The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 29, 1996, Page 9, Image 9

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Thursday, February 29,1996 Gamecocks 01 Carolina gets a crucial late- theg season win at Frank McGuire v Arena against Tennessee. ^ BRYAN JOHNSTON Staff Writer The Carolina Gamecocks went into then Wednesday's basketball game against to pi I Tennessee knowing they needed a win field to keep their NCAA tournament hopes finis alive. ^ Hie Gamecocks won, and they looked reboi impressive winning. USC defeated the 14 p Volunteers 66-52. The victory came from Davi the scoring of BJ McKie and Melvin scor? Watson and the team's suffocating defense, adde "We're pleased to win our sixteenth conti same." coach Eddie Foder said. "I think S O / - w our defensive game was really good.really Play good. Our guards did a great job on their poini three-point shooting guards." Bud "It was a crucial game," McKie said, conh "It was crucial from a confidence pointof-view for our team and to keep us in play the hunt for a NCAA tournament bid." Han Tennessee's slow-tempo style-of-play ^ forced USC to step up their defensive had I pressure. homi Neither team shot well in the first Ruse half. Tennessee shot 36 percent and USC one 1 shot only 31 percent But the Gamecocks shots began falling in the second half fie n while the Volunteer's had to put up with on t a stifling USC defense for 20 more clasi minutes. us," In the second half, USC shot 68 percent and held Tennessee to 28 percent, tear USC started the game quickly with toni) a 7-2 run, but the Volunteers battled bees back to take a 0-7 lead. The two teams It*s stayed close for several minutes after to g that. . 1 USC had a 19-17 lead when Larry off i Davis stole a Tennessee pass and onlj tomahawk-slammed it, bringing the ' crowd to its feet Tennessee took the lead Gar before the half on a three-pointer by Rashard Lee. gra The Gamecocks came out on fire on ac^ both sides of the ball in the second half. ma< USC opened the half with a 13-2 run saic and jumped to a 10 point lead. The run was capped off by Davis' three-pointer, up 1 It was the first of the game for Carolina, to g who normally has 5.5 three-pointers per goii game. Tennessee came back to within five wa? points before center Nate Wilboume hit the a rare three-pointer and McKie hit a res running jump shot with 14:03 left to go woi to push the lead back to double digits. It was not until 4:10 remained that Col USC finally put Tennessee away. A 9-2 bef run over a 2:54 stretch basically ended We W a^jk.v. v. . > T >'-?>'-^*fr. ;: j :a^Wv.v.v.-.- .. Thornton Studi gradual Al Just drop by our boot \ ie win away :ame. /atson started the run by hitting i free-throws after being folded while ting behind the arc and added two points on his next trip down. Russell went scored his final points at home ^ it USC up 16. After a Tennessee <5 goal, Watson added two more to h the run. /atson finished with 16 points, nine ^ unds and three assists. McKiehad oints, four assists and two steals, s, who is the SECs second leading Vir>s] a?1v 1 Q nninfo WilKmima sL J liau UillJ XU j/UllXb0. t T 11UW U1AIV/ H| d ten points for USC, but his main ribution was on defense, louth Carolina held last week's SEC er-of-the-week, Steve Hamer, to 13 ts and seven rebounds. Wilboume, Johnson and Ryan Stack each helped ain the seven footer. Fhe main thing we did tonight was great team defense and that took ler out of the game," McKie said, is important as the game was, USC || mother thing on it's minds: the final jj b appearance for senior Malik Russell. yl jell had eight points, nine rebounds, block and one steal. Fm happy for Malik Russell. I think as made an unbelievable tum-around X | he court, off the court and in the I sroom. He has had a great year for Fogler said. JL It was kind of difficult to help my p a tonight because I was emotional u| ght. I'm really glad we had this win ^ iuse I don't want to stop playing yet. . f my last year and I definitely want * J 0 out in style," Russell said. With the win, the Gamecocks capped r i14-1 home record. But they are It ' 2-8 on the road. So why is it so difficult for the aecocks to win on the road? Ifs hard. You know, the crowd was , it and that's part of the home team's i 'antage. It's concentration, it's turity... ifs just hard to do," Fogler "I think we have a hard time getting for the games on the road. We have et up for that game and I think we're [? ag to be ready to go," Russell said. One possible solution from a reporter 1 "fn Kinn rlnwn hiiilfUncr and make m sm play here." Fogler jokingly ^ ponded "Fine with me, go do it. I it tell." tie But more than likely, the Georgia T1 iseum won't be engulfed in flames m ore Saturday's final game. th With Georgia's victory over Florida dnesday, USC and the Bulldogs are w os from New York Ci e students. There is i Second F londay, F h at your convenience or si from March Madnei i ^ I * * i. -... , > ^y^g|PM||R i %Mimj w * yP^g TYSON PETTKJREW Th mlor forward Malik Russoll played his last regular seat ime Wednesday as Carolina defeated Tennessee 66-52. id for second place in the SEC East, record and the caliber of opp le winner will get the first round bye a huge win," Fogler said, the tournament, and the loser will get USC is now 16-9,8-7 i e third seed. Georgia is 17-8,8-7 in the S "If we are able to win Saturday, which is at 7:30 p.m., and the gi 11 be extremely difficult with our track televised regionally. UUyMUMiihH ty, will be on campus for one we no sitting fee. Portrait packages i I... I AkKu (Bin IWI MVHWy ebruary 26 - Fri 9 a.m. - 5 p.m sponsored by GS QUARTERLY gn-up for a time at the Russell House Inform 5S USC baseba =i to Georgia J I ADAM SNYDER Staff Writer Georgia Southern jumped to a 5-0 lead after one inning yesterday, and the Gamecocks not were able to catch up. USC (7-5) scraped up a few'runs to make it a 64 game after the third inning, but the Eagles (7-3) pulled away soon after. The final score was 9-5, with Georgia Southern earning its second win over the Gamecocks in the past week. USC lost 7-6 at Georgia Southern on Feb.21. Chad Hoshour picked up the loss last night. He allowed 5 runs, 2 of which were earned, before he was relieved by Brent Moore in the first. HoshouFs woes began when Tyson Whitley, the second batter, belted a solo home run over the left field fence. That hit opened the flood gates early in the game. "We gave up five early. I was still proud of them. They (Georgia Southern) got some key strikeouts and made a couple of good defensive plays late in the game," said USC coach June Raines. The homerun was followed with an ' error by shortstop Brandon Walters. * Next came a double, two singles and two I walks resulting in five runs and the early ii /* TT _ 1_ Pexii ior nosnour. The Gamecocks looked like they had something starting in the second inning when Brian Hucks lead off with a solo homerun of his own. But the rally soon fizzled, and the next three batters were retired in order. * USCs highlight inning was the third, when all nine batters went to the plate, and the team scored three runs. An error Sj by Georgia Southern got the inning rolling, and two hits and a wild pitch helped to get the job done. * i e Gamecock WJiTYiWlinml ion home rnent, that's n the SEC. EC. Tip-off ime will be ation desk. Caps and gowns win be a npppppfM 11 *-Tl l<kmO lli'l ek only to photograph US( may be purchased later if d ssell House) iday, March1 i. . 9 II team falls Southern "We gave up five early. I was still proud of them. They (Georgia Southern) got some key strikeouts and made a couple of good defensive plays late in the game." June Raines, head coach The Gamecocks were in position to score again when they loaded the bases with a hit batsman and two walks. A strikeout by Walters however, left the team within two runs. Ip the fourth, the Eagles quickly countered with three runs of their own to nullify the Gamecock rally. A double, two singles, and a walk gave Georgia Southern its final total of nine runs. From that point on they concentrated on shutting down the Gamecock offense. The Eagles did just that very well. USC collected just three hits the rest of the game and scored only one more run in the seventh. Only three batters made it to the plate for USC in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. In the sixth inning, all three batters struck out, and two were caught looking. The Gamecocks had a total of 13 strikeouts and six hits. And only two of their runs were earned. On the pitching side, Hoshour and Moore allowed nine runs for the Eagles, six of which were earned. Oliver Harwas pitched four and one thirds innings of nearly perfect ball. He allowed three hits and no runs. He had one strikeout and one walk. Rob Watson struck out two in his one relief inning. Friday, the Gamecocks will face another Southern team, Charleston Southern, at home at 3 pm. Jason Haynie will start for USC. Y* f rjffl :'s seniors and lesired. I mailable for portraits.