The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 24, 2003, Page 8, Image 8
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