University of South Carolina Libraries
9 GAME SCHEDULE rn\TTAPT TIQ BASEBALL vs. Wofford, 7 p.m. Wednesday li vlj 1 U O MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Ball State (NIT), 7:30 p.m. Thursday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Drake in Raleigh, N.C. (NCAA>, E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com , 11:30 a.m. Saturday SOFTBALL at LSU, 2 p.m. Saturday MEN’S NIT BASKETBALL ONE MORE HOME GAME GAMECOCKS BEAT UNLV, ADVANCE TO NIT QUARTERFINALS - * “Our players wanted to play well for the fans | tonight, and our players wanted to win for the P fans tonight.” L DAVE ODOM I use MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH If you’re going... The men’s basketball team will play its final game at the Carolina Coliseum against Ball State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the NIT quarterfinals. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. today in the Russell House. Coming NIT action ♦ BYU (18-11) at Memphis (23-9), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2nd Round ♦ Syracuse (22-11) at Richmond (22-13), 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Quarterfinal ♦Temple (17-14) vs. Villanova (19-12), Thursday, Quarterfinal Other NIT scores TEMPLE 65 Louisville 62 TENNESSEETECH 80 Yale 61 Louisiana Tech64 VILLANOVA 67 BALL STATE75 Louisiana State 65 Tony Kltchings had his fourth double-double in five games Tuesday night. Kltchings and y the Gamecocks beat UNLV by | 10 points to move on to the NIT quarterfinals. PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN UNLV 65 0 USC 75 BY CHRIS FOY THE GAMECOCK Early in the second half of Tuesday night’s second round NIT game between USC and UNLV, the visitors began to make a run at the lead. The Runnin’ Rebels cut the Gamecocks’ lead to five and threatened to stage a come back. But after.Chuck Eidson and Tony Kitchings each scored a bas ket, Jamel Bradley hit three con secutive 3-pointers to practically put the game out of reach at 49-36, and the Gamecocks held on to win 75-65. The win marked a huge night for the Gamecocks (20-14). USC won 20 games for the first time since the 1997-98 season, and for the third time ever, Carolina ad vanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT. In addition, senior point guard Aaron Lucas became the 35th Gamecock to reach 1,000 career points. He had 999 going into the ' game. After the game, USC head coach Dave Odom said that the game wasn’t the cleanest he’s seen, but his squad got the job done. “It was hard to get a handle on tonight,” Odom said. “The game wasn’t very pleasing to watch, but it was a pleasing outcome.” The Runnin’ Rebels got the lead early in the game, going up 5-2. But after a Rolando Howell dunk and a Lucas layup, the Gamecocks would lead for the remainder of the game. All five starters for Carolina scored in double digits. Eidson had 18, Howell had 12, Lucas had 11 and Bradley had 16. Tony Kitchings had his fourth double double in five games with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Odom attributed a lot of the team’s success to Kitchings’ resur gance. “It’s hard to get people back in sync,” Odom said. “Finally, to be honest with you, I got tired of messing with it. And I told our team that there was one player on our team that can make our team appreciably better, and his name is Tony Kitchings. , PHOTO BY AARON HARK USC's leading scorer, Chuck Eldson, helps the team soar past UNLV on Tuesday night. Key Moment Jamel Bradley knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers over the span of 1:12 in the second half to put USC ahead 49-36. “Right now, we feel like we can win games. But certainly, we will have to play better than we did tonight.” DAVE ODOM USC MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH “We pretty much told him, you either get it done, or we’re going with somebody else. And he an swered the challenge.” UNLV was led by Lou Kelly with 28 points. Dalron Johnson was second on me learn wim iv. The Runnin’ Rebels didn’t help their cause, however, with 20 turnovers as well as 28 personal fouls. Once the final buzzer sounded, fans wanted to rush the court, but officials were quick to restrain them. The victory set up a quarterfi nal matchup against Ball State, which will take place at Carolina on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. The Cardnials beat SEC foe LSU last night 75-65. The game will official ly be the last USC men’s basket ball game at Frank McGuire Arena. Odom knows his team is confi dent, but he also knows it’s going to need play better than down the stretch than it did Tuesday night. “Right now, we feel like we can win games,” Odom said. “But cer tainly, we will have to play better than we did tonight.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Fifth-ranked baseball to face Wofford BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK The fifth-ranked USC baseball team (21-3,2-1 SEC) returns home tonight to play host to upstate foe Wofford. The Gamecocks look to continue their winning ways after taking a series from Mississippi State this past weekend. Wofford (15-8, 4-2 Southern Conference) poses a serious threat to Carolina, as the Terriers return most of their starters from last season. USC head coach Ray Tanner is well aware of Wofford’s abilities. “They’ve won 15 games. They would like nothing more than to knock off a team in the top 10,” Tanner said. “They’re a very good team and they’ve got an im pressive pitcher in (George) Lehr.” Lehr is the closer of a strong pitching stafT that includes starters Tate Osterman, Blake Timanus, Culley Kline and Chad McGill. Out of the bullpen, Lehr and Joey Cress have done the ma jority of work in relief and have a w WOFFORD Wofford at USC 7 p.m. Wednesday at Sarge Frye Field Radio: Sports Radio 1400 AM combined record of 94). Lehr leads the team in saves (4) and is an All Southern Conference candidate. One of Wofford’s more dan gerous hitters is freshman third baseman Matt Lein. He leads the team in batting average (.424), as well as doubles (12) and home runs (5). A switch-hitter, Lein should be a contender for Southern Conference Rookie of the Year. Wofford’s pitchers will have to face a very potent USC lineup. All nine regular starters for the Gamecocks are batting over .250, and Carolina ranks near the top ♦ BASEBALL, SEE PAGE 10 Women charge into Sweet 16 If you’re going... use will receive an allotment of 300 tickets for the NCAA East Regional at the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena. Fans € can call M 1-800-310- ■ 7225 to order ■ tickets, and ^ the USC Ticket Office will have tickets on sale beginning today. Ticket j books for the \ regional are $30 each. Teresa Geter and the rest of the Lady Gamecocks will meet Drake on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Wanted: One real SEC commissioner CHRIS FOY GAM ECOCKSPORTS@HOTM AI L.COM Roy Kramer’s constant failures prove he wasn’t fit for top position. Last week was a good week. In light of getting screwed out of a probable NCAA bid because of some of the sorriest officiating I have ever seen, good things happened. We upset Kentucky in a dome filled with Wildcats fans that had three-day hotel reservations. Both the men’s and the women’s basketball teams advanced to the second round of their respective tournaments. But perhaps the best news I heard was that SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer is retiring. Maybe now we’ll get a commis sioner who has the testicular for titude to do something when one of his teams gets screwed. Like when there’s a blatant offensive pass interference penalty missed by a conference official that costs a team a game, not to mention a bet ter postseason berth. What was Kramer’s action when this happened two years ago to USC? Reprimand Lou Holtz for daring to speak out against the of ficiating. Good call there, Mr. Kramer. How about when you have a team that had recently fallen off the NCAA Tournament bubble? A struggling team that had knocked off the No. 11 team in the nation and was tied with No. 8 Alabama, USC again fell victim to poor offi ciating a couple of weeks ago. Officials didn’t even see Chuck Eidson get pinned, and one called a foul on a shot that wasn’t made (a chance at two points). Instead, they let a play stand that occurred after the whistle was blown, and still gave the Alabama player a free throw, which he made. You think we didn’t get raw end of that deal? Zero, one, or two points is much easier to combat than three. What did Kramer do? Nothing. Not even comment. What about when terrorists launched the worst attack ever on American soil? What did Kramer do? He was more concerned about bringing in revenue than mourn ing the dead; he was one of the last commissioners to pull out of play ing football the weekend after September 11. ♦ FOY, SEE PAGE 10