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8 GAME SCHEDULE AAVml tth * MEN’S BASKETBALL at Florida, 7 p.m. Tuesday CON TACT U S WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Kentucky, 7 p.m. Thursday WOMEN'S GOLF at Lady Puerto Rico Classic, Saturday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRACK at SEC Indoor E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com Championships, Saturday USC fights off the Tigers Petra Ujhelyi’sfree throw with 1.5 seconds left gives the Gamecocks a key Southeastern Conference win , Auburn 64 (17-8, 5-7 SEC) “ 0 ,19U6SM, 65 BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE (JAMECOCK Petra Ujhelyi admitted it wasn’t the biggest shot she has taken in her career, but the shot she took at the end of the game against Auburn was the most important one for the 15th-ranked Gamecocks on Sunday. With 1.5 seconds remaining in regulation and USC down 64-62, Ujhelyi grabbed the rebound from a missed shot by Jocelyn Penn and put the ball back in the basket to tie the game. The Tigers’ Tia Miller fouled Ujhelyi to set up the game-winning free throw. ujneiyi said 11 was iuck max she got the opportunity to put in the tying basket and game-win ning free throw. Mandisa Stevenson threw the inbounds pass back out of bounds, and the Gamecocks (19-6,7-5 SEC) squeaked by 65-64 in a battle for seeding in the SEC tournament. VValvius was pleased with the effort to come back, though the team didn’t achieve a high shoot ing percentage. “I don’t think we shot the ball extremely well. However, we had 19 offensive rebounds, and we only turned the ball over seven times. Jocelyn gave us her typical game — 21 points, 12 rebounds,” Walvius said. “I thought we worked pretty hard. As you can see, Auburn is a very good basket ball team.” Auburn head coach Joe Ciampi thought it was just a matter of who had the ball in their court. “I thought Jocelyn Penn played a great game. She got seven offen sive rebounds and was just a ma chine in there,” Ciampi said. “It was a situation where it came down to valuing possessions at the end. It’s our misfortune that South Carolina had the last possession and capitalized.” USC opened up the scoring with a 3-pointer from Cristina Ciocan, but Auburn (17-8,5-7) ran out on a nine-point streak, and not long af terward, the Gamecocks were be hind. 17-9. Stevenson, Miller and LeCoe Willingham keyed the Auburn offeilse in the opening stretch, providing all of the Tigers’ points and beating USC in the paint. Down eight points, Walvius called a timeout, after which the Gamecocks broke the game open with a huge 25-2 run. Carolina held the Tigers scoreless for more than seven minutes during that rally. But Auburn worked to close the gap a bit, scoring the last seven points in the first half and ending the period with the Gamecocks on top 36-28 over the Tigers. Both teams were fairly even in the first half; Penn scored 14 of her game-high 21 points, and each squad shot more than 40 percent from the field. Despite being out rebounded, the Gamecocks still had 20 points in the paint, com pared with 10 from the Tigers. Ujhelyi, who was looking for an other double-double to go with the 10 she already has this season, was not going at the pace to do so, hav ing four points and three rebounds. The second half provided most of the suspense that seemed to per vade the game. USC battled out to a 10-point lead only to see it whit tled away by the trio of Miller, Willingham and Stevenson. Auburn quickly regained the lead, which it held throughout most of the second half. But a bas ket from Penn with 4:41 remain ing tied the game and shifted the momentum toward the Gamecocks. Natasha Brackett hit a 3-pointer to put the Tigers back on top, but ♦ BASKETBALL, SEE PAGE 9 PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Petra Ujhelyl, center, gets a look at the basket while being covered by two Auburn defenders. Ujhelyi had seven rebounds, six assists and 11 points, Including the winning basket. Gamecocks can’t keep up with Georgia BY CHRIS FOY TIIKCAMKCOOK The USC men’s basketball team hit a blip in its late-season success Saturday when it trav eled down to Athens, Ga. The Gamecocks, going into the matchup against No. 22 Georgia boasting a four-game winning streak, saw that feat come to an end as the Bulldogs (16-7,8-4 SEC) routed Carolina (11-12,4-8), 79-66. After the game, USC head coach Dave Odom said he thought Georgia played considerably bet ter than its No. 22 ranking might have indicated. “They’re a Top 25 team by any body’s standards,” Odom said. “I think they’re probably a Top 10 team in this building.” The Gamecocks traded buck ets with Georgia for most of the first half. But after the Bulldogs switched to a zone defense, USC’s shooting suffered and Georgia’s offense cruised on a 15-2 run to end the first half. The only points scored for Carolina during the run were two free throws by Chris Warren. Georgia topped off the half with a 3-on-l fast break led by junior Rashad Wright. Wright lobed the ball up to Jarvis Hayes who dunked the ball at the buzzer as the Bulldogs went into the locker room holding onto a 38-25 lead. The second half was no better for the Gamecocks. USC pulled within 10 at one point, but after a Georgia streak that featured three 3-pointers from Hayes and Ezra Williams, Carolina found it self down by 20 and was never able to recover. Hayes said he thought the sec Hayes ond-half run fi nally put the Bulldogs in a position of comfort. “We never felt we had a comfort able lead until that point,” Hayes said. “South Carolina is a pesky team. We knew at any point they’re capable of a run.” Warren led the team with 15 points. Chuck Eidson picked up nine before fouling out late in the second half. Tony Kitchings was second with 11 points and also picked up four rebounds. Kebrell Brown, who was injured during the Tennessee game and wore a mask for most of Saturday’s game, couldn’t connect at all, go ing 0-5. The Bulldogs were led by the forces of Hayes and Williams. Hayes led the team in scoring with 26 points. Williams scored 16 points, including eight of Georgia’s 15 in its first-half rim. Throughout the game, Georgia’s SEC-leading offense was able to connect for 44.8 per cent of its shots. Carolina, how ever, had problems all day from the floor and managed to only hit 37.7 percent from the field. With the win, Georgia im proves to 11-0 at home this year. The win also propelled the team into third place in the SEC East and helped its cause for a bid for a NCAA Tournament spot. The Gamecocks fall to a dismal 1-9 on the road. With the loss, any hopes of the big dance would rely on the team’s winning out its reg ular-season schedule. It is not a simple task, though, as Carolina will round out the season playing at Florida and Alabama and play ing host to Vanderbilt and Georgia at the Carolina Center. USC will start its final stretch Tuesday when it travels to Gainesville to face off against No. 7 Florida in front of a national au dience on ESPN. Last time the two teams met in Columbia, the Gators survived a scare as they left the building with a narrow 78 76 win. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Carolina baseball gets its first sweep of the season BY TRAVIS BOLAND THE GAMECOCK The 12th-ranked USC baseball team (8-1) put its ranking on the line against the Duquesne Dukes (0-3) over the weekend. The Gamecocks swept the Dukes in a three-game series, relying on their great hitting and pitching. USC 12 - Duquesne 2 The Gamecocks opened the se ries Friday with a 12-2 thrashing of the Dukes. Hank Parks and Kevin Melillo, who each homered twice, led Carolina. David Marchbanks won his third game, pitching six innings, allowing two runs and striking out six bat ters. The Gamecocks got on the board first in the second inning, with Parks hitting the first of his two solo home runs. The Dukes then took their first lead in the third inning, getting three consecutive hits off Marchbanks and taking a 2-1 lead. But in the bot tom of the inning, the Gamecocks broke the game open with six runs, giving them a 7-2 advantage. Six straight Carolina batters Melillo reached base in the inning, but the big hit was a two-run double by Michael Campbell. The Gamecocks went on to score two more runs in the sixth, including Melillo’s first home run of the game. USC capped the scor ing with three runs in the seventh inning, when both Parks and Melillo homered. Zach Reeves pitched two score less innings, and Bobby White came on to pitch a hitless ninth to seal the victory. The Gamecocks pounded out 16 hits, including three by Melillo and Bryan Triplett. USC 7 — Duquesne 5 The Gamecocks continued the weekend series Saturday, and af ter sitting through a three-hour rain delay, they went out and beat the Dukes 7-5. Freshman Conor Lalor picked up his first collegiate win, pitching five in nings and allowing two unearned runs. Carolina jumped on top early with unearned runs in the first and second innings. Campbell led off the game with a single and came around to score on a single by Brian Butcher. Triplett scored the other ruli, drawing a walk and coming around on a Parks sacri fice fly. Lalor was cruising until the fifth inning, when Duquesne got two unearned runs of its own. But two more unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth gave Carolina the lead back. Duquesne got an other run in the top of the sixth, but Landon Powell’s three-run double in the bottom of the sixth gave the Gamecocks the lead for good at 7-3. The Dukes cut the lead to 7-5 in the eighth inning with another pair of unearned runs on an er ror, a hit and two wild pitches by USC’s Forrest Beverly. USC 9 -Duquesne 0 The Gamecocks finished off the Dukes 9-0 on Sunday, in the series finale led by a strong pitching per formance by Matt Campbell. Campbell pitched seven and one third innings of hitless ball, al lowing just one walk. Campbell retired 16 straight batters, strik Iing out nine. Steven Bondurant pitched the ninth inning and al lowed one hit and struck out one bat ter. _ Carolina _ , jumped out to an Campbell early lead scor. ing three runs in the bottom of the first. Three walks, two wild pitches and one hit batter led to the three Gamecock runs. Carolina didn’t get its first hit until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Buscher singled. Powell singled to score Melillo, putting the Gamecocks ahead 4-0. The Gamecocks added to the scoring in the seventh when ♦ BASEBALL, SEE PAGE 9 Fans can turn all t attention to racing BRADSENKIW GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Winston Cup is full of issues and excitement. I’ll be the first to admit that February is not the epitome of the sports season. But for those who are waiting on spring training, March Madness and the NFL draft, how about focusing on the biggest fan attraction of all: NASCAR. The Daytona 500 was a washout last weekend, but racing got right back on track this week with Dale Jarrett’s win at Rockingham. Now that the checkered flags have been thrown on the season, it is my turn for a little prediction and review of issues that will occur in the next eight months. First, the sport has changed over the past few years with the emer gence of young and exciting drivers competing Busch for the Winston Cup Championship. Guys such as Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are grabbing head lines and positions on and off the track from drivers such as Bill Elliot, Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin. ueienuing cnamyiuu luuy Stewart has become Winston Cup’s poster boy for bad behavior. The defending points champion has battled NASCAR for the past few years through everything from his driving tactics to fights with EMS workers. I say NASCAR is being a bit too picky with Stewart. It doesn’t like him, and that’s sad because he might be the gutsiest driver on the circuit. Stewart is one of those guys, even though he is fairly young, who has an old school mentality of “it’s my track and I should win.” Last weekend’s disappointing end should not have been. After 109 of the 200 laps were completed, rain stopped the event, again, and Michael Waltrip was named the winner. Isn’t this the Super Bowl of NASCAR? I know the race can’t go on in the rain, but just finish it the next day. The sport and the event are too big to end early, un less Bud Selig has taken over. And what is up with NASCAR’s idea of using criteria to reduce the number of tracks? Officials want to take away tracks that aren’t meeting their money demands. Yesterday’s site, Rockingham, is a front-runner for extermination even though it is the top-rated track among drivers. They love it because they don’t stay in a single-file line and have more ability to pass. But NASCAR doesn’t like the fact that it can’t sell out the event and weather is sometimes a problem. How about keeping a track that gives an exciting race instead of worrying so much about money? I know this is a business, but little is done to make drivers happy anymore. ror jnAoUAK to become tne mainstream sport that it can be, it needs a spokesman. Earnhardt should be the man to start carrying the torch this sea son. He is the per fect choice, being Dale Sr.’s son and a likeable young man with a win ning team. Junior Earnhardt is hitting his prime as a driver and, if he can avoid the bad luck he has seen early this season, could compete for the points championship this year. This is guaranteed to be an other long and issue-filled year of racing as NASCAR and its ♦ SENKIW, SEE PAGE 9