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Summitt CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 practice situations. When I don’t feel that way, I’m out of here.” Summitt was hired as a gradu ate teaching assistant and wom en’s coach at Tennessee in 1974 at age 22. She earned her first career victory in the team’s second game in January 1975. It took Summitt nearly four years to reach her 100th win on Jan. 13,1979, at North Carolina State. She won her 300th at home on Jan. 4, 1987, against North Carolina. She picked up No. 500 against Ohio State in Jackson, Tenn., in 1993.The Lady Vols won 85-62 at Wisconsin on Dec. 5,1999, as Summitt joined Texas coach Jody Conradt as the only two women’s college basketball coach es to reach 700 wins. Summitt said winning 800 games wasn’t one of her goals. “Someone asked me last week if I was determined to beat others to 800.1 said, ‘No, I was deter mined to play and coach and try to win every game we’re involved in,’” she said. “Maybe down the road when I reflect, I will realize what it does mean. I think the thing that stuck out was when I saw Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp at the top of the list.” Tennessee (12-3) made it clear early in the game that Summitt wouldn’t have to wait until the next game to reach the milestone. After the Blue Demons (12-4) tied it at 2 in the opening minute, it was all Tennessee. The Lady Vols slow ly built a lead and then went on an 18-0 run in the first half. Reserve Brittany Jackson start ed it with two consecutive 3-point ers. Loree Moore caught a pass be hind her, dribbled it around her back and drove to the basket and then Tye’sha Fluker capped the run on a putback that gave Tennessee a 36-10 lead with 5:19 re maining before halftime. The Lady Vols’ lead didn’t drop below 19 the rest of the way. As the last seconds ticked away, the fans rose to their feet and chanted, “800,800,800!” When the game ended, Summitt walked over and hugged DePaul coach Doug Bruno then hugged each player as orange and white confetti rained onto the court. School officials played a taped congratulatory message from Smith on the arena’s video board and then presented Summitt with a cake, roses and game ball. She posed with her team and the DePaul players and coaches for pictures. “I am amazed and excited to have been a part of this,” senior Kara Lawson said. “She is going to set a lot more records, and when years from now we look back at playing at Tennessee, we’ll look back on playing for the greatest coach in college basketball.” Summitt does have more goals to achieve, including winning a seventh national title. “It’s just to keep getting better,” she said. “Our basketball team has pretty much the same goal every year. We want to be in Atlanta, and we want to cut down the nets.” Basketball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 * strous dunks by Howell got it within three. Carolina trailed by as much as 10 with 6:20 to go, but two Boynton 3-pointers and a pair of Eidson free throws cut the lead to three. Daniels then answered with a □ jump shot over Howell and two free throws to seal the win for the Tigers. Carlos Powell was injured early in the second half but returned to play with 10:36 to go. Powell’s injury was diagnosed as a mid-high an kle sprain, and he is listed as prob able to play against Florida. USC now turns its attention to Saturday night’s matchup with the sixth-ranked Florida Gators at the Carolina Center. Florida (14 2,3-0) is coming off a 77-64 victory over Tennessee on Wednesday night, in which Matt Bonner scored a season high 25 points for the Gators. Bonner was 5-for-7 from the three-point line and David Lee added 14 points and seven re bounds to extend Florida’s win streak to 10. Bonner leads the SEC East’s top team with 15.1 points per game. Freshmen Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson are averaging 14.8 and 14.4 points per game, re spectively. Roberson was named last week’s SEC Player of the Week after nailing a buzzer beater to down the Georgia Bulldogs. Florida head coach Billy Donovan said, “Traveling to Columbia is a challenge for any basketball team. They have a lot of excitement with the addition of a new arena. They play very well at home, and we will have to be on top of our game. I have a lot of re spect for them and their pro gram.” Odom knows it will take a strong game from USC’s post play ers to have a chance against the Gators. “We’re taking far too many out side shots,” he said. “Florida is definitely the wrong team to try to outshoot from the outside. We’ve got to work extremely hard the next two days to get the ball inside in a position to score.” Tip-off for Saturday’s game is at 8 p.m The game will the first sold out USC basketball game at the Carolina Center. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com SEC Standings EASTERN CONF. OVERAU. Florida J3-0_14-2 Kentucky3-013-3 Georgia 1-19-4 USC 1-2 7-6 Tennessee1-28-4 Vanderbilt 1-2 8-6 WESTERN CONF. OVERALL Auburn1-014-2 Alabama 2 0_12-2 Louisiana State 1-012-2 Arkansas0-15-8 Ole Miss0-19-4 Mississippi State 0-1 10-4 BRIEFLY Track will compete at Virginia Tech In only the second meet of this infant 2003 season, the South Carolina track and field team is quickly diving into the national competition circuit as they will compete at the Virginia Tech Invitational this weekend in Blacksburg, Va. The Gamecocks will be com peting against six other na tionally-ranked teams, includ ing the third-ranked Tennessee men’s team and the sixth ranked North Carolina wom en’s team. South Carolina has 12 male and female athletes in the “Dandy Dozen” in 12 different events with many athletes ranked in more than one event. The Dandy Dozen is the top 12 rankings of the nation’s colle giate athletes by Trackwire.com, the official source of the weekly power ranking of NCAA Division I collegiate track & field teams. The Gamecock men’s team is ranked fourth in the natjon while the women are ranked second. Bailey gets second SEC weekly honor USC women’s track senior Aleen Bailey was named the SEC Athlete of the Week in track and field for the week ending Jan. 12. Bailey began the season by taking victories in the 60-meter dash (7.43) and the 200-meter dash (24.06) at the Father Diamond Open at George Mason University last weekend. The St. Mary, Jamaica, na tive was the only female ath lete to claim two titles at the meet. Both of her times were NCAA provisional qualifying times. This marks Bailey’s second Athlete of the Week honor for her career and South ■* Carolina’s first honor since ~ Bailey won it in Feb. 6,2002. Baseball picked as 1st in SEC East The 2003 USC baseball team has been selected to finish in first place in the SEC Eastern Division, as voted by the league’s 12 baseball coaches in the 12th annual preseason SEC poll. Carolina owns preseason rankings of eighth (Collegiate Baseball) and 14th (Baseball America). Over the past three seasons under head codch Ray Tanner. Carolina has won more games (162) than any team in Division I baseball. The 2002 Gamecocks set a single-season team record for wins, finishing with a 57-18 record. They lost to the Texas Longhorns in the champi onship game at the College World Series. South Carolina opens the 2003 season on Feb. 7 at 3 p.m. at Sarge Frye Field against Charleston Southern. ---1 SPORTS CHALLENGE ! THE CHALLENGE: Matt Brad Jill Charles Sarah Aisha The Gamecock’s readers and Rothenberg Senklw Martin Tomlinson McLaulln Haynes staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Editor in Managing Head Page Readerof with predictions of the Editor Editor Chief Editor Designer the Week weekend’s games. (Rankings (0-0) (0-0) (0-0) (0-0) (0-0) (0-0) are from the Associated Press.) ^9 oyiduuie dio riusuuign riusuurgM oyiauuse riusuuign riiibuuign ruisuurgM oyiauuse I Duke at 17 Maryland_Duke_Duke_' Duke Duke_Duke_Duke_ 8 Illinois at 18 IndianaIllinois IllinoisIllinois Indiana Illinois Indiana So. Illinois at 13 Creighton Creighton_Creighton^ Creighton Creighton Creighton Creighton II Missouri at 24 Oklahoma St Missouri Okla. St. Missouri Missouri Okla. St. Missouri 9 Alabama at AuburnAlabama Alabama Auburn Alabama Auburn Alabama 20 Georgia at Arkansas Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia 10 Notre Dame at 16 Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky Notre Dame Kentucky Notre Dame Kentucky Virginia at ClemsonClemson_VirginiaVirginia Virginia Clemson Clemson 6 Florida at USC Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida 77-59 70-57 74-60 65-54 68-32 78-61 LAST WEEK’S WINNER: FIRST WEEK - Rothenberg looks to win his second straight Sports Challenge after taking first place in the fall’s football competition. Martin hopes to perform as admirably as her predecessor, former Editor in Chief Mary Hartney, did in the fall. Tomlinson, one of our staff guests, will surely pose a challenge. Senkiw, the Assistant Sports Editor, is a newcomer to Sports Challenge this semester, while McLaulin is going to try to pull the big upset Haynes, the Reader of the Week, wants to be the first reader to get a free Gamecock T-shirt WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail your selections next week to gamecocksports@hotmail.com. If you’re picked and have the best record, you’ll win a free GamecockT-shirt and be able to talk all the trash you want Health & Wellness is offering a FREE smoking cessation program for all USC employees, students, and family members. FREE medication are also included (if needed). Mondays & Wednesdays Feb. 3rd-Feb. 19th 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. Russell House Room 203 More than 80% of all people who attend our ‘ program successfully quit smoking. Many are now smoke-free. YOU COULD BE NEXT!!! REGISTER BY JAN. 30th To register, call 296-CARE or call 777-8248 for more info. SPACE IS LIMITED!!! _ _ , I-1 Welcome Back USC Students! I THE NORTH FACE! 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