Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN Rolando Howell rises up and above a trio of Georgia players during Wednesday night’s game. Georgia CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 Petravicius, Carlos Powell, Rolando Howell and Tony Kitchings. Kitchings finished es pecially strong, with 11 points and six rebounds off the bench. His aggressive post-up move with 7:59 remaining in the game put USC ahead 63-48, and the 15-point cushion was Carolina’s largest lead of the night. “I thought they turned in an excellent performance, maybe their best performance as a four some tonight, and you can make a case for saying they made the difference,” Odom said. Hayes scored a team-high 21 points for the Bulldogs, and SEC leading scorer Ezra Williams added 19 points. Odom said he was in awe of the Georgia tan dem. “As far as a two-pronged at tack ... there can’t be two or three better in the country,” he said. As time dwindled, a victorious Bradley ran to midcourt with his arms extended in celebration of his team’s win and his personal accomplishment. Carolina’s next challenge comes this Saturday, on the road against No. 10 Kentucky (14-5,4 3). USC hopes to avenge their orie-point loss to the Wildcats from Jan. 12. Bradley led the Gamecocks in that game with 19 points, but a Cliff Hawkins buzzer-beater secured the 51-50 victory for Kentucky. The game will be televised locally on WIS at 1 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com use at No. 10 Kentucky 1 p.m. Saturday at Rupp Arena TV: WIS I MEN’S BASKETBALL CHALLENGE* THE CHALLENGE: Every week, Chris Keith Ryan Kyle Katie Chris The Gamecock’s readers and Foy Allen Clary Almond Smith Bums staff test their sports knowledge Sports Asst. Sports Sports Defending Designer Reader of with game predictions editor editor staff champion guest the week (0-0) (0-0) (0-0) (0-0)_j0-0)(0-0) 16 Georgia at USCUSCUSCUSC Georgia USC USC 24 Wake Forest at NC State Wake Wake NCS NCS^ NCS_NCS 3 Maryland at Virginia Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland Maryland 19 Arizona at California_Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona Arizona USC at 10 Kentucky USC USC USC Kentucky USC_USC_ Notre Dame at Seton Hall_Seton Hall Notre Dame Seton Hall Seton Hall Notre Dame Seton Hall Mich State at 12 Illinois Illinois Mich State Illinois Illinois Mich State Illinois 5 Florida at USC USC USC USC Florida Florida USC WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail selections for next week’s games to gamecocksports@hotmail.com. ♦Note: Due to an error, some selections in Wednesday’s paper ran incorrectly. This version is correct. ----- Rams, Pats to meet in Super Bowl BY JIMMY GOLEN ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS — New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick wanted to make sure Tom Brady is healthy. Everything else, he already knows. Belichick chose Brady to start at quarterback in the Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams, pass ing on Drew Bledsoe for the poised former backup who won Bledsoe’s job — and each of the Patriots’ last eight games. "Tom Brady demonstrated in prac tice that he is fit to play,” Belichick said Wednesday after Brady showed no lingering problems from an ankle injury that knocked him out of the AFC title game. "He will be our start ing quarterback on Sunday.” The decision means Bledsoe may have played his last game for the team that made him the first overall pick in 1993 and gave him a 10-year, $103 million contract last summer that re mains the richest in NFL history. Neither quarterback was avail able for comment after being in formed of the decision by Belichick. Belichick chose Brady with the 199th overall pick of the 2000 draft. The Patriots carried him on the roster all of last season as a rare fourth quarterback, but by this summer, Brady had vaulted over Michael Bishop and Damon Huard to be Bledsoe’s primary backup. When Bledsoe was injured in Week 2 — keeping him in the hos pital for several days and out of practice for seven weeks — Brady filled in so well that Belichick stayed with him even after Bledsoe was ready to return. Although Bledsoe was told he would have a chance to win his job back, Belichick soon decided he didn’t have the practice time to hold a competition and still pre pare for the week’s opponent. He gave the job to Brady, and things couldn’t have turned out better for New England ever since. The 24-year-old Brady was the AFC’s third-rated passer while lead ing the Patriots to an 11-5 record in the regular season. They were 5-11 last season and started this season 02. New England won six consecu tive games to win the division title and then beat the Oakland Raiders 16-13 in a snowy overtime to earn a spot in the conference title game. But when Brady sprained his left ankle in the conference cham pionship last Sunday, Bledsoe came on in relief, leading New England to a 24-17 win over Pittsburgh and creating a quar terback controversy on the game’s biggest stage. Week been too Serious? ^ LATE NIGHT COMEDY SERIES PRESENTS STAND DP COMEDIAN: flHinfl adaaWvce" burger CALL 777-7130 FOR MORE INFORAAATION I SPONSORED BY: CAROLINA PRODUCTIONS www.sa.scedu/cp GAMECOCK DISCOUNT COUPON expires. 02/28/02 www.mauricesbbq.com $1.00 OFF Any Basket Or Dinner at any of my 11 Midland L locations! /fee- Job Opportunities ■_ m ■VPflPPfVV ties are free and open to USC grammatic decisions. was made possible by an Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Carolina Department of Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Services, »»• ■;