the staff guests, who got off to terrible starts. Staff guests who won weeks were Jill Martin, Charles Tomlinson and Shawn Rourk. Jason Hennessy was the only reader to be victorious. 6. Kyle Almond (73-57) The sports editor embarrasses himself with a last-place finish and bows out in disgrace. But he salvaged some pride by defeating Garnet & Black editor Kabe Smith in the final week, winning a side bet that will land him a spot in the next issudtof G&B. f Champion Matt Rothenberg strikes a Helsman-type pose.