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S THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, January 24, 2003 GAME SCHEDULE ■ 'V —■ "V W ■ ^ MEN'S TENNIS at USC Winter Invitational, 1/ \ I ■fllLl in Columbia, Friday-Sunday PHATTAPT TT<3 1 1 ' I ' MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRACK at SEC Quad Meet, PUIN LAV 1 VO A ^ A A I I . in Lexington, Ky., Saturday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I \ / A A IL) WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Coll, of Charleston, 5 p.m. Wednesday E-mailUsatgamecocksports@fwtmail.com A _A _A— rVy MEN’S BASKETBALL at Tennessee, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday I USC topped on Rocky Top FILE PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Koretha Johnson takes a shot during USC’s game against Georgia. Johnson grabbed six rebounds in the loss to UT. Penn's 26 points and Ciocan's 23 are not enough for Gamecocks to overcome the Lady Volunteers T Tennessee 07 (15-3,4-0 SEC) g (1USC) 78 BY ELIZABETH A. DAVIS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KNOXVILLE, TENN. - Gwen Jackson scored 18 points and re serve Shanna Zolman added 13 as No. 4 Tennessee beat No. 15 South Carolina 97-78 Thursday night. The Lady Vols (15-3, 4-0 SEC), who beat South Carolina for the 27th straight time, capitalized on the Gamecocks’ 24 turnovers to win their 42nd straight home game against a conference oppo nent. Jocelyn Penn, who came in av eraging a league-high 27.1 points, led South Carolina (14-4,2-3) with 26. Cristina Ciocan added 23 points and Petra Ujhelyi had 12. Kelly Morrone also contributed 10 points for the Gamecocks. Tennessee, which never trailed, led by as many as 22 in the second half. The Gamecocks used a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 15,72-57, with five minutes to go, but could never get the deficit into single digits. Tasha Butts and Shyra Ely each scored 12 points, and Kara Lawson added 10 for Tennessee. Tennessee dominated early and led by 16 after a 13-0 run in the first half. Ely stole passes on two con secutive possessions, leading to a basket by Lawson and a 3-pointer by Butts. Loree Moore and Butts each converted a three-point play, giv ing the Lady Vols a 27-11 lead with 10:24 left before halftime. Butts scored half of her night’s point to tal during that stretch. In the second half, the Gamecocks only came within 12 points of the Lady Vols, when Penn made a lay-up to make the score 52-40. Koretha Johnson led USC with six rebounds, though Carolina was out-rebounded by Tennessee. The Lady Vols made more of an effort to pound the offensive glass with 16 rebounds on their end. Despite losing, the Gamecocks actually outshot their opponents, completing 54.5 percent of then field goals, as opposed to Tennessee’s field goal percentage SEC Standings CONF. OVERALL Tennessee4-015-3 Georgia4-013-4 Louisiana State 4-1 16-1 Arkansas3-116-3 Mississippi State 3-114-3 Vanderbilt2-212-5 South Carolina 2-3 14-4 Kentucky1-28-7 Auburn «1-313-4 Ole Miss1-3 11-5 Alabama0-410-7 Florida 0-5 8-9 of 53.2 percent. The game drew a crowd of4,482, a much smaller attendance than usual because of snow and very cold temperatures. University classes were canceled Thursday. That ended a streak of the Lady Vols playing in front of a home crowd of at least 5,000 at 169 games. The streak began in 1991. USC returns to its home court on Thursday against Florida. Carolina romped by Bulldogs Miss. St. Q4 BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK Following the Gamecocks’ hard-fought loss to Florida, it seemed that Carolina was mak ing steady improvement and would be ready to play in the SEC. Wednesday night, though, those thoughts would be quickly aban doned. The USC men’s basketball played its worst game of the sea son, losing 64-48 to 22nd-ranked Mississippi State. For the Bulldogs, the win breaks a three game SEC losing streak, while Carolina (7-8,1-4 SEC) suffered its fourth-straight defeat. It was a game where the Bulldogs (11-4,1-3) quickly took the lead, with Michal Ignerski’s 3-pointer five seconds into the first half. From that point for ward, Mississippi State never looked back. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 advantage, but an 8-4 run by the Gamecocks closed the gap to one point. And that would remain the closest the two sides got, as MSU led 31-19 at the half. Turnovers were a big story in the game, as both sides commit ted 20 apiece, but the Gamecocks were ruined, in part, by their slop py ball handling skills. USC had 12 of its turnovers in the first half, a period in which they only shot a measly 21.7 percent (5-for-23) from • the field. But the second half provided little extra comfort for Carolina. Despite shooting 32.1 percent, the Gamecocks couldn’t make up for their early doldrums. Mississippi State led by 20 nearly seven min utes into the second half, and nev er relinquished their dominant lead. The Bulldogs shot the ball well throughout the game, shoot ing 49 percent on the night, as well as making 41.7 percent of their three-point attempts. Forward Kerbrell Brown per formed well in an otherwise for gettable game for USC. The junior from New Orleans led the Gamecocks with 15 points; in cluding scoring Carolina’s only three 3-pointers. Seniors Tony Kitchings and Chuck Eidson each finished with 12 points apiece, FILE PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Chuck Eidson calls an offensive play during the Florida game. The Carolina offense could only muster 14 completed field goals in its 64-48 loss to Mississippi State on Wednesday. though 10 of Eidson’s points came from free throws. If there is any more solace that the Gamecocks can take from Wednesday night, it is that USC out-rebounded the Bulldogs on the offensive glass, which would normally lead to more second chance shots. But even that was not a major factor for Carolina ei ♦BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 9 Holtz talks about his 2003 plans BY PETE IACOBELLI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBIA - Lou Holtz still will be South Carolina’s football CEO, responsible for the pro gram’s long-term growth and im provement. But the coach also promises to work as hard next season on the smaller details. “I’ve been basi cally a chairman of the board. I might step in here on offense, I might step in on defense or run the kicking game,” Holtz said Tuesday. But “I’m Holtz going to be an ac tive coach on the field, and that’s what I enjoy do ing the most.” No surprise that Holtz, a for mer defensive back at Kent, will work with the secondary when spring practice begins at the end of March. “Much of my time will be de voted to the defense,” Holtz said. “That’s where championships have to start.” Just look at Ohio State, this season’s uhdefeated national champs. “The last time they lost was to us was in the 2002 Outback Bowl,” Holtz said. “What was the difference? ... They played tremendous defense.” And a hands-on Holtz might not be the only change to a unit that slipped from third in the Southeastern Conference in 2001 to 10th this past 5-7 season. Holtz says new defensive coor dinator Chris Cosh and his assis tants likely will install a four-man front to replace the 3-5 scheme South Carolina ran the past four years with coordinator Charlie Strong. “People caught up with it,” Holtz said. Strong left for the same posi tion at Florida last month — and with little bad feeling from Holtz. “Charlie’s like a son to me,” Holtz said. “There’s nothing that I still wouldn’t do for him.” When Strong signed on with Holtz before the 1999 season, the defense surprised teams with its alignment and talent. However, this past year South Carolina didn’t fool too many opponents and never got the kind of pressure on quarterbacks Holtz hoped. The Gamecocks had only nine inter ceptions in 12 games, the third fewest in the SEC. “We didn’t create negative yardage plays; we didn’t do any thing to disrupt an offense; we didn’t do anything to create prob lems,” Holtz said. “Those are things we have to look at.” Can a full-time, on-the practice-field commitment from Holtz help? Well, it couldn’t hurt. “I’ve never been more excited to start spring practice,” Holtz said. Holtz says it’s easy to slip into the ivory-practice-tower men tality. For the last four years, Holtz has let Skip Holtz and his staff lead the offense and Strong and his group lead the defense. When the head coach wants to get involved — as when the elder Holtz took over the offense be fore Arkansas’ 23-0 victory — “you sort of foul things up,” Holtz said. Holtz has no doubts about Cosh’s ability to have a defense just as strong as, well, Strong. “But I also want to be in volved,” Holtz said. “I want to be able to control the outcome of the game rather than just theory.” South Carolina will have some questions to answer on de fense. Can Dunta Robinson be the lockdown corner he showed at times last year? Is George Gause able to shake off a so-so sopho more year to be the team’s next versatile linebacker-end ala John Abraham or Kalimba Edwards? Is there anyone Robinson who can fill up the middle like departed senior Langston Moore? Holtz will see up close this year what the answers are. Football News & Notes: Holtz said he has no worries about the NCAA’s continuing in vestigation. Last month, an NCAA investi gator visited campus to talk with several people. Several school of ficials, including athletic director Mike McGee, have said the uni versity has not received an offi cial letter of inquiry from the NCAA. “We’re very comfortable, we’re very, very comfortable,” Holtz said. “To my knowledge, they continue to follow whatev er they need to do, that’s their obligation. But it’s not like I’m worried, like ‘Gee, they’re com ing in.’” Holtz said safety Jonathan Martin was filing paperwork to request a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA. Martin had a broken leg dur ing preseason camp in 1998, then missed the next season after tear ing knee ligaments that required surgery. Holtz said he and his staff vis ited several of their returning players in their homes during the holidays to discuss the up coming winter workout program and expectations for next year. When asked if he’d done it be fore, he said: “We’ve normally gone to a Jan. 1 bowl most of my coaching career, so that’s hard to do.” Holtz could not discuss specific recruits because of NCAA rates. “I think it’s going very well, but you just don’t know,” he said. Oakland has odds going in its favor SHAWN ROURK GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Gannon, Rice and Raiders will win title. With the Super Bowl only 72 hours away, the excitement is building for the season’s most-an ticipated match up pitting the league’s best offense, Oakland, against the league’s best defense, Tampa Bay. For once in the recent history of the NFL, there will truly be a game where the absolute best from each confer ence will square off. Rich Gannon facing off against Warren Sapp, Jerry Rice against Ronde Barber — it’s enough to make a sports writer salivate. For once I might actually pay more attention to the game and less attention to the commercials. This Sunday's game will go down as one of the best displays of football the nation has seen in a while, unlike last year’s fluke performance by Tom Brady and the Patriots. But, alas, Buccaneers fans, your hopes are already doused — the Raiders will be taking home the Lombardi Trophy, and the difference will come down to the defense. This game will prove the time less saying that defense wins championships; Tampa Bay’s de fense, led by Sapp, will have to try to slow down Gannon and the Raider offense. The Raiders will have to spread the ball around quickly to hold off the Bucs’ pass rush. In the conference champi onship against Tennessee, Gannon had four receivers at his disposal: Tim Brown, Jerry Porter, Charlie Gamer and, who . can forget, Rice. The Titans showed a lot of dif ferent rush packages that made Gannon dump the ball off in a hur ry, but that left many of his re ceivers wide open for quick gains. The Raiders ability to hit the open man in rush situations will be the key for getting any yards against the Bucs. Gannon will also have to try to find a hole if Tampa can cover Oakland well, because Sapp will be knocking on Gannon’s door on every play. The main thing that is going for the Bucs is their front seven. Don’t look for Gamer to put many yards on the ground during the game. Throughout the post season he has averaged 4.6 yards per carry, Tampa Bay will dominate the frontline in the game. Sapp and company are going to have to find a way to blitz without leaving the field open for I Gannon. The Raiders de fense has turned around nicely throughout the season. Led by the experienced and equally scary Bill Sapp Romanowski, they are ranked third in the league in stopping the run, giving Mike I Alstott some problems getting off the line. So they will have to turn to the air to get their yards. But the Raiders have an answer for that as well — Rod Woodson. Along with Eric Barton and Tory James, they make up a very expe rienced secondary that will look to control guys like Keyshawn Johnson with double coverage. With that said, there are two simple things the Raiders can do to solidify a win. The first is to score numerous points. Granted. ♦ ROURK, SEE PAGE 9