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^ GAME SCHEDULE I ■ m \ I 1 I I 1 L y MEN'S BASKETBALL at Tennessee, 8 p.m. Wednesday PONTAPT TT^ I_" I I I " I TRACK AND FIELD at 5-Way SEC meet at Florida, Saturday UUil mui UO | ■ ■ | V ■ . SWIMMING AND DIVING at Virginia, Saturday Story ideas? Qukstions? Comments? I \ / I I Ik/ MEN’S BASKETBALL at Ole Miss, l p.m. Saturday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com —■— —■— WOMEN’S BASKETBALL at Arkansas, 3 p.m. Sunday Lady Gamecocks rebound to pummel Lady Wildcats Women’s team improves to 5-1 in conference play Ijp£ Kentucky 49 ^ USC 78 -^ BY J. KEITH ALLEN THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s basketball team (17-2,5-1 SEC) looked to get back on track Sunday after Thursday night’s loss to Tennessee, and they did it in brilliant fashion with a 7849 victory against SEC ri val Kentucky (8-10,1-5). USC head coach Susan Walvius was pleased with her team’s effort after the disheart ening loss to Tennessee. “I didn’t know how we’d re spond. We hadn’t been in a situa tion where we had lost a big game, a game we felt we were fo cused for,” Walvius said. “I knew we had to come out and start strong to win the game and set the tone early, and we did.” After a Jocelyn Penn layup • knotted the score at two apiece only 1:37 into the game, USC pulled ahead and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Penn’s bucket triggered a 7-0 run and dealt the Wildcats a blow from which they would not recover. Walvius put all her players to work, building up an insur mountable lead against Kentucky. Kelly Morrone came oil the bench and immediately nailed a 3 pointer from the right side that put USC up 10-4 with 16:26 remaining. At the 12:37 mark, Shannon Segres pulled down an offensive rebound and found Tatyana Troina beyond the 3-point line. Troina easily hit the shot and put USC up 17-6. The Lady Gamecock defense also worked hard to protect the early lead. They throttled the Lady Wildcats in the first half, highlighted by center Petra Ujhely i blocking a shot and snag ging a defensive rebound on con secutive Kentucky attempts. The Lady Wildcats could not match Carolina’s intensity and were outhustled in every facet of the game. Following one of Kentucky’s 13 first-half turnovers, Troina struck from downtown again. This basket put USC up by 14 points with 11:45 remaining in the opening half. With only 23 seconds left in the half, the Lady Gamecocks ex tended their lead to 24 points on a Segres layup. The team retired to the locker room at halftime leading 43-19. USC’s early intensity contin ued in the second half. The team resumed their stellar play as Penn scored eight of the Lady Gamecocks’ first 13 points early ' in the half. Troina added to the Lady Gamecock lead at the 14:17 “I knew we had to come out and start strong to win the game and set the tone early, and we did” SUSAN WALVIUS USC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH mark as she connected on her third 3-pointer of the game. Troina’s shot put the Lady Gamecocks up by 30 points, and the team continued to steamroll an outmatched Kentucky squad. Carolina’s lead never narrowed to less than 26 points. A 3-pointer by Kelly Marrone with 6:36 remaining gave USC a 35-point lead, its largest of the af ternoon. Penn lead the team in scoring for the third consecutive game, with 19 points and six rebounds. Troina finished with 11 points, hitting three of four shots from beyond the 3-point line. Senior guard Shaun Gortman con tributed 10 points to the win. Ujhelyi also put in a solid per 1 formance with nine points, six re bounds and two blocks. She grabbed a rebound in traffic late in the second half and dribbled coast-to-coast, finishing with a left-hand floater in the lane. An enthusiastic crowd of 5,227 fans was on hand for the over whelming victory. Walvius said the team felt the fans’ presence. “The fans that were here today, I think, really helped motivate them ... because today the fans PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN The Lady Gamecocks rebounded from their loss against Tennessee by defeating Kentucky at home on Sunday. The USC women’s basketball team has moved to No. 7 In the AP poll. Tatyana Troina works for an offensive rebound late in the second half of Sunday’s game. were not about the Tennessee game and the top 10 matchup. They were about supporting South Carolina women’s basket ball, and that meant a lot to the young women on our team.” Alumni Day ceremonies were held before the game. USC alum na Sheila Foster (Class of ’82), the Lady Gamecocks’ all-time leading scorer, was one of the many for mer players honored. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Men’s team falls to Vandy at home Vanderbilt 60 ^ USC 51 BY BEN BRYAN THE GAMECOCK Men’s basketball coach Dave Odom had said he felt “some thing better” was waiting for his team down the road this season. Saturday’s home loss to Vanderbilt is probably not what he had in mind. The Gamecocks struggled of fensively and defensively as the Commodores used two big runs to hand USC a 60-51 defeat. The Gamecocks’ shooting problems became evident early. After winning the tipoff, USC had four chances to score on its first possession and failed — four shots, three rebounds and no points. Odom later called the Gamecocks’ first possession the “turning point” of the game, and USC seemed more hesitant about shooting the ball afterward. The Gamecocks did not score until a Jamel Bradley 3-pointer came with 13:36 remaining in the first half. The next basket came with 6:25 left, making the score 19-5 in favor of the Commodores. USC ended the half with a 16 4 rally to come within four by the break, but Vanderbilt scored the first 15 points of the second half. USC would once again charge back, coming within five points with 3:21 left, but the Commodores held on and began to pull away again, eventually winning by nine. Aaron Lucas led the Gamecocks with 20 points and he also had seven steals. Rolando Howell had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, and he added four steals. Howell also scored the last seven points in USC’s first-half rally. Bradley scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers. Carolina shot 30 percent from the field during the first half, but warmed up to 41 percent for the second half. The Gamecocks, who normal ly win the turnover battle, had 18 turnovers to Vanderbilt’s 17. Matt Freije led the Commodores with 13 points. Chuck Moore and Brendan Plavich scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. The Gamecock defense cov ered the perimeter well, but the Commodores responded by feed ing the ball down low, where they had great success catching the Gamecocks by surprise. “We were beaten by a team that was better prepared mentally and physically.” DAVE ODOM USC MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH “We were beaten by a team that was better prepared mental ly and physically,” Odom said. The Commodores have won their last two games after start ing the season 0-3 in the SEC, and are 12-6 overall. USC fell to 1-3 in the SEC and 11-6 overall. After a strong performance in a 62-60 victory at Arkansas on Wednesday, the Gamecocks had hoped to pick up their first home conference win of the season. The Gamecocks also lost to Kentucky 51-50 in their first con ference home game of the season. Instead, they will have to play two road games before playing again at Frank McGuire Arena. USC plays at Tennessee on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. and at Ole Miss on Saturday at 1 p.m. be fore returning home to face a strong Georgia team Jan. 30. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail. com Student seating at USC (a joke3 r~m i CHRIS FOY GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM University needs to create unified student section for basketball. When I think about this school’s athletics department, I usually think about the leaps it’s made in the past couple of years to bring national prominence to all of our sports. And they’ve succeeded in that. They brought in huge names like Lou Holtz and Dave Odom. Football, men’s soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball, track and field, swimming... all have been among the elite of their fields, and our other programs are on the way. But with all the good that’s been done, it’s frustrating that the department is trying to do this without the most important part of the university: the students. The absence of a student section in the basketball arena is nothing more than a slap in the face to the student body. Mike McGee can justify this any way he wants, but I say it’s a lack of appreciation for the team’s biggest supporters. And I’m not talking about rich alumni; I’m talking about the students. Coach Odom had a strong student fan base at Wake Forest. In a much smaller arena, they fit in a lot of students, all together, all behind the home bench. He has a desire to see as many students possible to come to the games and cheer on the Gamecocks. But who would blame those who don’t go because they receive tickets five rows from the back wall? And they receive them constantly. There is no student unity ( because they give us tickets spread out and far back. That’s a joke. Take a look at Duke. They could make an inhuman amount of money selling tickets for where their students sit. But why don’t they? Because that area is reserved for the students and because they feel that is the norm—for students to participate in the game — not the CA^epUUU. You especially have to wonder what the hell is going on when you see how USC tries to model itself against some of the best in the business. I’ll tell you one thing: I don’t know of one school in the ACC (the nation’s most popular basketball conference) that doesn’t feature a student section. And, yes, Clemson is included on that list. If we’re aiming to be the best in our own conference, fine. Although I can’t recall the last time I saw a Vols or Gators basketball game on TV without seeing the students down low in one area screaming their heads off. I know there was an incident a couple of years ago where some students made a chant to a former assistant coach. But that was then, and we are in a new era. Fans will be rowdy, whether it s the students or the regular fans. But that one event shouldn’t deny this year’s students their own section. This school is on the verge of having practically every program near the top of its league. But if USC wants to build tradition, it should start with a foundation of students. When we are supposedly the reason for the university’s existence, it would be nice to be like practically every other school and be able to cheer on our team together, not in random patches across the Coliseum. ' * Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com