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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, November 8, 2002 7 -r\ T^| rn GAME SCHEDULE TONTACT TTS I_} m I I J I ' SWIMMING AND DIVING vs. Clemson, 5 p.m. Friday \j\jn w * 1 uu | ■ ■ | ^ WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Athletes in Action (exhibition), Story ideas? Questions? Comments? 7 pm' E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com ■ \^/ M ■ rvy MEN’S SOCCER at No. 20 North Carolina, 6 p.m. Friday Carolina falls in SEC first round Florida takes revenge for early-season loss BY KYLE ALMOND the gamecock The USC women’s soccer team is one and done after losing 2-1 to Florida on Thursday in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Carolina (13-6-2), the fifth seed, was looking to follow in the foot steps of No. 8 LSU. The Tigers up set top-seeded Auburn in the open ing game of the tournament, which is being held in Oxford, Miss. But the fourth-seeded Gators took an early lead and held on to advance. With the victory, the Gators (9 9-2) avenged a 1-0 overtime loss to the Gamecocks from earlier in the season. “I’m not disappointed with our effort, and I’m proud of how our team battled,” USC head coach Shelley Smith said. "We battled even when we were two goals down and showed _ i ~ r*-; ,3 __a._ U 1VJ l V/l iuv- UUl on the field.” Senior Morgan McIntyre scored the lone goal for the Gamecocks, and USC now awaits next Monday’s 64- ' team selection for McIntyre the NCAA Tourna ment. Carolina is looking for the school’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since the 1998 season. Florida went ahead in the 10th minute of play when Florida mid fielder Danielle Murphy fed Crystal Frimpong, who beat the Carolina defense and goalkeeper Elise Matthews for her fifth goal of the season. The rest of the first half was closely contested, with Florida outshooting USC 3-2. Senior midfielder Jess Julin had both shots for Carolina. With 30 minutes remaining in the match, USC’s Melinda Carter just missed a goal off a free kick, drilling the ball just above the crossbar. That near-miss hurt even more when the Gators increased their lead to 2-0 at the 61:47 mark. Off a set piece, Florida forward Jen Gardner headed in a free kick into the left corner of the net high enough to get past Matthews. Carolina, desperate to get back into the game, came close with an other opportunity at 65:26, when Carter’s shot in the box was tipped by Amanda Thurber. But the shot was saved at the last second by Gators goalkeeper Jordan Kellgren. USC finally converted a chance with 12 minutes remaining. McIntyre found an opening in the Gators defense and launched a shot from about 25 yards out that flew over Kellgren and brought the Gamecocks within one goal. But USC couldn’t come up with -1 ‘I’m not disappointed with our effort, and I’m proud of how our team battled.” SHELLEY SMITH use WOMEN'S SOCCER HEAD COACH the equalizer. At the 84:00 mark in the match, Carolina came close to getting the equalizer on another Carter free kick into the box. The shot was knocked just left of the goal by Julin, however. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com GAMECOCKS HIT THE HARDWOOD PHOTO BY CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOC Junior transfer Kerbrell Brown was impressive in his first game wearing the garnet and black. The forward from New Orleans scored nine points, grabbed eight rebounds and added five steals in Carolina’s 16-point victory over Team Nike on Thursday. Second half the difference in USC victory BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK It was a tale of two halves Thursday night at the Frank McGuire Arena. During the first half, Team Nike led Carolina by as much as seven points, but the Gamecocks pulled ahead with a strong sec ond-half effort to defeat the visi tors 80-64 in an exhibition game. “I’m happy because we won, and yet, I don’t think we played real good,” USC head coach Dave Odom said about his team’s per formance. “We got the ball inside well, and our post players showed they could play against quality competition.” USC struggled early in the first half, appearing a little slow and sloppy with the basketball. Eight of Carolina’s 12 turnovers occurred before the break. But senior guard Chuck Eidson pro vided a shooting display, going 8-of-10 from the floor, including two 3-pointers. He led USC scor ers with 18 points. Eidson “played an excellent first half,” Odom said. “He gave us leadership, he shot the ball, I he scored the ball,” Odom said. “I did think he tired out twice, once in the first half, once in the second half ... but I thought Chuck played extremely well.” Team Nike played strong de fense against the Gamecocks un til Eidson broke it open late in the half with six points to give USC a seven-point lead going into halftime. In those last four minutes of the first half, a different Carolina team showed up — one that was faster, got to the basket quicker, made its shots and showed a lot more toughness than earlier in the game. The Gamecock defense was a major difference in how the team played the last 24 minutes. Kerbrell Brown, a junior trans fer from New Orleans, was all over the court, creating turnovers while providing some flashy play on offense. Brown scored nine points, grabbed eight rebounds and came up with five steals. “When you lose people, it gives others opportunities,” Odom said, referring to the Gamecocks playing without Rolando Howell, who has a mi nor ankle injury. “You take a guy like Kerbrell Brown. He made the most of his minutes tonight, and I was very pleased with what he did.” Senior forward Marius Petravicius had one of his best games since arriving at Carolina in 1999. The 6-foot-10 Lithuanian had 13 of his 17 points in the sec ond half, sparking USC’s major offensive attack. He even man aged to bang in a 3-pointer, which, along with his entire game, impressed his coach. “I thought Marius has his best ~ night in a long time, his 17 points not withstanding,”'Odom said. “I just thought he played very well.” Tony Kitchings had a big ♦ BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 8 1 Seniors to say final farewell USC competing with Razorbacksfor bowl position Arkansas at USC 12:30 p.m. Saturday Williams-Brice Stadium TV: Jefferson-Pilot Sports BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK Emotions will run high this weekend as USC’s fans and coach 11 es say goodbye to many of the se niors that helped pull the football team out of the depths of the SEC. The Gamecocks (5-4, 3-3 SEC) will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the last home game of2002 and look to position them selves for a bowl game. “There were some really good football players in that crowd that didn’t redshirt and have been part of turning this thing around,” USC head coach Lou Holtz said. “They’ve done that not just be cause of their talent, but it’s been their attitude as well.” Playing the last game at home “is going to be hard for them, but it’s going to be hard for us as coach es to think about playing without those guys,” Holtz added. Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt agrees that the game has ex tra meaning to the Gamecocks. “This will be a big game for South Carolina,” he said. “This will be the last time their seniors will play at home, and I’m sure they will use that to get ready tor tne game. It will be an emotional day for them, and I’m sure they will be ready to play.” Among the se niors who will be playing their final Faison game at Williams Brice Stadium are Corey Jenkins, Andrew Pinnock, Cedric Williams, Rashad Faison, Shane Hall, Langston Moore and Jonathan Martin. However, senior Ryan Brewer will not be able to play that final home game because of an ankle injury. He was also out last week for the Tennessee game. Arkansas (5-3,2-3) will look to take advantage of Brewer’s ab sence as it also tries to become bowl-eligible. The Hogs have won three out of their last four, in cluding back-to-back wins over Troy State and Ole Miss. Last week’s unimpressive 23-0 win against Troy State, however, has Nutt looking to improve on his offense’s production of only 125 total yards. “We’ve talked to our guys about keeping the kind of road focus this weekend we have had in other games,” he said. “We have had some success on the road this year, and we need to continue that.” Arkansas enters the game with the SEC’s top rushing at tack, which averages 246.9 yards per game. The Hogs are also sec ond in the league in scoring with 32.4 points a game. “They have a great tailback in Fred Talley; he has been tremen dous,” Holtz said. “Their quar terback, Matt Jones, I would ven PHOTO BY TRAVIS LYNN/THE GAMECOCK Matthew Thomas eludes a Tennessee defender during last week's game at Willlams-Brice Stadium. Thomas, who has played cornerback the last few weeks, has been moved back to wide receiver because of injuries to other Gamecocks. ture to say he runs 4.4” in the 40 yard dash, Holtz said. “He’s giv en everyone fits, runs the op tion.” The Razorback defense knows stopping quarterback Corey Jenkins is the key to beating USC. “South Carolina does a lot of different things to get Jenkins the ball,” Nutt said. “Getting ready to ♦ ARKANSAS, SEE PAGE 8 Bowling in Boise? Scenarios take shape MATT ROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Late-season games will decide who goes where in football’s postseason. With the nation’s political con tests behind us for another year, the most heated battles in the country will continue to take place on the gridiron. While only a month remains in the college foot ball regular season, teams are still jockeying for position within their conferences. More specifically, we’re talking about bowl position. The SEC — with a BCS berth and six other bowl tie-ins — will face its usual situation of fitting a square peg into a round hole. As the current standings show, there may be no fewer than eight bowl-eligible teams in the SEC this season. With more bowl games than ever before, it is conceivable that nearly every bowl-eligible team in Division I-A — 45, as of today — could play in the postseason. But where does that leave the SEC and, more importantly, the I’ll get there, but let’s start with what we already know. Kentucky and Alabama cannot play in a bowl game. The Crimson Tide gets to play a road game at Hawaii, which is, as far as I’m concerned, better than a bowl game. Mississippi State and Vanderbilt have little to no shot at a bowl, as both are currently winless in the SEC. Both can stay that way, too. The SEC has evolved into a con ference where nothing may be set tled until at least the final week of the regular season. Georgia leads the Eastern Division and LSU the Western. However, both have lost to their division’s second-place teams, Florida and Auburn, which will play a role in any tiebreaker. The Tide, having games against LSU and Auburn remaining on its schedule, can upset the balance in the West. Naturally, the SEC champion would probably get the nod for the Sugar Bowl. Then the next three bowls likely to select would be the CapitalOne; Outback and Cotton Bowls. Expect the Cotton Bowl to pick the second-place finisher from the West. The CapitalOne Bowl tends to have first dibs on the SEC runner up, and the Outback Bowl will take the remaining one of those top four teams. Sorry, USC fans, but there will be no third consec utive trip to Tampa this winter. Provided Georgia remains in the SEC East’s top spot, Florida is most likely to play a bowl game in its home state on New Year’s Day. The competition between Auburn and LSU is a lot less clear; both teams have tough conference games re maining on their schedules. The remaining three bowl spots are still up for grabs. USC, ♦ ROTHENBERG, SEE PAGE 8