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g THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, March 6, 2002 GAME SCHEDULE PANTAPT TTQ BASEBALL vs. William and Mary, 7 p.m. Wednesday UUiN I1 Uu SOFTBALL vs. UNC-Greensboro, 3 p.m. Wednesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Ole Miss in SEC Tournament, E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com __ 9:45 P-m- Thursday WOMEN S TENNIS vs. LSU, 2 p.m. Friday BRIEFLY CAPS Clinic raises $4,000 for charity The third annual CAPS Clinic, run by the USC men’s soccer team and the Columbia YMCA, raised close to $4,000 for Children's Chance this past weekend. Children's Chance is an orga nization whose mission is to pro vide funding for programs and services that address the emo tional, social and educational needs of children and families dealing with cancef. The child-parent soccer clinic, the community service project of the USC men's soccer players and coaches, nearly doubled the amount of money it had raised in previous years. The event has dou bled in size in each of the three years in its history. Dyson, Ward named finalists for award USC athletes Trey Dyson and Jessica Ward have been chosen as recipients of an SEC post-graduate scholarship and are finalists for the 2001-2002 H. Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award as announced by SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer. Both Dyson and Ward are natives of Columbia and graduates of Spring Valley High School. A senior on this season's na tionally ranked baseball team, Dyson has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll twice, in 2000 and 2001, and he has also been named to the Dean's List. Ward was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the Dean’s List. Ward is majoring in business at USC. Each finalist will receive a $5,000 scholarship for post-gradu ate studies. SEC TOURNAMENT Gamecocks get one last shot at March Madness USC must beat Ole Miss, others for NCAA bid BY JAMES STARNES THE GAMECOCK Seniors Aaron Lucas and Jamel Bradley get one more shot at redemption this weekend at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Atlanta. USC (16 13,6-10 SEC), the sixth seed from the East, will face Ole Miss in the first round on Thursday night at 9:45 p.m. Ole Miss (20-9,9-7), the No. 3 seed from the West, is coming off perhaps its finest performance of the year - a 28-point pasting of No. 6 Alahama. The win over Alabama completed a perfect con ference home seaSbn (8-0) for the Rebels. The Gamecocks were thor oughly handled, 71-53, in the only meeting between the two schools this year in front of a loud and hostile crowd at the Tad Smith Coliseum in Oxford. The Rebels have not lost in Oxford since Dec. 1, but they've proven to be vulnerable away from home. Ole Miss was 1-7 in conference road games. However, it should be noted that of those seven losses, four of them came against teams with an RPI rating of 12 or better. Carolina closed out the regu lar season with three straight tough losses, including a heart breaking overtime loss at Georgia and a disappointing defeat against Mississippi State in the final regular season game at Frank McGuire Arena. During that stretch, USC shot a combined 36 percent from the field. Of the Gamecocks' 10 confer ence losses this year, eight were single-digit defeats, including two one-point losses and one overtime loss. Carolina has proved all season that they can play with anybody. Defensively, the Gamecocks are as good as any school in the con ference, only giving up 61.4 points per game. They can handle the ball and are a decent rebounding team. USC's downfall all year has been its shooting. Since confer ence play began, USC has shot less than 40 percent from the field in eight games, which all result ed in defeat. Two of those losses were especially upsetting because they came by only one point to top 10 teams (Kentucky and Alabama). Contrarily, Carolina is 6-2 in the SEC when it shoots over 40 percent. During the SEC coaches' tele conference, USC head coach Dave Odom said: "I'm eager to get to Atlanta and the SEC Tournament. It's my first one, and I’m excited about it. Our team is also excited." Odom and the Gamecocks will look to put together a solid finish to the season. With only 16 wins, the SEC Tournament represents the only chance USC has to make it to the NCAA Tournament, and the first step is Ole Miss. "Ole Miss is tough - they real ly handled us in Oxford," Odom said. "We will be ready this time, hopefully." If Carolina can get past the Rebels, its second-round oppo nent would be Kentucky (20-8,10 6), the No. 2 seed from the East. USC was 0-2 this year against the Wildcats, losing 51-50 in Columbia and 91-74 in Lexington. Kentucky closed out its regular season with a 70-67 win against No. 8 Florida at home. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN Aaron Lucas finished his final regular season game with nine points against Mississippi State. Lucas and the other Gamecocks are gearing up for postseason play this weekend at the SEC Tournament in Atlanta. PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN The USC baseball team Improved to 10-2 on Tuesday night with a 10-4 victory over UNC Asheville. The Gamecocks will take on William and Mary tonight at Sarge Frye Field. Baseball team bounces back from Clemson losses with win I |i| USC 10 1 UNCA 4 BY RYAN CLARY THE GAMECOCK The USC baseball team got back to its winning ways Tuesday night with a 10-4 victory over the UNC Asheville Bulldogs at Sarge Frye Field. The Gamecocks improved to 10 2 on the year and return to the field tonight against William and Mary. USC senior Matt Wilson earned his first victory of the sea son, giving him a 1-0 record. The Gamecocks wasted no time Tuesday night, scoring six runs in the first inning led by back-to-back home runs by first baseman Yaron Peters and left fielder Garris Gonce. The USC pitching staff took over from there, allowing just five Bulldog hits. Junior Steven Bondurant was the starter and threw four shutout innings, giving up just two hits. Wilson relieved him for two in nings, followed by junior Rocky Evans, freshman Cliff Donald, ju nior John Wesley,and junior Rico Bravo. The Gamecocks added to their run total in the fourth inning with three more runs. Drew Meyer led off with a single, fol lowed by three consecutive hits by Steve Thomas, Peters, and Gonce. The Gamecocks finished their scoring in the fifth when Thomas drove home Jason Ross to give USC a 10-0 lead. In the ninth inning, UNC Asheville ended the Gamecocks’ hopes for a shutout. Wesley al lowed four men to reach base, however, Bravo came in to retire the side. The hot hitting continued for USC, as shortstop Drew Meyer went 3-for-5, making him seven for his last 11. Thomas had three hits and a walk, and Peters went 2-for-5 with a double and a home run with four RBIs. Gonce also had two hits with a solo home run. The Gamecocks had a total of 13 hits but committed three er rors. Luckily for the Gamecocks, it only one cost them one run. Carolina also got some help from UNC-Asheville, which committed six errors and trans lated into four USC runs. After tomorrow’s game, USC will prepare for a home weekend series with Seton Hall. The Gamecocks faced the Pirates in the NCAA Regionals two years ago. USC begins SEC play in two weeks when it travels to Mississippi State. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecock.sports@hotmail.com UNC-Greensboro should pose challenge to USC j UNC-Greensboro at USC 3 p.m. Wednesday Beckham Field BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK This afternoon, the UNC Greensboro softball team invades Columbia for a doubleheader against No. 25 USC. Carolina (13-6) is looking to keep up its momentum after win ning four games at the Plant City Strawberry Fest Tournament this past weekend. Head coach Joyce Compton also would like to add to her USC victory totals, having sur passed her 700th in Florida. The Spartans (13-3-1) want to piece together another long win ning streak, after their 10-game run was stopped by St. John's on Friday at the Dixie Classic in Virginia Beach, Va. . Spartans coach Karen Matteson brings an experienced team with all-around talent. However, the main strength of the Spartans lies in their pitching staff. Junior Amber Watson is the undisputed ace. The southpaw is 6-0 in eight appearances with a minis cule 0.33 ERA. Her 34 strikeouts leads the team. Fellow juniors Amy Poole (2-1,1.34 ERA) and Jennifer Vanderploeg (3-1,2.22) can throw heat, too. Vanderploeg is second on the team with 25 strikeouts. Maureen Flynn (2-1) also puts in quality innings. While the Spartans feature sol id pitching, they exhibit a bal anced hitting attack as well. Infielder Penny Thompson cur rently leads the team in hitting with an average of .396. Most of her hits have gone for extra bases, resulting in a team-leading slug ging percentage (.875) and on-base percentage (.483). Thompson has also hit six home runs. Not to be outdone, upperclassmen Jennifer Aguilar, Jennifer Moran and Kristy Norton all have batting av erages above .300. Regardless, from top to bottom, the UNC Greensboro batting order should pose quite a formidable menace for the Lady Gamecocks. Another asset for the Spartans is their speed. So far, UNC Greensboro is 19-for-31 (62 percent) in stolen base attempts this sea son. Outfielders Kim Benningfield and Megan Gough are tied for the lead in stolen bases with four each, while Norton has chipped in with three. The Lady Gamecocks might have their work cut out for them, but after winning four straight af ter a loss to No. 8 Michigan this weekend, they should be ready for the challenge. USC's pitchers are going to have to silence the Spartans hitting game. * Megan Matthews (7-2, 0.47) per formed brilliantly in her three ap pearances over this past weekend, and Aleca Johnson (3-1,1.64) put in quality work in relief. Matthews continues to fool batters, with 75 strikeouts on the season. Along with No. 2 starter Stacey Johnson (3-2,1.72), if the USC pitchers are all on their games and hitting their spots, they should be able to control a game. On the other end, Carolina's bat ters need to keep the hits coming and put up big offensive support for their pitchers. Amber Curtis has been pounding the ball lately, and Melissa Sandel and Kim Evans had big week ends, too. Sandel leads the Lady Gamecocks with a .333 average, while Evans is tops in stolen bases. Curtis has accumulated 14 RBI so far, and Debralee Troesh and Meghan Cornett are still hitting well. The fifst game of today's double header at Beckham Field begins at 3 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com MEN’S BASKETBALL CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGE: Every week, The Gamecock’s readers and staff test their sports knowledge with game predictions. Villanova at Syracuse No. 18 Stanford at No. 20 So, Cal USC at Ole Miss No. 22 Indiana at Mich. State Virginia at N.C. State St. John's at Seton Hall Wake Forest at Georgia Tech No. 25 Cal at UCLA Arkansas at Tennessee ■*-—— Chris j. Keith Foy Allen Sports Asst. Sports Editor Editor (25-17) (30-12) Syracuse Syracuse So. Cal Stanford use use Indiana Mich. State Virginia Virginia St. John’s_St. John’s Wake Wake UCLA Cal Arkansas Arkansas Kyle Steve Almond Shuler Defending Sports champion staff (28-14) (25-17) Syracuse Syracuse Stanford Stanford Ole Miss Ole Miss Indiana Mich. State Virginia Virginia St. John’s St. John’s Wake_ Wake_ UCLA UCLA Arkansas Tennessee Kevin Matt Fellner Raven Asst. News Reader of Editor the Week (27-15) (26-16) Villanova Villanova Stanford So. Cal use use Indiana Indiana Virginia Virginia St. John’s StJohn’s Wake GeotgaTech CalCal Arkansas Arkansas WANT TO BE READER OF THE WEEK? E-mail selections for next week’s games to gamecocksports@hotmail.com