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□ c de: Schedule ingerand the San Fran- m Men’s basektball vs. MSU., 7:30 p.m. ) 49ers front office square " ,SvT™9 * SEC Championships, ^ Baton Rouge, La., today-Sat. ■ Women’s basketball vs. Alabama, Thu. ■ Women’s tennis at Championships, Thu. 2000 Gamecock * page bi ‘Cats claw Lady Gamecocks again Women’s Basketball Roundup Gamecock Sports When Shanta Jeffcoat’s last-second shot rolled off the front of the run and onto the floor, the USC women’s basketball team saw all of its hard work sink just as low. After an impressive comeback attempt, the * Lady Gamecocks fell to the SEC’s No. 10 Ken tucky Wildcats 73-71 on Sunday. Kentucky jumped out quickly in the first half and led South Carolina by as many as 16 points midway through the first half. Down 27-11 with ten minutes left before in termission, senior Annie Lester and freshman Kel ly Morrone ignited a Lady Gamecocks 22-11 ral ly to close the Wildcat lead to 37-33. However, Kentucky pushed die advantage to seven points by halftime. After controlling the penetration of Ken tucky’s key players in the second half, the Lady Gamecocks continued to whittle the Wildcat lead down to only three points in the seven minutes before the final buzzer. Down by two with 13 seconds left on the clock, South Carolina fouled Kentucky’s Tiffany ^ Whit and sent the senior to the free throw line. A perfect three-of-three on the day, Wait’s first attempt met glass. Senior center Shantia Owens grabbed the defensive rebound on the missed free throw before two UK turnovers gave USC the ball back with four seconds remaining. “Rrur seconds is plenty of time to get the ball down the floor, take it to the hole and score,” USC coach Susan Whlvius said. “We got the ball in Shanta’s hands, she took it to the hole, but it just rimmed out. WTen you are in a situation like that you want to get the ball inbounds and take it to the hole.” Shanta Jeffcoat brought the ball in bounds to Lester at mid-court and ran to the basket to receive ' Lester’s pass at the center of the key. Jeffcoat banked the ball off the glass but the ball rolled of the front rim. “On the last-second play, we got the ball in bounds and took the ball to the hole hoping to get the shot or get fouled,” Walvius said. “Shanta Jeffcoat took it strong to the hold and had a good look at the basket but it just didn’t fall.” Lester tied her career high of 32 points for the second time. The six-foot forward scored 14 points in the first half and 18 in the second, while lead ing the Lady Gamecocks with seven rebounds. “Lester is a big-time senior who stepped up for them today,” Kentucky coach Bernadette Mat tox said. “That’s what seniors are supposed to do. Like Erica (Jackson) and Tiffany (Wait). That is what they did tonight as well. They stepped up for us and put up some big-time points when We need ed them.” Wklvius also was pleased with what she saw of her players. “Annie Lester is an all-around great player that we’ve relied on for three seasons now,” she said. “She had a great game today and I was pleased with her performance.” With leading scorer Shaunzinski Gortman out for the season with a tom ACL, other young play ers are stepping up to fill her shoes. Freshman Kelly Morrone has started in Gortman’s place since she has been sidelined, sink ing four 3-pointers at clutch moments throughout the afternoon. At the 3:41 mark, the Wildcats led by four and watched as Morrone nailed a field goal and a 3 point shot to narrow the margin to one point with 1:46 left in the game. Marrone charted 16 points and six assists and Lester’s sister Jocelyn Penn added 12 points in the effort. Four Wildcats scored in double figures as Kentucky held on to defeat South Carolina. LaTonya McDole led UK with 16 points. Jackson and Wait helped with 14 and 11 points respectively, while Meadows came off the bench to score 15 points. Owens led with seven re bounds. The Wildcats also recorded five team steals and shot 50.0 percent from the floor in comparison to Carolina’s no steals and 46.3 per cent shooting average. Kentucky scored 25 points off 26 Game cock turnovers and recorded 23 points from bench players. With the win, UK is now 4-6 in the SEC and 12-10 overall. “It just feels good to win,” Wait said. “This is the way we want to feel all the time. We still have five games, including Geoigia on Thurs day, so we need to just take it one game at a time.” “It’s disappointing to lose a game like this,”csaid USC head Coach Susan Wdvius. “I felt that we played hard and played smart for most of the game and a couple of offensive re bounds at the end of the game hurt us and might have cost us the game.” The Lady Gamecocks now stand in the wake of a two-game SEC losing streak and a 2-9 over all conference record. Next, USC returns home to face Alabama on Thursday night at the Carolina Coliseum. Facing the No. 9 SEC team is the first in a line of three conference matchups for the Game cocks. Carolina will look toward another chance at the Wildcats on Sunday. Last in line for their season, the Lady Gameocks will travel to Baton Rouge to face 8 2 LSU. South Caroli na 12-12,2-9 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No- FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 34 Shannon Segres, f 2 60 12 324 6261301 25 44 Annie Lester, 1 12 15 0 1 8 11 4 3 7 3 32 0 2 0 3 38 00 Petra Ujhelyi, c 1 40 II 101 1331200 14 °5 Ines Ajanovic, g 0 50 20 032 5103200 20 ft 10 Kelly Morrone, g 6 15 4 12 0 0 01 12 16 6500 39 9 U Chrishna Hill 0 10 02 200 0120302 16 *5 Jocelyn Penn 4 70 04 532 52 12 3600 32 51 Shanta Jeffcoat 0 10 0. 0 001 1201101 14 55 Linda Hoglund 0 00 00-000 0000000 2 Team ’ 4 5 9 Totals 25 54 4 17 17 22 16 19 35 16 7115 26 0 7 200 Kentucky 12-10, 4-6 SEC TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No- FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN 21 LaTonya McDole, 1 7 12 0 02 441 54 16 2410 27 33 Stephanie Christman, f 2 60 01 430 3250101 22 34 Shantia Owens, g 1 40 02 325 7441313 28 11 Tiffany Wait, g 3 82 63 402 23 11 5311 37 24 Erica Jackson, g 7 16 0 30 024 61 14 3102 37 04 Natalie Martinez 0 00 00 000 0000000 4 22 Rita Adams 3 30 00 110 1161200 13 23 Melissa Langelier 0 00 00 000 0100100 0 25 Katie Vietli 0 10 00 000 0000000 1 42 Tanesa Seaton 1 10 00 111 2120000 3 44 Laura Meadows 7 n o 0 1 1 0 1 1 3 15 0 1 2 0 28 Team 12 3 Totals 31 62 2 9 9 18 14 16 30 20 7312 16 5 7 200 ft Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports USC head coach Susan Walvius wil lead her team into the last three games of the season, beginning with Thursday's game against Alabama. USC Women's Basketball Team Statistics (through Feb. 16) PLAYER GP-GS N 44 Annie Lester 11-11 45 Jocelyn Penn 11-2 34 Shannon Segres 11-8 10 Kelly Morrone 11-5 00 Petra Ujhelyi 11-10 05 Ines Ajanovic 11-5 11 Chrishna Hill 11-1 51 Shanta Jeffcoat 11-6 55 Linda Hoglund 10-0 33 Casie Key 6-0 21 Viki Hollosy 0-0 Totals 11 TOTAL 3-POINTERS [IN--AVG FG-FGA PCT FG-FGA PCT FT-FTA PCT < 293 26.6 46-94 .489 0-1 .000 ' 32-42 .762 256 23.3 37-75 .493 0-0 .000 34-46 .739 244 22.2 40-85 .471 2-9 .222 26-33 .788 319 29.0 32-94 .340 25-69 .362 7-10 .700 279 25.4 30-71 .423 1-5 .200 12-18 .667 18416.7 16-51 .314 • 7-30 .233 4-8 .500 166 15.1 13-44 .295 4-23 .174 9-14 .643 206 18.7 11-26 .423 2-6 .333 8-12 .667 64 6.4 4-19 .211 3-12 .250 0-3 .000 16 2.7 0-3 .000 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 0 0.0 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 2200 262-640 .409 49-168 .292 151-217 .696 REBOUNDS )FF-DEF TOT—AVG PF-FO A TO BLK ST P 29-22 51-4.6 40-4 14 23 1 13 32-33 65-5.9 28-0 20 36 0 24 17-32 494.5 33-2 5 25 5 14 6-18 24-2.2 19-0 40 39 2 12 204 4 64-5.8 37-0 16 30 9 7 11-21 32-2.9 18-1 11 IS 0 3 9-7 16-1S 18-0 8 18 0 9 12-9 21-1.9 15-0 11 24 2 6 3-3 6-0.6 8-0 5 5 0 4 1-2 3-0.5 0-0 1 2 0 0 0-0 0-0.0 0-0 0 0 0 0 160-247 407-37.0 242-9 149 270 22 104 rs - AVG 124-11.3 108-9.8 108-9.8 96-8.7 73-6.6 43-3.9 39-3.5 32-2.9 11-1.1 0-0.0 0-0.0 724-68.5 Gamecock swimmers reap awards, prepare for SEC Championships Swimming/Diving Roundup Gamecock Sports USC’s swimming and diving teams are prepar ing for the SEC Championships, to be held today through Saturday at Louisiana State University in | %ton Rouge. Head coach Don Gibb hopes to add to his con ference-winning resume after leaving a hationally ranked program at Florida State to coach the Game cocks. The Gamecock men are led by sophomore Zsolt Gaspar. Gaspar will be strong in the 200 freestyle, the 500 freesyle and the 200 breaststroke and could become an SEC champion. He also has a chance at being named to the Hungarian Olympic team in Syd ney for the 2000 Olympics. Joining Gaspar is freshman Joey Faltraco. Fal traco is the junior national champion in the 200 back stroke, and he has a chance of scoring in the SEC meet. For Carolina’s men divers, Chad Sheldon will get his last chance to score in an SEC Championship meet. The senior from Moultrie, Ga., has broken four diving records in his career at Carolina, and he will look to maintain his form during competi ^ this week. Gaspar, Sheldon and Fatralco all have top times for USC this year in their respective events and are expected to be the primary winners in the SEC meet. Andrew Cho also will be competing in the SEC Championships. Cho is a multiple All-Amferi can who already holds several USC records, but has 1 the opportunity to snare even more before his j time is up at USC. Sophomore Sarah Doyle leads a young women’s j team into the SEC Championships. The distance I freestyler from San Antonio will compete in the 500 I and 1,000 freestyle events. A veteran for the Game- j cocks in these events, Doyle has won the 1,000 in j all but two meets this season. For the divers, seniors Nikki Unroe and Cheryl ^ Lemon will make a run at an SEC Championship | in their final competition. These two women have | been leaders for head coach Todd Sherritt the past § four years, helping to build Carolina into one of the ] top diving programs nationwide. | The SEC announced Tuesday that several mem- | bers of USC’s men’s and women’s swimming and | diving teams have been named to the SEC academ- j ic honor roll. Eleven men and four women were among 142 1 athletes selected from the SEC. To be chosen for the | award, an athlete must have maintained a 3.0 GPA ? for the past year or a cumulative GPA of 3.0; be a | sophomore or higher in terms of academic classifi- 1 cation; and have 24 semester hours or 36 quarter | hours toward a degree. After competing for the SEC Championships this ( weekend, the Gamecock swimmers will travel to § the NCAA Championships March 16-18 in Indi- j anapolis, and then to the U.S. Nationals in Federal Way, Wash. March 28-April 1. if I Gamecock Swimmers on the SEC ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL mi i*M GPA Major nlio Aparacedio 3.53 Business Jrad Brown 3.50 Business Andrew Cho 3.42 Exercise Science ason Erickson 3.48 Exercise Science 3hris Henninger 3.03 Biology Irandon Hulko 3.63 Exercise Science tyan Mallani 3.00 Business 3had Sheldon 3.95 Psychology dicahSillik 3.55 Engineering )anny White 3.56 Business amie White 3.59 Business VOMEN te GEA Major dichelle Davison 3.59 Business ill Hawley 3.55 Criminal Justice Cristie Krause 3.81 Psychology Cheryl Lemon 3.84 Biology Kelly leads offense for USC baseball Baseball Roundup Gamecock Sports Junior first baseman Tripp Kelly already has surpassed his 1999 home run and RBI totals in the new season, even though it is only five games old. The na tive of Flo rence, S.C., was named MVP of the Trademark Properties Classic in Charleston last weekend, going 6-11 with 11 RBIs and two homers and spurring the Gamecocks to three wins. USC (5-0) beat Old Dominion, East Carolina and defending Southern Con ference champion The Citadel at the Classic, and behind Kelly’s three homers in five games, are poised to match head coach Ray Tanner’s best start ever at USC. Tanner’s first Game cock squad in 1997 went 6-0 before losing. Kelly is leading the team with a .529 batting average, a fact that might seem surprising considering he hit on ly two homers and drove in four runs in 22 games last year. “I’m just looking for good pitches to hit,” Kelly said after USC’s Friday win over Old Dominion. Kelly has started at first base in USC’s past four games and was sub stituted in for USC’s other first base man, sophomore Trey Dyson, in the opener Feb. 4 against Charleston South ern. Junior pitcher Peter Bauer is side lined with a strained abdominal mus cle until the Gamecocks’ series with the College of Charleston Feb. 25-27. Bauer started USC’s game against East Carolina this weekend, but left after the third inning because of pain in his side. The injury is the latest to USC’s plagued pitching staff, which already has Chris Spigner, the team’s third member of the rotation, out with an inflamed elbow. Reliever Clint Collins also is out while recovering from ap pendicitis. The Gamecocks will play host to Delaware State for a three-game series starting Friday at 3 p.m. The Hornets are coached by former USC assistant coach Tripp Keister.