Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Walvius has team ready to take on SEC powerhouses BY BONNIE BERKES THE GAMECOCK The University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball team rolls into the 2001-02 season filled with optimism. Last season, the Lady Gamecocks en tered SEC play with three players sidelined for the season and two others nagged by knee injuries. But they pulled through to win a sixth-place finish, their highest fin ish since joining the SEC. The Lady Gamecocks are confident about their chances of finishing higher this season. “We were supposed to have a veteran team last year,” said coach Susan Walvius at the team’s media conference Tuesday. “But we didn’t. We struggled a little bit in our non-conference schedule last year. It was a little too much for us in that we were relying on inexperienced basketball team. “As we gained experience and we took on some talented players, we did have suc cess and we did win more SEC games than any South Carolina women’s basketball team. We’re excited about that, and we’re looking to build on that.” Early last year in conference play, USC beat then-No. 20 Auburn 87-67 at home to start the conference 2-0. The win gave the team the confidence it needed to compete in the SEC. After the win against Auburn, the Lady Gamecocks went on the road to face Alabama. USC won 82-67 and gained its first road win of the season. The Lady Gamecocks later took home wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State and a road win at Auburn. wun me return ui semui icicsa Geter, USC’s team leader in scoring (11.6), rebounding (6.5) and blocked shots (58), hopes of winning this season are high. “Last year, we saw that we could do it,” Geter said. “We had a lot of young and in experienced players last year, but we don’t have that this year. We have a lot of expe rienced players. The leadership that we had and that we’ve added is going to carry over this season.” “Yeah, we were picked below all of the other participants in the SEC, but that gives us something to prove, and that is a tremendous challenge for us. But we are ready to take up that challenge.” SUSAN WALVIUS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH Along with Geter, seniors Tatyana Troina, Ines Ajanovic and Shaunzinski Gortman give the Lady Gamecocks the leadership and experience they’ve been looking for. During last season, Gortman averaged 11 points while getting three assists and grabbing 5.1 rebounds per game. Troina emerged as a consistent three-point shoot ing threat in the USC lineup. Ajanovic snared a personal-best record at Vanderbilt last year with eight rebounds. Sophomore Kelly Morrone returns this season after having hack surgery. Walvius said Morrone, a 5-foot-7 guard who reached dou ble figures in scoring nine times as a fresh man, is back playing well again. Despite the optimism in the Lady Gamecock’s women’s basketball team, it will take a lot to move up in the always tough SEC. USC was picked to finish 10th out of the 12 teams in a preseason poll of SEC media. But Walvius, who is 48-63 overall and 12-44 in SEC play with USC, is thinking big. “We beat Arkansas last season. We beat Auburn twice. We beat Mississippi State. We won at Alabama,” she said. “Yeah, we were picked below all of the other partici pants in the SEC, but that gives us some thing to prove, and that is a tremendous challenge for us. But we are ready to take up that challenge.” The Lady Gamecocks start the season by playing host to Austria at an exhibition game Wednesday, Nov. 14. The regular sea son opens Friday Nov. 16 against the Furman Lady Paladins. Shaunzinski Gortman looks to have another soild year for the Lady Gamecocks, file photo