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Gamecock Sports Schedule ■ Women’s basketball at Wofford, 7 p.m. Wednesday ■ Indoor track at East Tennessee State, Friday and Saturday ■ Men’s basketball at Florida, 3 p.m. Saturday ■ Swimming and diving vs. Auburn, 10 a.m. Saturday ^hc<5amecock ^ | page7 • Lady Gamecocks dominate Wofford Sean Rayford/The Gamecock *-ady Gamecock Shaun Gortman passes the ball to a teammate in a game against Honda earlier this season. Gortman had 10 points, sev en rebounds and six assists in USC’s 87-45 thumping of Wofford Wednesday. by Kyle Almond The Gamecock The USC Lady Gamecocks breezed to an 87-45 victory at Wofford Wednesday night and built self-confidence for their upcoming game at Florida. Carolina (8-11,3-3 SEC) jumped to an early 164 lead on the Lady Teniers (8-10, 4-5 Southern) and never looked back. USC shot an impressive 47 percent from the field and had a season-low 11 turnovers. “I’m proud of the way our team played tonight in taking care of the ball and executing offensively,” USC head coach Susan Walvius said. “Tonight was a very important game for us to show where we are against a quality non-conference opponent like Wofford.” Walvius was more encouraged, however, by her team’s defensive intensity. USC shut down the Lady Terriers and made things difficult for their shooters. Wofford only hit 28 percent of their shots, well below its season average of 45 percent. USC also forced 22 turnovers. “I thought that we took Wofford out of their offense and held a good shooting team to only 45 points,” Walvius said. “After Sunday’s game against Florida, we were concerned with our defensive play, and we concentrated on that in practice Monday and Tuesday. Tonight, I think that we had a good overall effort on defense.” USC had a 45-26 lead at halftime and continued to increase it in the second half. The Lady Gamecocks went on a 28-6 run to start the second half, including scoring the first 12 points. Eleven of the 12 Lady Gamecocks who played in the 87 45 game scored, and the South Carolina bench contributed 31 points. Freshman guard Nihan Anaz led USC with 15 points, and three other Lady Gamecocks scored in double figures. Teresa Geter, Shaun Gortman and Shannon Segres each pulled down seven rebounds for Carolina. “South Carolina is a tough team,” Wofford head coach David Graves said. “They have size, talent and good coaching. We definitely saw tonight what Southeastern Conference basketball is all about. We didn’t play our best tonight, and we couldn’t stop them.” “Wfe now have to turn our attention to the rest of the conference schedule and work to finish the best we can in the league.” Jenny Nett led the Lady Terriers with 12 points, all of which were scored in the first half. Nett also had a team-high six rebounds. South Carolina now turns its attention to the Florida Lady Gators, who defeated USC last Sunday in Columbia, 97-85. Florida shot 53 percent in that game, and connected on 8-of-18 from 3-point range. Tip-off for Sunday afternoon’s game is 2 p.m. at the Stephen C. O’Connell Cen ter in Gainesville. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmaiLcom UoL to tace vengetul Gators in Gainesville by Chris Foy The Gamecock The South Carolina Gamecocks (10-6,2-3 SEC) will travel to Gainesville in hopes of improving their sub-par conference record Saturday against SEC East rival and 14th-ranked Florida (124,2-3). The last time these two teams met, Jan. 4 in Columbia, the Gamecocks won 69-68 after Travis Kraft hit a 3-pointer % the buzzer. Unfortunately, South Carolina will be without the star of that game, as Kraft has opted to redshirt the remainder of his season to heal his injured foot. Carolina will also miss the presence of starter Chuck Edson, who tore the ACL in his right knee against Vanderbilt Jan. 17 and will be out for the year. The Gators are in almost as much bad shape as USC. Like the Gamecocks, the Gators have been plagued with injuries this season. This past Wednesday, they lost reserve guard Justin Hamilton to a tom ACL. Earlier this month, starting forward Brent Wright underwent foot suigery. And starting point guard Teddy Dupay is taking time offbecause of a her niated disk in his back. ^ Last year’s national runner-up entered this season with high hopes, but now finds itself in a desperate position after losing three of its five SEC match ups. After being dropped from the No. 5 spot after losses to Georgia and USC, Florida players are eager to show the na tion that they haven’t lost it yet. Florida is still averaging 85.9 points per game and shooting an impressive 48.1 percent from the field. They are led by center Udonis Haslem, who is averaging 17.6 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. Guard Brett Nelson is second on the team in points, averaging 13.4 a game. During the last match-up with South Carolina, forward Matt Bonner led the Gators’ effort with 18 points and 13 rebounds. With a week off, the Gamecocks hope to be fully healed and all wanned up when they roll into Gainesville. USC desperately needs to enter with an improved shooting attack, as it has shot a mere 32 percent in its past two games. “It’s becoming frustrating because we’re in ballgames, and we’re still doing things to win, but we’re not shooting the ball well, which is probably the difference for us,” starting point guard Aaron Lucas said. This season, South Carolina has been averaging 70.2 points per game — last in the SEC in scoring. However, the Gamecocks can boast the second-ranked scoring defense in the conference. Carolina will be led by Lucas, who is averaging 10.8 points per game, and sophomore center Tony Kitchings, who will bring a team-leading 7.2 rebounds in the paint. Kitchings had 14 points last Wednesday against Vanderbilt and is averaging 10 points a game. With the loss of Eidson, the Gamecocks will continue to look to senior co-captain David Ross and freshman forward Rolando Howell for support. After Eidson got hurt in the Vanderbilt game, Howell had a career night with 13 points. Ross had 10 points in the Gamecocks’ latest game, a 60-57 loss to Auburn last Saturday. Carolina will have to leave its solid home record (9-2) back in Columbia and try to improve their road record (14). Ross knows a loss to Auburn on their home court wasn’t the best thing for their NCAA Tournament hopes. “It’s very, very tough to win on the road,” he said. “That’s why it’s key to win most of your home games. We’re going to have to go and steal a couple on the road.” Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 3 p.m. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com ■ LOCATION: Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. ■ TIME: 3 p.m. Saturday ■ TV: Jefferson-Pilot Sports ■ RADIO: WVOC (560 AM) ■ RECORDS: USC (10-6, 2-3 SEC), Florida (12-4, 2 3 SEC) Travis Lynn/The Gamecock Marius Petravicius and the Gamecocks look to sweep Honda this weekend in Gainesville. Swimming and diving teams back in action #,y Maneshka Eliatamby The Gamecock USC’s swimming and diving teams took only 10 days off during the Christmas break and rigorously trained at a training camp in Flori da during the first two weeks in January. > Now the hard-working athletes are back in Competition. With the long holiday, the Gamecocks are looking forward to their home meet against SEC defending champion Auburn this Saturday. Auburn, whose roster is almost twice as; large as USC’s, has won the National Championship two out of the past three years. The women’s swim team started last weekend in Arkansas, but its best efforts were hindered because of travel problems. Only nine ^ic Gamecocks made it to the meet, but they ere'severely handicapped because they didn’t have their luggage. The Gamecocks are facing stiff competition in Auburn, but head coach Don Gibb is confident his team will swim well against its opponents. “At the bare minimum, I expect an im provement in their times,” he said. “Everybody is in much better condition than they were in last semester. Everyone seems to be paying a lot more attention to the finer details and are now very much in competition mode.” The Gamecock swim teams acquired two new swimmers since their last meet. Both athletes are natives of Hungary and joined the team at the beginning of the semester. Tamas Szucs, who swims the 800-meter freestyle, becomes the third former Olympian to compete on USC’s swim team. Szucs joins fellow Hungarian teammates Istvan Bathazi and Zsolt Caspar. Anna Nyiry, the other new ad dition to the team, is expected to strengthen an already highly competitive short-distance team. The three Olympians are favored to win their respective events and meet SEC and NCAA qualifying times. Another Gamecock who will be on the minds of many is All-American Sarah Doyle. Doyle is expected to finish the 1000-meter freestyle event with a NCAA qualifying time. Other Carolina athletes to watch at Saturday’s competition are Caroline Kem, Tri cia Rye (individual medley), Kristen Butler (backstroke), Megan Johnson (butterfly) and Jen Van Assen (freestyle). Diver Brandon Hulko leads the diving team in the three- and five-meter platform events. Teammate Brad Brown has a good chance of placing in the same events. Holly Hodges will be the only female Gamecock diver participating on Saturday. USC diving head coach Todd Sherritt has confidence in his athletes and their abilities. ■ LOCATION: Carolina Natatorium, Columbia, S.C. ■ TIME: 10 a.m. Saturday “I expect them to fare well at this meet and finish with high point tallies,” Sherritt said. The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com 1 earn success motivates USC track and field ■ Gamecock athletes to split up for weekend meets by Maneshka Eliatamby The Gamecock . The Gamecock track and field team, which has fared well in the three competitions it’s taken part in this season, looks to extend its dominance this weekend in a pair of indoor meets. Around 50 USC track athletes will be competing in Johnson City, Tenn., at the ETSU Invitational today and Saturday, while a smaller group of athletes heads to Arkansas. Both teams will be vying for top honors and looking to establish SEC and NCAA qualifying or provisional times. Head coach Curtis Frye and his athletes seem to have one objective in mind: team success. The first words out of many of the athletes’ mouths are “we want the team to do well as a whole.” Pap Howard, a senior sprinter on the men’s team, is predicting good things out of his teammates this weekend “I expect a few improvements on the team as a whole,” Howard said. “My main focus for this season is to achieve personal bests and to try and win both the SECs and Nationals.” TT_] _ r_A_1_ t • T-v • Uliucicaitu WU11IC1I 5 5JJI1I1LCI l^ClilCUid Washington has already passed the NCAA qualifying time in the 400 meters, and she is hoping she can achieve the same result in the 200. “I am in good form right now, and I’m happy with my performances so far,” Washington said. “I’d like to keep up to the standard I have set for myself so far this season, and as for the team, I feel that both the men’s and women’s teams have a lot of talent and will do well this year.” Another up-and-coming Gamecock track athlete is hurdler Deandre Eland, who came out this past weekend with an unexpected win in the 60-meter hurdles. In his first-ever college meet, Eland ran a time of 7.94 Saturday, just four one-hundredths of a second behind the NCAA qualifying mark. Eland, who also plays safety on the Gamecock football team, said although it’s a balancing act keep ing up with both sports, he seems to be doing well so far. Jackie Madison, a senior competing in her last season for the Gamecocks, is hoping to finish her college career in perfect style. “I’m trying to get an SEC Championship title, and I would like to go out as an All-American,” she said. “I’m going to go out there and try for an NCAA au tomatic mark, and I feel that the competition I will face will help me in achieving this goal.” The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmaiLcom