Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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USC BY JIM HERSH Asst. Sports Editor HOUSTON-Hopefully Carolina did not get accustomed to forcing the pace of a basketball game when they beat' Texas Tech, a strictly patterned team, last Saturday. If the Gamecocks try to rush Memphis State tonight in Houston's Hofheinz Pavilion they may be rushing right into tournament elimination. One thing the Tigers do well is run. Not that the Gamecocks can't run, but they definitely will find it hard to outrun Memphis and their best chance to beat the swift Tigers would be to slow the pace a bit and keep the game under control. Four times this year Memphis has gone over 100 points and five times they have scored over 90. Compare that to USC's one 90 point game (91 IUSC Sp With C. BY SKIP CO Sports W The Gamecocks split a tw Michigan, winning the opene 5-4, the first series that was a due to extensive rains. Monday's game quickly tur home runs, sending in five ru end of the first inning it' Gamecocks on top. From there hitting colled off. While their less, USC was able to push acr< for four more runs in the bor added another in the fifth, an before the end of the game 1 and gave the Gamecocks the The Gamecocks used well bined for ten hits in handin loss. Ken Shull was the bes Gamecocks, going two for tl homers. Hank Small and cat( other two homers fqr the h( getting a second homerun in tl Michigan's left-fielder made Small's drive from going ove The Gamecocks displayed ti fielder John Gambrell stole t runner Jeff Grantz's solo the Senior pitcher Alan Hilliar< hits and set down five batte was Hilliard's second of the for the season to 2-0. Tuesday's game switched I duel. Both teams scored for th Central put across two runs USC countered with three rui Central added one more in was knotted up going into the1 Central Michigan pushed two one of them coming from the i tered with one run in the bot With With one out and one run a] was sent to the plate as a pir base and scored easily on la apparently tying the game. B that Small had left third too sc thus ending the game and US tory. The Gamecocks record noa long road trips coming up. T in the, three-day long, Univer The team will be matched as is rated as one of the best t4 also play the University of A , Seek against Duquesne), and you can see that Memphis can put points on the board at an alarmingly fast pace. The Tigers top point production was 124 against Florida Tech, which should not be confused with Florida State or even a good Florida prep team. In fact Memphis' schedule is Larry Finch ...23 points a game. full of teams that have never made the top anything. Nonetheless they can score quickly. lits Pair Wichigan LJRTNEY riter o-game series with Central r 10-5 and losing the second ble to be played in Columbia ned into a slug-fest with two ins in the first inning. At the was already, 3-2, with the , the Central Michigan team's opponents were held score iss one more run and exploded rom of the fourth. Each team d had added one more apiece o make the final score, 10-5 ir third victory of the year. distributed hitting that com the team from Michigan a t man with the bat for the ree with one of USC's three :her Drew Choate added the >me team. Small just missed le fourth inning when Central a spectacular catch to stop r the fence. ieir speed when junior center No bases along with courtsey Ft. I held the visitors to only five rs with strike outs. The win season and brough his mark rom a slug-fest to a pitchers e first time in the sixth inning. in the top of the inning and s in the bottom of the frame. the next inning so the game tenth. In the first extra inning, runs across with two doubles, )itcher. The Gamecocks coun tom of the tenth. ready across, Frank Matusek Lch hitter. Small was on third latusek's fly to center field, ut Central Michigan appealed on and the appeal was allowed C's hopes for a comeback vic v stands at 3-2 with their two he team will start play today sity of Alabama Tournament. ainst Southern Alabama who ~ams in the nation. They will inhanma. 3 To Cc Memphis is 21-5 so far and have been ranked in the top 10 or 15 teams in both polls all year. Their losses have come to Marquette, LSU, Texas, Louisville and St. Louis. And it should be noted that Memphis scored over 80 points in only one of those losses (81 against LSU). In other words no one has beaten the Tigers with a running game, they've all been able to con trol the game. The big man in the Memphis attack is 6-2 guard Larry Finch. Nic knamed Little Tubby he's averaging over 23 points a game. He's also one of the team's leaders and he's one of Memphis' two starting seniors. Inside the Tigers have a duo who have caused havoc for their oppo nents. One, 6-9 Larry Robinson, is a senior vyho has starred for the Tigers for two years. The other, 6-10 Larry Kenon, is a transfer who has hepes as Cetarihg ft ru}nCeta'.54et toy uedaatRon aFhe EasteF In Ter TCarolina cTcenni Dem tooki helplessly saso onCenesday MMg Earstern Kenuk Cenr's -0.t Intergtitory o Tuesday atrona h defeate a pow rful W iternK t in probably the toughest match the ( played so far this season. Coach Ro: squad gave an all-around effort and well. Kevin McCarthy, posted in the nui spot, took a very power ful win over 6-1. 6-4. Brian Desatnik in the numi played well with good set wins of 6-0 Ahman. In the number three spot, Kefalos faced P. A. Nilhngen and di introl T been reputed to be the MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference and its top board man. Robinson is averaging 13.5 and Kenon, who switched from Amarillo Junior College, is averaging 19.5. Kenon, known in Memphis as Dr. K, has been referred to as the dif Ron Robinson ...havoc for opponents. ference between last year's NIT team and this year'$ NCAA team. He has helped take the load off of Incontested ScorE ate watches diamond. Cai in scores the day so the t a-inning vic- their games Rex Enright rn- Kentucky mnis; Usc 9 N playing three v In the fourth s ninth straight Gamecocks fou arch 14, against match against The only loss , Gamecocks came in the fifth ucky team, 7-2, by Byron Thon amecocks have 7-6, 4-6, 3-6. i Smarr said the Tom Craig ga veryone played the afternoon, Odengren 6-4,2 nber one singles In doubles cc Walter Powers, and number tw< mer two position, 'nik downing Be ,6-4, over Hasse 1-6, 6-0. The tes Freshman Jeff shut down the >wned him after 6-4. (See TENNIS, Pnae 11) igers the shoulders of Robinson, other wise known simply as Big Cat. Those three--Finch, Robinson and Kenon-are the big scorers but when Memphis wants to get the opposi tion into a running mood they usu ally bring three reserves-Bill Cook, Clarence Jones and Billy Buford -off the bench and turn to a zone trap defense. For Carolina the key to the game will probably be to slow the game down as much as possible and hope for the best. But Carolina had better get used to slowing the pace because if they do get by Memphis they might run up against an incred ibly fast team, namely Southwest ern Louisiana. It should be a fast week-end for the Gamecocks, but if they're smart it will be slower than Memphis hopes it is. h Geff Darflag rolina bested Central on Mon wo squads ended up splitting Falls -o ery strong sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. spot, Andreas Hufschmid took the rth win of the afternoon with a tough rueid Beraman, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. the Gamecocks suffered in singles I spot, when Doc Malloy was defeated ias in a very close three set match ye the Gamecocks their fifth win of with two good sets against Bojorn -5. mpetition USC took the number one matches, with McCarthy and Desat rgman and Nilhagen in three sets 6-4, im of Kefalos and Hufschmid easily