The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 28, 2002, Image 7
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.”
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>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.
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