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^ 7 Game.Schedule MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRACK at the Millrose Games in New York City Contact I SOFTBALL at Charlotte, Noon Saturday , “ , MEN’S BASKETBALL at Kentucky, 1 p.m. Saturday Story ideas. Questions. Comments^ MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING vs. Georgia, l p.m. Saturday E-mailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ■ - . :• s.;; •_ . . .. . .. ■; BY JONATHAN HILLYARD ^ THE liAMKOnOK USC head coach Lou Holtz and his staff did something in re cruiting in the past week that his football team hag not been able to do in recent years — finish strong. “We’ll see what happens, but we have the potential to be aw fully good,” Holtz said Wednesday. "We did a good job of balancing our needs at various positions.” A long, drawn-out process came to a close on Wednesday when 28 high school recruits signed their letter of intent to attend USC and play for the Gamecocks. Carolina did a fairly good job of putting a metaphorical fence around the state, as 15 of USC’s recruits are ^from the Palmetto state. Those (Fsignees included five of Rivals.com’s South Carolina Top 15, headlined by defensive tackle Dorian Capers and defensive back C. J. Barber. Other big pickups for the Gamecocks were Gaffney’s wide receiver Sidney Rice and All American defensive tackle from Marshville, N.C., Marque Hall. How do the Gamecocks stack up against their rivals? Recruiting in the Southeast is always a fierce battle, and this, year was no exception. Perennial powers proved to be the class of the bunch and the rich definitely got richer on signing day. SOUTH CAROLINA - 5-STAR: 0,4-STAR: 3,3-STAR: 11 USC’s class is led by four-star Marshville, N.C. native Hall. Rivals.com rates Hall the 12th best defensive tackle in the na tion. In addition to Hall, USC also signed Shrine Bowl MVP defen sive tackle Matt Raysor from Bamberg. Two-sport phenom Rice will play receiver for the Gamecocks and hails from Gaffney. ArAAAi i n ■ ■ ■ ■ » a a a r Ukvnvin UULLL/UUO — w STAR: 1,4-STAR: 11,3-STAR: 8 Despite losing a little momen tum on signing day when Florida essentially stole two top recruits away, the Bulldogs finished strong, signing Brandon Miller, the best defensive end in the country from Colquitt, Ga. The Bulldogs were also able to win re cruiting wars for Rivals 100 prospects such as linebacker Josh Johnson and running back Thomas Brown. FLORIDA - 5-STAR: 1,4-STAR: 11,3-STAR: 10 In what is becoming a trend, head coach Ron Zook ended his recruiting season in a tremen dous fashion again, signing All American defensive end Derrick Harvey from Greenbelt, Md. the day before signing day. The Gators will also add dual-threat quarterback Cornelius Ingram, a four-star quarterback from Hawthorne, Fla., and Kyle Jackson, the second rated safety in the country from Neptune Beach, Fla. TENNESSEE - 5-STAR: 2, 4 STAR: 8,3-STAR: 8 The Vols kept the trend in the SEC going, signing two five-star prospects, both out of a junior col lege. Jesse Mahelona is a five-star defensive tackle from Costa Mesa, Calif, and Albert Toeania is a five star offensive lineman from San Francisco, Calif. Tennessee also signed S.C. native Robert Ayers over USC and Florida. ADIfAMCAC _ K.CTAD- (1 A. STAR: 3, 3-STAR: 13 Keeping coach Houston Nutt away from Nebraska turned out to be beneficial for the Razorbacks, as they pulled in what has been ranked as high as the 22nd best recruiting class in the country. Their class is high lighted by four-star running back Peyton Hillis from Conway, Aik., along with Fayetteville native, four-star wide receiver Cedric Logan. KENTUCKY - 5-STAR: 0,4-STAR: 1,3-STAR: 10 Kentucky shored up its offen sive line by signing four-star Mayfield, Ky. native Micah Jones. The signing day switch of USC commitment Joe Joe Brown, who will now play for Kentucky, also pleasantly surprised the Wildcats. VANDERBILT - 5-STAR: 0, 4 STAR: 0, 3-STAR: 2 Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson wrapped up a disap pointing recruiting class on Wednesday. The Commodores did sign a pair of three-star offen sive lineman in Brad Allen from Venice, Fla. and Hamilton Holliday from Marietta, Ga. n■ rMrnu e pt* n. a a Vhkiiitfvn — «/ w iniii v j -r STAR: 1,3-STAR: 7 The Tigers had a disappoint ing signing day, despite signing in state stars such as four-star of fensive lineman Corey Lambert from Greenville, three-star de fensive back Michael Hamlin from Lamar and three-star de fensive tackle Dorrel Scott from Columbia. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu M PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Forwards Carlos Powell and Renaldo Balkman fight for control of the ball with an Alabama player. USC had to take it to overtime to defeat the Crimson Tide on Wednesday. The Gamecocks will take their 6-2 SEC record to No. 9 Kentucky on Saturday. . V»**'“Sw<-S* WenSS* squeavongw!' season a" USC faces off %igainst No. 9 ranked Wildcats BY JONATHAN HILLYARD theijamecuck The USC men’s basketball team once again “found a way” to win on Wednesday night, beating the Alabama Crimson Tide in overtime, 90-82, Carolina was able to inch-out Alabama by shooting exception ally well, hitting 56.1 percent from the field and 56 percent from 3-point range. Despite the good shooting, the difference was once again the USC defense, forc ing 16 turnovers and turning them into 23 points for the Gamecocks. USC survived an ab solute clinic of the 3-point shot JPy Alabama, who hit 16 shots from behinu the arc. At the 12:18 mark the Gamecocks had a 58-43 lead only to see the Crimson Tide go eight for their last 10 three-point shots to take a 71-68 lead with 32 sec onds to go in the game. Then, in the key play of the game, guard Mike Boynton drove the ball down court, passed the ball to senior forward Kerbrell Brown, who would hit his fourth o\|t of five 3-point shots^to tie the game with 21 seconds to go. The Gamecock defense once again came up with a big stop, sending the game into overtime, despite Alabama shooting 68 percent from three in the second half. “That was impressive shoot ing, just simply impressive,” USC head coach Dave Odom said. * USC would dominate over time, going on a 10-0 run that left the game all but won. Brown, the star of the game for Carolina, added five points in overtime to give him a total of 16 points and seven rebounds. Guard Josh Gonner put up a relatively quiet points. Forward Carlos Powell kept his double-digits streak alive, scoring 13 points, while Boynton and for ward Renaldo Balkman added 13 and 12 points, re spectively, to give USC five play ers in double figures. Balkman’s play in the first half was essential and gave the tam a huge emo tional boost. “Personally, I think that Renaldo’s energy changed the game,” Boynton said. “He brings a different aspect to the floor. He’s just all over the place.” The victory improves the Gamecocks to 19-3 (6-2, SEC) and keeps them at the top of the SEC’s Eastern (Division. Carolina’s success in the SEC will be tested immediately. though, as the team travels to Lexington, Ky., to take on SEC East co-leader Kentucky. The Wildcats enter the game with a 15-3 record (5-2, SEC) and are coming off a big win over the Florida Gators 68-65 in Gainesville, Fla. on Tuesday. The win marked the fifth consecutive one over the Gators. The Wildcats were upset last Saturday by the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, Tenn., a team that USC defeated by a tip in last Wednesday. The SEC season has been somewhat ot a dis appointing one for UK, as its two losses are two more than in its previous 22 conference games. The Cats are fortu nate to be in the spot they are in now, as three of their conference wins have come by three points or less. “We’ve been in this situation before and have a lot of fight in us,” Kentucky guard Cliff Hawkins said after Tuesday’s win. "We don’t quit.” Carolina now begins the sec ond half of its SEC schedule, which includes games against No. 9 Kentucky twice, No. 7 Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and a trip to No. 21 Florida. “It’s not going to get any easi er,” Boynton said with determi nation in his eyes when asked "It’s not going to get any easier.” MIKE BOYNTON use GUARD about the second half of the sea son. The first test is Saturday when USC finds out if it can hang with the big boys in the SEC in front of22,000-plus fans. Tipoff for the USC-UK contest is at 1 p.m. and will be televised on J-P Sports. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu •*- • Throwing a strike PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC Pitcher Stacey Johnson hurls the ball In a game last season. The USC softball team will open its season on the road Saturday against Charlotte. Carolfna was picked to finish fourth in the SEC East by the media this year. USC drops 7th SEC game in Rebels’ win BY JOEL’ WALLACE Tlifc CAMKCOCK The USC women’s basketball team made a valiant attempt to erase a 22-point margin and pick . up an SEC victory Thursday night against Ole Miss, but in the end, the price was too much. Armintie Price, that is. Price played like a rebel with a cause, with 23 points and 11 re bounds while hitting 8-of-9 shots from the field. Price filled out her box score nicely by contributing a pair of steals and three assists. “We dug ourselves into an early hole, and at the end they had four offensive rebounds in the final minute,” USC head coach Susan Walvius said. “Even though we outscored them 33-23 in the second ■ half, we shot 28 percent from the floor. Some of it is confidence. It’s disappointing for us and our fans, but we are capable ot winning. The Gamecocks, who never led during the game, fell behind early and were forced to fire away from beyond the arc to try to catch up. USC hit 12 of a season-high 39 three point attempts while connecting on only eight of 25 other field goal at tempts and 13 free throws. Ole Miss, on the other hand, took advantage by dominating in the post, shooting 50 percent over all and out-rebounding the Gamecocks 44-40. Senior guard Kelly Morrone sparked the Gamecocks comeback bid with 22 points and 10 re bounds, hitting 7-of-12 shots from behind the arc. “I always think we can come back and win a game,” Morrone said. "Tonight we were down by 24 points and pulled it to two points so that makes us know we are a good basketball team and makes you think what could hap pen if we put together a solid 40 minutes of basketball.” The Gamecocks cut the Rebels’ lead to 16 at halftime, and it con tinued to dwindle until USC had a chance to pull even while down by two. "USC made their move before the half and that is where the mo mentum really swung,” Ole Miss head coach Carol Ross said. "They nailed some big shots. We broke down defensively, and they made us pay.” Halfway through its SEC sched ule, the team still has yet to win a conference game. However, all is not lost as the remaining games are still important when deter mining seeding for the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks still have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament if they can win out in the conference tourney. we have been here betore ana it is frustrating to lose, but we are very proud of our comeback,” se nior guard Cristina Ciocan said. “We have to stay focus for the en tire game and start the game strong and finish it strong but mainly we have to play a solid 40 minutes.” Ciocan finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and five steals. She needs only 57 points to become the 25th Gamecock with 1,000 ca reer points. Just last week, Ciocan became USC’s all-time assists lead er in the game against the College of Charleston. The Gamecocks don’t have time to worry about what could have been, as they now face the daunt ing task of taking on top-ranked Tennessee on Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn., at 3 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu MEN’S BASKETBALL CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Every week, Wes Jonathan Adam Shawn Meg Jordan The Gamecock’s readers and Wolfe Hlllyard Beam Rourk Moore Leonard staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Editor Design The Mix Reader of with game predictions editor editor in chief director editor the week ' (14-16) (12-18)_(15-15) (16-14)_(13-17) (15-15) tlon at UNC-Greensboro UNUU UNUU tlon UNUU tion tion 18‘Syracuse at 23 Providence Providence Providence Providence Syracuse Syracuse Syracuse 12 Arizona at 2 Stanford Stanford Stanford Arizona Stanford Arizona Stanford 17 UNC at 16 Wake Forest Wake Wake _UNC UNC UNC UNC 15 Ga. Tech atTennessee Ga. Tech Ga. Tech Ga. Tech Ga. Tech Ga.Tech_Tennessee Vanderbilt at 21 Florida_Honda_Honda Florida_Florida_Florida_ Florida Ole Miss at 7 Miss. St. Miss. St._Miss. St. Miss. St. Miss. St. Ole Miss Miss. St. Georgia at Auburn Georgia Auburn Georgia Georgia Georgia- Auburn Arkansas at LSU LSU LSU _ LSU LSU Arkansas LSU 25 USC at 9 Kentucky USC USC USC Kentucky Kentucky USC 47-45 62-61 60-58 57-50 82-70 64-59 WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail selections for next week’s games to gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edJi.