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Friday: Schedule . . „ . ■ Men’s basketball vs. Florida, Wed. Gamecock Sports previews „ National Signing Day, Wed. the 2000 USC baseball sea- m women’s basketball vs. Auburn, Thu. son in a special insert ■ Track & Field at Milrose Games, Fri. ■ Baseball vs. Chas. Southern, Fri. ■ i | Gamecocks drop sixth straight USC keeps game interesting, but folds in the end to No. 11 Tennessee, 73-66 Men’s Basketball Roundup Gamecock Sports The USC men’s basketball team’s woes continued Satur day as it lost its sixth consecutive game to the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Once again, the story of the game was familiar to the Game cocks, as they fell behind early, came back late, threatened to take the lead at the end of the game and then fell short, 73-66. USC has played five ranked teams in the six-game stretch, los ing to four of them by an average of3.75 points. As in the Gamecocks’ 60-52 loss to Tennessee in Colum bia on Jan. 5, the Vols’ Vincent Yarbrough was the key factor to the Tennessee victory. In the two teams’ previous matchup, the sophomore forward’s 12 second-half points paved the way to the win. Saturday, Yarbrough scored 25 points, including four of nine Vol 3-pointers, eight rebounds, two blocks, three steals and three assists to shut do\yn the Gamecocks and keep Ten nessee (18-2,6-1 SEC) atop the Southeastern Conference and off to its best start since 1942. Senior guard Herbert Lee Davis led South Carolina (9-11, 1-6 SEC) with 15 points, while freshman center Marius Pe travicius added 11 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Chuck Eidson, taking over point guard du ties while regular starter Aaron Lucas is nursing a broken hand, was knocked down from his 10.3 points per game average, scoring only five points on two-of-nine shooting. However, Ei dson added two steals to his SEC-leading tal 1_. « ■ . ‘J After trailing by as many as 15 in the first half, South Carolina pulled to 65-61 on An tonio Grant’s basket with three minutes re maining. But Yarbrough followed with a layup to extend Tennessee’s lead to five. After the Gamecocks closed the gap to 67-64 with 1:48 on a Davis jumper, Yarbrough countered with a dunk, putting the Vols up by five and seal ing the victory. Yarbrough scored three times in the sec ond half at times where USC pulled within five points. “It definitely would be easy to throw in the towel instead of going out and playing every night,” Davis said. “But our guys love basketball. There’s not a night we don’t go out feeling we can win the ballgame.” USC fell behind early after Tennessee center C.J. Black’s basket put Tennessee up 21-9 with 10 minutes left in the half. Black was the Vols’ second-leading scorer with 16 points. The \bls led by as many as 15, but Petravicius’ basket with 30 seconds left before halftime finished a 7-2 run to pull the Gamecocks to 33-23. The Gamecocks’ momentum carried over into the second half as it cut the Tennessee lead to single digits. Another Pe travicius basket with 6:40 remaining capped an 11 -5 South Car olina run that cut the \fols lead to 61-55. USC then went on another run, outscoring Tennessee 14-6 to cut the lead to 67-64 with 1:37 remaihing. With 29 seconds left, Davis launched a 26-foot shot that bounced off the rim and into Eidson’s hands. However, Eidson couldn’t convert the second chance. Yarbrough responded with a thunderous dunk on the next possession and freshman forward Ron Slay made two free throws to give Tennessee a 71 -64 advantage with 16.8 seconds to play, ending the Gamecocks’ chances. “We never really got into a flow offensively,” head coach Eddie Fogler said. “Wfe were never able to get it to where we could break loose in transition where we had open people. Vife didn’t push the ball fast enough.” Fogler was given a technical foul, his first of the season, after USC closed the gap to 63-57 with 5:16 left. Sophomore - forward Daniien Kinloch was whistled for an over-the-back foul while trying to snare a rebound, which caused Fogler to aigue witK official Bob Donato. “It was a bad call,” Fogler said. “No way. Bad call.” USC will take on No. 9 Florida Wednesday at Frank McGuire Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. South Carolina 9-11,1-6 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 14 Heibert Lee Davis, g 5 11 3 52 204 40 15 2301 32 33 Damien Kinloch, f 4 40 02 3 2 3 55 10 2001 25 31 Chuck Eidson, g 2 90 1 1 212 3354302 34 12 Marius Petravicius, c 5 90 01 264 10 2 11 1313 28 35 Antonio Grant, g 3 82 60 012 3082100 24 00 David Ross 0 30 30 013 4200000 10 10 Jamel Bradley 2 72 60 001 1162000 18 50 Tony Kitchings 3 50 00 033 6160220 18 15 navis Kraft 2 61 40 002 2150100 11 Team 10 1 Totals 26 62 8 25 6 9 15 24 1 15 66 13 13 3 7 200 Tennessee 18-2,6-1 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 14 Tony Harris, g 4 12 1 62 203 32115100 32 44 Isiah Victor, f 0 20 02 220 2020311 17 43 C.J. Black, f 6 10 2 22 221 33 16 1120 22 22 Vincent Yarbrough, f 9 17 4 7 3 4 4 4 8 1 25 3 1 2 3 36 42 Jon Higgins, g 2 81 60 001 1253300 31 05 Harris Walker 0 00 00 010 1002000 3 12 Marcus Haislip 0 00 00 0-00-0000100 3 31 Terrence Woods 2 41 30 010 1250001 6 32 Del Baker 1 30 10 201 1020000 10 34 Vegas Davis 0 10 00 010 1000000 2 35 Ron Slay 2 60 13 313 4170000 23 55 Charles Hathaway 0 10 00 012 31 0.1010 15 Team 3 7 10 Totals 26 64 9 26 12 15 16 22 28 12 73 15 10 8 5 200 Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports Freshman Chuck Eidson, bottom, tries to wrestle the ball away from Tennessee’s Charles Hatfiaway dur ing USC’s 60-52 loss earlier this season in Columbia. USC lost again Saturday at Tennessee, 73-66. Lady Hogs whip USC Women’s Basketball Roundup Gamecock Sports After making it through a driving snowstorm to Bud Walton Arena, the USC Lady Gamecocks couldn’t survive Arkansas’ rain of 3-pointers as they fell to the Lady Razorbacks Friday night, 87-79. Three USC players reached double figures, with junior guard Shaunzinski Gortman leading the way with 23 points. Senior forward Annie Lester and freshman guard Kelly Morrone each chipped in 12 points on the night. However, Arkansas junior guard Wendi Willets scored 24 points to pace the Razorbacks as she hit five-of-nine from behind the arc. South Carolina battled back from as many as 19 points down in the second half to trail by only three points with more than two minutes to play. ^Vnnie Lester’s four free throws and a Morrone 3 pointer from the corner pulled USC back into the game. But the Lady Razorbacks answered South Car olina’s challenge by scoring UaoI, 1_i. i__J i ismwx lajupa aim pushed their advantage back to seven with less than two minutes left in the game. Gortman had the op portunity to reduce the Arkansas lead back to three as she was fouled on con secutive possessions. But Gortman missed the front end of both trips and left USC down by six with 1:12 to play. * Forced to foul to try to tch up, USC watched helplessly as Arkansas con verted every one of their eight free throws attempts to push the final score to 87 79. ( I “I’m disappointed with the outcome of our game tonight because I really felt like we would come out and play hard tonight and win,” USC head coach Su san Walvius said. “Arkansas is a great outside shoot ing team.We tried to take them out of their shoot ing rhythm, but they outworked us.” The two teams stayed close during the opening half with South Carolina holding a one-point lead with 11:10 remaining in the half. Arkansas negated that lead by connecting on all five of its next 3-point shots, four by Willets, to take a seven-point lead in to halftime. “We tried some different things tonight during the game. We are still searching for leadership and that was what was missing tonight,” Walvius said. “Annie Lester came in and played hard and got some points for us down low. I’m glad that Kelly Mor rone is on our team because she is a fighter and is al ways talking to her teammates to keep them in the game.” USC played Sunday night at Florida, but re sults were not available at press time. USC’s next game will be Thursday against Auburn at Frank McGuire Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. South Carolina 11-8,1-5 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FGFGAFGFGA FT FTA OFDETOT PFTP ATO B S MIN 44 Annie Lester, f 3 80 06 612 35 12 1200 22 45 Jocelyn Penn, f 3 7 0 01 252 7370202 20 11 Crishna Hill, g 1 41 20 001 123 1 101 14 32 Shaun Gortman, g 8 14 2 4 5 9 0 5 5 5 23 3 8 1 4 25 51 Shanta Jeffcoat, g 1 20 02 311 2040300 17 00 Petra Ujhelyi 3 50 00 014 5361400 24 05 Ines Ajanovic 2 30 10 012 3141000 23 10 Kelly Morrone 4 82 62 211 22 12 5510 28 34 Shannon Segres 4 40 00 000 0380012 15 55 Linda Hoglund 0 30 30 001 10031 0 1 12 Team 2 2 4 Totals 29 58 5 16 16 22 12 21 33 24 79 15 263 10 200 Arkansas 11-7, Z-4 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. FGFGAFGFGA FTFTAOFDETOT PFTPATO B S MIN 34 Karyn Karlin, f 6 14 0 01 301 14 13 2102 27 44 Lakishia Harper, f 3 40 00 003 3562311 18 03 Amy Wright, g 1 20 15 600 0377204 30 20 Wendi Willets, g 7 13 5 9 5 6 2 2 4 1 24 4 0 0 1 35 25 Lonniya Bragg, g 5 6 0 02 225 73 12 1410 28 21 India Lewis 1 41 42 201 1154302 15 22 Dana Cherry 0 40 02 221 3020300 21 33 Celia Anderson 0 10 0 0 010 10 0 0000 7 52 Joy Oakley 0 00 00 000 0000000 2 55 Brandi Whitehead 6 11 2 34 72 2. 43 18 2310 17 Team 11 2 Totals 29 59 8 17 21 28 10 16 26 20 87 22 19 310 200 J* hf Track teams continue success Track & Field Round up Gamecock Sports USC’s female freshmen made their presence known over the weekend at the Sprint Invitational in Johnson City, Tenn., as Antoinette Wilks won the long jump and Mamee Groves won the 201b. weight. Wilks’ mark of 20’ 8 in the long jump placed her into the NCAA Championships as a provisional mark, while junior Lynette Keppler added a win in the shot put. Junior sensation Terrence Trammell tied a lifetime best and an NCAA auto matic qualifying time in the 60m dash pre liminaries at 6.62, running the second fastest time Friday to Auburn’s Coby Miller at 6.58. Trammell won the 60m hurdles Sat urday with freshman Corey Taylor plac ing third. The three-time national cham pion tied the nation’s best time at 6.58 and broke the USC record. Trammell made the finals of the 60m hurdles at 7.69, also the fastest time of the day. For his outstanding efforts, Tram mell was named athlete of the meet. Keppler won the shot put with a toss of 48’ 8 1/4. The Anderson native won the weight at 53’ <), a personal best. USC team members Loren Thouvenot was the runner-up at 53’ 1/4, Aisha Grant was fourth at 47’3 and Candy Mitchell was sixth at 45’ 8 1/2. Miki Barber had the fastest time Fri day in the preliminary rounds of the 400m at 53.68, while teammate Demetria Wash ington qualified for the finals in second place, running a 54.05. Barber won the 400m race Saturday in 53.20, while Washington placed sec ond at 54.74. Ellakisha Williamson advanced to the finals of the 60m hurdles in second place at 8.34. Williamson will be joined by Jack Just who the hell does Michael Jor dan think he is? Twelve days ago Jordan shocked the world by coming out of retirement for the second time and he’s once again in the focus of the NBA. Only this time, he’s making more en emies than friends. Vowing to “leave his imprints and footprints all over the organization,” MJ has now decided to try out his adminis-'' trative legs at the home of the strug gling Washington Wizards as their new head of basketball operations and part owner. Since his arrival, the Wizards have lost three more games and head coach Gar Heard has been fired. They’ve gone through two more assistant coaches, Butch Beard and Mike Bratz and still haven’t made it to a playoff game, for the 12th consecutive year. ie Madison, who finished seventh in the prelims at 8.53. Me’Lisa Barber and Mechelle Lewis join Takoya Thomas and Williamson in the finals of the 60m dash. Me’Lisa Barber was third in the pre lims of the 200m with a 24.04 mark and was followed by Lewis at 24.08 as the fourth fastest qualifier. Both times better their personal NCAA provisional marks from last week. Also qualifying for finals were Andrea Hallmon at 2:13.20 and Kristina Brown at 2:13.44 in the 800m run. LaMonte Pennington also advanced to the finals of the 800m in men’s com petition with a 1:54.53. The women’s 4x400m relay team took first place by clocking an automatic na tional qualifying time of 3:35.18. Well, maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the Wizards would have been a lot better off if Mr. NM had left his size 13 footprint in retirement. Heard, who also has experience coach ing with the Pacers and led them on an unprecedented playoff ran in 1994 that extended the New York Knicks to seven games in the Eastern Conference final, has only been with the Wizards for six months, or just over half a season. That’s not even a chip off of the three-year con tract he was offered when he took the job last June. Now, Heard might not be any Lou Holtz or Pat Riley, but we down here at Carolina would know only too well that it takes a little more than a season to turn a team around. But, let’s move away from that sub ject onto the question of who’s going to ROOKE see page r — Shannon Rooke Assistant Sports Editor Air Jordan wrong for firing Heard . &