The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 18, 2000, Page 8, Image 8
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Inside: Schedule
use baseball readies for three- ■ Swimming at SEC Championships, today
„ , ■ Women’s tennis at National Indoor
game series against Delaware Championships, today
State ■ Baseball vs. Delaware State, 3 p.m.
■ Lacrosse vs. Georgia, Saturday 1 p.m.
_______---—
Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports
Chuck Edson dives for a loose ball in ihe Gamecocks' 68-67 win over Mississippi Slate. Eidson set the USC single-season steals record in the contest with 3:59 left, making his 74th steal of the year.
USC steals victory from Bulldogs
by Jeff Romig
Sports Editor
It wasn’t pretty.
But a win is a win, and that was exactly what USC
was in need of when they defeated Mississippi State 68
67 Wednesday night.
“We’ve played better and lost,” said Eddie Fogler,
USC head coach. “Sometimes, you can play well and
lose and you can play average and win. I thought we
were average here tonight.”
Freshman sensation Chuck Eidson thought “aver
age” was an understatement.
“That’s probably the ugliest win I think I’ve ever
seen,” Eidson said. “It’s still nice to get a W, no matter
what in this league because the league’s so tough.’
USC was up by eight with 2:50 left, but thanks to
poor free throw shooting on USC’s part, the Bulldogs
chipped away at the lead and made a game of it.
USC was 9-of-16 over the last three minutes from
the free throw line.
“Free throws have followed us all year,” Grant said.
“We just need to concentrate more. I don’t really have
an answer for it.”
Grant was one of the key performers for the Game
cocks as he led the team in scoring with 16 points and
also chipped in with five boards.
Fogler was happy with Grant’s performance com
ing off the USC bench, but questioned his consistency.
“Grant was good here tonight,” Fogler said. “Ask
me if he’ll show on Saturday - he’s been inconsistent..
Some days, he plays really well and hard and some
days he doesn’t play particularly well.”
Eidson, however, has been USC’s most consistent
performer throughout the season. This proved true again
Wednesday as the guard had seven points, diree rebounds,
two assists and three steals.
On his third steal, Eidson set the USC single-sea
son record for steals. It was his 74th, breaking Barry
Manning’s record of 73 in 1991.
“Just something 1 can do to help the team,” Eidson
said. “To have your name in the record books is some
thing very nice, though.”
Fogler loves Eidson’s ability to steal passes no mat
ter how he goes about it.
“The dive on the floor was a huge play,” Fogler said.
“He’s got the instincts for it, but the one he dives for on'
the floor - that’s hustle. That’s not instinct to read
passes; that’s instinct to go get a loose ball.”
With 6:05 left, Eidson showed his explosiveness.
Eidson drove the lane after a steal and finished
with a one-handed dunk.
As he was running back down the court, Eidson
looked to the student section with a little smirk on his
face, showing a little more emotion than usual.
“I love our student section,” Eidson said. “It’s just
fun out there. It’s tough and it’s hard, but it’s fiin.”
What wasn’t fun for the Gamecocks was what
took place in the final seconds of the game.
With the Gamecocks up by three, Tony Kitchings
made an errant inbound pass that was picked off by Mis
sissippi State’s Todd Myles.
Myles stepped back behind the 3-point line and took
his shot - a shot that; if good, would tie the game.
Men’s SEE PAGE 9
Mississippi State 12-12, 3-8 SEC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN
20 Tang Hamilton, I 4 92 55 626 84 15 1400 30
21 Micliael Glioiar, f 5 8 4 5 1 2 3 3 6 5 15 3 3 30
55 Robert Jackson, c 9 11 0 01 264 10 4 19 0101 35
05Todd Myles, g 4 10 2 51 202 23 11 4303 29
11 Antonio Jackson, g 3 11 0 51 201 1 4 7 3 3 ® i 3'
04 Ti. Billups 0 00 00 000 0000000 3
22 Derrick Zinunennan 0 10 00 002 2200100 17
24 Marckell Patterson 0 30 10 214 5 4 ® 1
34 Lincoln Smith 0 00 00 001 1400000 5
Team 10 1
Totals 25 53 8 21 9 16 13 23 36 30 6711 16 1 5 200
r.eolim in.ld SFC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO B S MIN
14 Herbert Lee Davis, f 3 70 26 911 2 0 12 1 0 1 0 24
50 Tony Kitcliings, f 3 60 05 10 44 8 3 11 2 1 0 0 30
12 Marius Petravicius, c 2 40 03 413 4 ® 70 i ? ? H
10 Jan,el Bradley, g 3 8 3 7 1 2 0 1 1 1 10 0 0 0 1 30
31 Chuck Eidson, g 2 4 0 0 3 4 0 3 3 2 7 2 2 0 3 36
OODavidRoss 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 14
05 Aaron Lucas 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 1 2 0 3 0 0 6
15 Travis Kraft 1 3 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 2 8
32 Calvin Clemmons 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
33 Damien Kinloch 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 11
35 Antonio Grant 5 6 1 2 5 8 1 4 5 1 16 1 2 0 1 24
Team 10 1
Totals 20 44 5 16 23 38 8 21 29 16 68 7 10 2 8 200
Tide roll
at last
second
by David Cloninger
Sports Editor
With 17.9 seconds left and the La
dy Gamecocks down 69-67 to Alabama,
-senior Annie Lester wanted the ball.
Since Lester had already scored 32
points for the second consecutive night
and pulled down 13 rebounds, it seemed
natural for head coach Susan Walvius to
give the ball to her star forward.
However, the relentless Crimson
Tide defense doubled Lester on the low
post, causing teammate Crishna Hill to
launch a jumper from the right comer
with four ticks remaining.
The ball soared right into the hands
of Tide defender Shun Hunter, who was
promptly fouled with 2.8 seconds left,
effectively ending the game and the La
dy Gamecocks’ chances for their third
1 SEC victory.
Women see page 9
I’ve covered a lot of high school basketball
I games during my tenure as a freelance reporter
! for The State.
I’ll usually get a call front my boss, Fred Gon
( zalez, on Mondays letting me know what assign
ments he wants me to cover during that week.
This week was no different.
Fred called on Monday asking me to cover Tues
day night’s matchup between the Hammond and
Cardinal Newman boys’ teams.
If Hammond won, they would clinch their re
gion with an undefeated region record,
j If Cardinal Newman won, the two teams would
stand tied with one game left for each team to play.
There was one thing different about this par
ticular game, though.
Fred asked me to do a feature story on one of
Hammond’s players while I was there.
This was a good thing because bills are overdue
and two stories means two times the pay.
What I would eventually get from this experi
ence would be much more valuable than any
monetary sum.
Hammond pulled out a 60-52 win after a fourth
quarter spurt. All whs well for the Skyhawks as they
captured their thira consecutive region title.
Money isn't everything
When the game ended, I waited outside Ham
mond's locker room for Jimmy Braddock, the Sky
hawks head coach, to reappear after his postgame
talk with his players.
We talked about the game.
We talked about the region championship.
We talked about his star center Zeb Cope and
then we talked about his small forward, Robert
Scott, who I was to do the feature story on.
When I finished talking to Braddock, he intro
duced me to Robert.
Robert and I chatted for a few minutes aboul
basketball, his tom ACL and his upcoming baseball
season.
After several minutes had passed, I felt like 1
had sufficient information between Robert and his
coach to write a solid feature.
I turned off my tape recorder and left the gyn
to write my game story.
When I finished writing from my house, I wa
going to go ahead and write my feature on Rober
while the information was fresh in my mind, but in
stead 1 procrastinated. Because my deadline was Fri
day, there was no need to write another story a
11:30 p.m.
On Wednesday, I would go about my day as
normally would. I made a to-do list and carriei
everythin out before 1 would return home.
Everytliing except for one thing -1 needed to
write my Robert Scott story. It would be the first
thing I would do when I got home.
I would make it my top priority - after I checked
my messages and returned my calls.
I discarded the first two messages and jotted
down who I needed to call before I came to the third
message - from Robert’s father, Ron.
He wanted to let me know that he had some
additional information about Robert that I might be
interested in.
The information he intended to give me would
add to my story tremendously, but what he didn’t
know was that the information that came up in con
versation would add tremendously to my life.
Ron Scott is an attorney in Columbia. I knew
that thanks to Caller ID, but then he mentionec
that he went to USC for law school after I tolc
him that I was a student.
I proceeded to tell him that my father at
tended law school at USC as well.
The obvious question followed.
“Who is your father?”
I replied, “He died four years ago. His nam<
[ was Steven Romig.”
1 His response was unlike anything I couh
have evdfr expected.
“I was going to ask,” Ron said. “I worked
with your father on many occasions. We w**2 ,
very close business associates. I am in bankruptcy,
as you know he was.”
Of course I knew. What I didn’t know was
that my late father and Ron Scott used to give
each other work when the other was too busy.
I also didn’t know what high regard was held
for my father.
“Your father was one of the nicest people I
ever worked for,” Scott said. “One of the smartest
too. You father was a brilliant man.”
I was stunned.
Not that I didn’t believe these things myself,
but to have someone that you’ve never spoken
to speak such accolades about you father out of
nowhere was quite overwhelming.
My father passed away Feb. 24, 1996, four
years ago next week, but for a brief moment, he
was alive again.
Ron Scott’s last words to me were, “It was
a privilege to get to speak with Steve Rorr.,^ s
son.”
No Mr. Scott, it was a privilege to speak to you.
Thank you for bringing my father back to
life, if only for five minutes.
1 I’m glad I waited to write my story on Robert.
$ It will most certainly be one of my best. ®