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Sports NIT chances im\ It ame< After easily winning their 16th game of the year with a 93-48 victory over the Richmond Spiders Saturday night at Richmond the Gamecocks' attention is turned towards the National Invitational selection committee. The Gamecocks big victory gives USC a record of six wins and two losses since an embarrassing 22point loss to Stetson. Against Richmond, Carolina had no trjhble in reaching win number 16. Though USC had managed only a 1 Q nninf Inor) of Ka 4.1 iu pvmi. ivciu 01 uic iidll dgmilbl II1U 4 and 22 Spiders the Gamecocks asserted themselves in the second half as they have done with all of their victories since the Stetson disaster. ALL OF THE starting five were in HahKIa Tier* ... 1 1 in uuuuit nguiuo anu uoi/ was leu once again by their player of the year, Golie Augustus. Augustus scored 18 points and had 16 rebounds. The senior co-captain had an excellent shooting night, hitting five of six from the field and eight of nine from the charity line. Yet, the lone major question remaining in the Gamecock season is whether or not USC will be invited to the NIT. Both positive and negative factors will influence the Gamecocks' chances of getting an Lacrosse cl By I)()UG JOLLEY Gamecock Staff Writer The Carolina lacrosse club won its first game of the season 14-7 over Elon College Saturday. The Gamecocks withstood a fierce third quarter rally by Elon who scored four straight points to come within three, 8-5. The Carolina defense, composed mostly of new club members tightened up allowing only two more goals the entire game. Carolina and Elon traded one more goal before Carolina went on a scoring spree netting five straight goals and ending the Elon effort. The game started out slowly with both teams checking closely. Carolina scored the first goal of the game midway into the first quarter when Ned Miller received an assist from Bob Fitchett to cap a well executed scoring drive. KLON'S JAY SIMMONS scored a &uai eariy in ine second period to put the Fighting Christians on the board. Elon made a strong comeback effort but remained. scoreless as Carolina's defensemen halted the offensive attack. Carolina led 6-1 at halftime. Carolina used a balanced scoring attack with seven players scoring goals. Ned Miller and Dave Belfiore led the attack with four and three points respectively. Mike Maher and Cebe Habersky each had two with Bob Fitchett, Roger Davis, and Chris Fancher rounding out the scoring with one each. use TKAM CAPTAIN John Drove cocks wi invitation. On the positive side Carolina has played one of the toughest schedules in the country. They have met Minnesota, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgetown, Rhode Island, Furman (twice), Marquette and Notre Dame. Very few teams can honestly say they have a schedule which matches that of the Gamecocks. ANOTHER FACTOR which will help Carolina's chances of receiving a bid is the team's fine play since its loss to Stetson. USC has played its best and most consistent basketball of the season cinno (hot <tn?v>? T"!-? -J?*?a?* u>ui game. nicy ueieaieu Virginia Tech and Rhode Island, went two overtimes before being defeated by Marquette, scored two wins over intrastate rival Furman and won sensationally over Notre Dame. A bonus which should aid Carolina is that head coach Frank McGuire is from New York City. McGuire has many connections in the Big Apple and his ties with Madison Square Garden brass arp extremely close. It would not surprise me if McGuire is contacting these people to get USC a bid. The major negative factors ub stops El Cebe-Habersky was pleased with the win but concerned with the lack of consistency shown during the game. "We played pretty much like I had expected, except that the nnnnln ??fltsv J f 1 ivvupiv wnu iciUlllt'U II'OITl iasi year's team were a little rusty. I was surprised by how well our defense and second midfield did. "ELON IS REALLY NOT that good of a team, and I was not expecting such a big fight out of them when they came back in the third ^ * ipl - vc..vv... ,x- -rx-.y A USC midfielder races do Weatly (21). Carolina won t Christians Friday 14-7. n 16th ir wnicn might affect Carolina is its total of 11 losses. It is an age-old tradition in collegiate basketball that when a team wins 20 games it is assured of receiving a postseason invitation. And it is assumed that a team with 10 or more losses is not capable of competing with 20 win teams. AN IMPORTANT thing to remember and something which may definitely affect Carolina's Snorfallc HH Kv Matt Warrl chances of playing in the NIT is the section of the country which the Gamecocks play. It is not unlikely the NIT selection committee may skip over USC and invite secondranked teams from the Atlantic Coast and Southeast Conferences. ion quarter. If they had scored one more point, they could have possiblv won." he said "We started our backup goalie, and he was the real surprise in the game. He didn't look too good in practice this week, but he really came through in the game. They were really firing away at him in the second half, and he kept most nf iU** ' I? " i ^rmcTTT uui, idiu ^eue-MdueisKy. Carolina will play Georgia Tech here at two p.m. Sunday on field "A." Leslie Erickxon THE GAMECOCK wnfield against Eton's Howard he match against the Fighting i season ] Being in the shadow of two of the nation's best conferences can be detrimental to Carolina's chances. However, after taking into account all sides I think USC will be invited to the NIT. It is no longer true that a team with 20 wins is worthy of post season play. Nor is it true that a team with 10 or more losses cannot be considered. THE NIT also is in a position where they need teams which are playing top notch basketball when they come into the tournampnt The Gamecocks would be able to draw fans because of their improved play against the better teams in the nation. Last year I stated in a column that this year's basketball team had the possibilities of repeating the performance of the super sophomore team of 1968-69. This voar'c loam Vinr- ^ 1 * m j vmi tj tvniii iAdd UUI1C IllObl of the things the super sophomores did. The Gamecocks have shown tremendous poise and talent when facing the top teams. Not only is it Lady Gai Win Tou: By CHUCK WRIGHT Gamecock Staff Writer Freshman guard Rita Johnson s; final 14 seconds and Katrina Ande lead the Lady Gamecocks to a 85-81 in the finals of the South Carolin, i? * oaiuraay ai uiemson's Littlejohn 1 Carolina advanced to the finals Columbia 74-44 in the first round an* over Francis Marion. The win was the 21st of the seasoi College of Charleston dropped to ) CLEMSON CAPTURED third pli Marion and USC-Aiken took fifth p their 24th win of the season. Carolina held an eight point lead but the Cougars were not ready to DeLorme, Charleston took a 79-78 1 Clark put the Gamecocks back ? Katrina Anderson added two foul s tu/n miniifp rv?o*?L v v iiiai i\. AFTER THE TEAMS traded tu follow shot to narrow the gap to l minute off the clock before John remaining. The ex-St. Matthrews H and one to up the lead to three. Johi was fouled again. This time she cor the Lady Gamecocks their final nr Johnson, with 12 points, was on double figures; Sue Shue scored IS while Jean Walling added 12 points i COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON w West with 20 points each and Debb inside game suffered due to foul t dominated the boards 48-36. Charle Carmen Meradal had only 14 poin Shooting percentage, however, w won. uaronna finished the game wi Charleston hit on only 38 percent of i The Lady Gamecocks will move Aiken. There, the three major sch Charleston and Clemson, will bai Carolina, based on their results a Clemson, earned a bye for the firs The Lady Gamecocks will meet tl T Tioflfc r??->?-l u ~ " ?~.j ..bv.>} aiiu nic juauy cougars decide the South Carolina represei \ iniaic a credit to the players but this year's record of 16-11 is a fitting tribute to Frank McGuire. CONSIDERING all he has gone through, this season may be one of McGuire's finest coaching years here at Carolina. He has stated he believes Carolina should receive a bid to the NIT on the merit of their Dlav in the last ninp pampc t . - only agree. The NIT must realize what this year's USC team had on paper before the season begain. They must also realize the internal problems McGuire has gone through. Considering all the pressure on McGuire the basketball team has responded beautifully by never giving up even after the Stetson game when their record stood at 10-9. If the NIT selection committee realizes all these factors there is only one thing they can do. And that is to reward Carolina with an invitation to the NIT. necocks rnampnt m- jljl +J*,A.M.JL XJM.M. ank three clutch free throws in the rson had a game high 21 points to victory over College of Charleston a women's collegiate tournament Coliseum. by downing Benedict College of 3 by taking a narrow 68-64 decision i for Carolina in 30 starts while thp L9-11. ace with an 80-75 win over Francis lace by downing Erskine 72-58 for with just under seven minutes left, fold. Paced by the play of Scooter ead with three minutes left. Dawn ihead on a baseline jumper and hots to up the lead by 82-79 at the movers, the 5'4" DeLorme hit a B2-81. Carolina then ran nearly a ison was fouled with 14 seconds ligh star sank both ends of the one ison then came up with a steal and lverted on one of two shots to give largin of 85-81. e of four Carolina olavers to hit > points and pulled in 10 rebounds and 14 rebounds. as paced by DeLoreme and Jane ie Bouknight had 17. The Cougars rouble, and the Lady Gamecocks ston's big players, Jane Chili and ts between them. 'as probably where the game was ith an imDressivp ? . ? w |/va vvill W 11 II^J ts field goal tries. on to the AIAW playoffs at USCools in the state, USC, College of Ltle it out for a regional berth, gainst College of Charleston and it round. le winner of the game between the on March 4 in a contest that Will utative for the region.