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GAME SCHEDULE CONTACT US - TRACK AND FIELD in USC Open Invitational, Friday WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Florida, 3 p.m. Sunday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? MEN'S BASKETBALL vs. Georgia, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com SWIMMING AND DIVING vs. Georgia, 5 p.m. Friday Rebels rise up Aaron Lucas passes the ball to a waiting Rolando Howell earlier this season against Kentucky. The Gamecocks lost to the Ole Miss Rebels over the weekend, photo by Robert gruen 0 use 53 Q Ole Miss 71 Momentum can’t help Gamecocks defeat Ole Miss BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK Coming off a huge road win at Tennessee, the USC men’s basket ball team was supposed to be fac ing off against an Ole Miss team Saturday in an even matchup. However, the Rebels (16-4,5-2 SEC) had history going for them in their 71-53 defeat of Carolina (12-7,2-4). Carolina and Mississippi each had won seven games in the all-time series, but the Gamecocks had nev er won in Oxford, and the Rebels’ run-and-gun style of play exploit ed the Carolina defense in a one sided affair. “They’re a good basketball team.” USC head coach Dave Odom said. “We got behind early; we got careless and weren’t able to catch up.” Carolina suffered largely be cause of turnovers and poor de fensive play. Jamel Bradley, who led the Gamecocks with 12 points, hit the first Carolina basket, a 3 pointer, but those shots would come few and far between the rest of the game. After coming within five points of Ole Miss with a Chuck Eidson 3-pointer midway through the first half, the Gamecocks couldn’t keep up with the Rebels. Following the Eidson basket, Mississippi went on a 14-2 run, which included uncontested slams by David Sanders, Justin Reed and Aaron Harper. Carolina then went on a 13-7 run, with eight points from Marius Petravicius, to close out the half. While only down 34-23 at half time, USC shot 9 of 27 from the field and committed 11 turnovers during the first half, giving Ole Miss ample opportunities to run up a lead. Rick Duckett, USC as sistant coach, said of Ole Miss, “They’re an extremely patient team and pressure you into mis takes, and they capitalize on those mistakes.” The two squads traded baskets to start the second half, with Aaron Lucas providing five points for the Gamecocks and Jason Harrison adding two 3-pointers for the Rebels. Nevertheless, the turnovers and defensive errors by Carolina allowed Mississippi to expand their lead. An 8-2 Rebel run midway through the half gave them a 19-point lead and firm con trol of the game. Odom said his team’s defense hurt them. “Our zone was ineffec tive today. Every time we would switch to zone they would score on us,” he said. The Gamecocks could only ral ly within 14 points, and they never escaped the hole they dug for themselves. This game deeply contrasted with Wednesday night’s 94-60 win against Tennessee. Carolina only shot 35 percent from the field Saturday and 31 percent from 3 point range. Freshman Carlos ♦ MEN'S, SEE PAGE 8 Men swim past Viiginia USC wins meet in final event BY CHRIS FOY THK GAMECOCK The USC swim team returned to Columbia for its first home meet of the semester Saturday against No. 12 Virginia. Last weekend, the men’s team was up set by Kentucky. The women saw success, though, by defeat ing Arkansas as well as the Lady Wildcats. This weekend was the opposite, with the men overcom ing the Cavaliers 124-119, and the women falling 131-111. USC head coach Don Gibb was pleased with his swimmers’ performances. “I think our whole team raced well today,” Gibb said. “We’re getting better as it gets closer to the SEC Championships. I think we are peaking at the right time, and we met the challenge of swim ming against an outstanding Virginia team.” The men’s team competed down to the wire, winning the day on the final event. But in the 400-yard freestyle relay, senior Zsolt Gaspar finished his 100 yard freestyle split with an im pressive time of 43.67 seconds. Sophomores Chris McCrary and Ed Murphy, as well as senior Javier Botello were sharp as well as they finished the relay at 2:59.43. The mark was USC’s best in the event this season. In other events, Gaspar won in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly. Sophomore Istvan Bathazi won two events, the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard breaststroke, and finished second in another. His time of 3:51.80 in the 400 IM met the NCAA qualifying stan dard. Sophomore Tamas Szucs won the 200-yard freestyle with his best time of the season at 1.37.73. The women’s squad won three events. Junior Kristen Butler, sophomore Anna Nyiry and freshman Heather Skaggs each came up big. Nyiry won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.43. Butler picked up the win in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:04.29. Skaggs ♦ SWIMMING, SEE PAGE 8 Tamas Szucs finished first in the 200 freestyle with his best time of the season, 1:37.73. photo by Robert gruen Women fall hard to Arkansas Bad shooting, turnovers cause Lady Gamecocks to lose third game f§ use 46 Arkansas 74 BY COURTNEY KELLER THE GAMECOCK The No. 7 USC women’s basket ball (17-3, 5-2 SEC) team suffered its second SEC loss of the season to Arkansas (11-8, 2-5) Sunday af ternoon, a team it had no trouble with just two weeks ago. This time, the Lady Gamecocks were facing a team that was hungry for a win after losing 85-82 in double overtime to Mississippi State on Thursday. II was Carolina & ±uui »uaigm loss in Bud Walton Arena. The loss also marks the lowest offen sive total for USC this season. After the match, USC head coach Susan Walvius thought there were many reasons for the upset. “We didn’t play well, shoot the ball well, make our free throws, take care of the ball, and we didn’t rebound very well. Those are all of the things that win games for us,” Walvius said. “But we’ve got to credit this Arkansas team because their de fense was scrappy and we didn’t handle it very well.” Standout USC forward Teresa Geter was out of the lineup be cause of a stress fracture and will miss an indefinite amount of games. Replacing her in the start ing lineup was forward Tatyana Troina. 1 s Carolina jumped out to a 7-0 lead within the first few minutes of the game. However, the ’Backs would come back with a nine point run. Arkansas would keep going strong for almost five min utes with a 12-2 run, while Carolina fell into a scoring drought. The Lady Gamecocks not only suffered from missed baskets, but they also began to accumulate turnovers. They also missed to many scoring opportunities, which led to them trailing by eight, 20-12. Arkansas took advantage of Carolina’s mistakes by convert ing 16 turnovers into 18 points. However, with a little control, Carolina was able to get back in the game. The Lady Gamecocks would cut into Arkansas’ lead with a couple of 3-pointers from Troina and Kelly Morrone. Morrone’s second 3-pointer would * tie the game at 24. Arkansas would end the first half leading 35-24. They finished the half with both Shameka Christon and India Lewis in dou ble figures. Arkansas would end the half with three turnovers and was out-rebounded by 25-22. Carolina shot 33 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range and was 1-4 at the free throw line. Arkansas shot 36 per cent from the field, 29 percent from 3-point range, and 5-10 at the free-throw line. The second half was a mirror image of the first, with Carolina again suffering from excessive turnovers. At the end of the game, Carolina had committed 27 turnovers, which resulted in 31 Arkansas points. After the game, Walvius wasn’t able to come up with an answer. “We started out 7-0 with turnovers, we were a little care less with the ball, and I was not happy with our transition de fense. We looked a little fatigued today because lots of our kids had the flu and having Teresa Geter out affected our depth a little bit, causing our bench to be chal lenged,” Walvius said. “So we’ve got to get healthy, be cause we have Florida in a week and we’ve got to learn from this.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com >4 Quick Facts ♦ No USC player scored in double figures ♦ USC made 15 of 57 field goals ♦ It was the second highest turnover total of the year for USC (2nd to 32 against Duke) “We made a very, very good team look average today.” Gary Blair Arkansas Head Coach The Lady Gamecocks fell for only the third time this season In an away game against Arkansas. The Lady Gamecocks shot a dismal 28 percent from the field. Jocelyn Penn, who averages 19 points per game, was held to single-digit scoring. The Lady Razorbacks held Carolina to their lowest offensive total all season. The Gamecocks also committed 27 turnovers. PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN BRIEFLY USC places second at SEC 6-Way meet Competing in the SEC 6 Way in Gainesville, Fla., the USC women finished second, while the men finished third. The teams combined to win six events and pick up two NCAA automatic times and six NCAA provisional times. SEC Athlete of the Week Demetria Washington won the women’s 400 meters with a time of 53.52 seconds. The women went 1-4 in the 400, with teammates Lashinda Demus (54.14), Tacita Bass (54.89) and Shevon Stoddart (55.08) finishing behind Washington. Demus and Bass’ times were NCAA provisional times. On the men’s side, Otis Harris and John Fortenberry finished first and second in the 400, with Harris coming across at 47.48 — an NCAA provi sional time — and Fortenberry crossing at 47.88. Otukile Lekote continued to lower his time in the 800 me ters, winning the event at 1:48.85 — bettering his NCAA provisional time. Women’s tennis slams BYU 6-1 Behind a solid doubles per formance and steady singles play, the No. 21USC women’s tennis team downed visiting BYU 6-1 Friday afternoon in its season opener. The win gave the Gamecocks (1-0) their 11th con secutive home-opener win. BYU fell to 1-1 on the season. The Gamecocks are back in action next Saturday at 3 p.m., when they play host to Middle Tennessee State at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center. 4