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Without Penn, Carolina rolls over the Rebels have won four straight and fin ished tied for fifth in the SEC with Vanderbilt. “It’s not a surprise that we scored that many because our team really does a good job find ing open people and that starts with our point guard (Ciocan),” South Carolina coach Susan Walvius said. “We’re playing our best basketball of the season right now.” Amber Watts had 18 points and eight rebounds to lead Ole Miss (12-15,1-13), which lost its final 13 SEC games to match its worst con ference record ever. Tia Watson had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Rebels. South Carolina outscored Ole Miss 21-9 in the final seven min utes of the first half to take control of the game. Morrone hit two 3 pointers during the run, the sec ond with 1:10 left to make it 40-26. South Carolina led 42-26 at half time. Ole Miss cut the lead to 13 early in the second half on a free throw by Watts, but it never got any clos er. “We made a run, but then we had breakdowns, while South Carolina was very opportunistic on the other end,” Ole Miss coach Ron Aldy said. “They really played well as a team and they were very, very impressive today.” Burgess scored six straight points for South Carolina to ex tend the lead to 49-32 with 17 min utes left. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ciocan and Koretha Johnson in creased the lead to 63-41 with 10:41 left. Ole Miss and South Carolina will meet again in the first round of the SEC tournament on Thursday. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Boynton CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 presence changed the Gamecocks’ mentality. “He was like that comfortable blanket that you grew up with. He came in, and the mood just changed to, ‘We’re going to win this game,”’ Eidson said. “After that, we knew we were going to get the ball up the court and get good shots. I don’t know what it was, but I know it was nice to have him out there to help me out.” Boynton said he decided to take complete advantage of the oppor tunity he was getting. “It would have been more diffi cult if I were a freshman or a sophomore. As time goes on, you mature in your mind as to how the system is working. This is a business and you’ve got to win,” he said. “If you’re not producing at a certain time, then they’re go ing to look at someone else. At a point in time, I wasn’t producing, and I knew my time would come again and my opportunity would come again to be able to produce for this team. I got that opportu nity tonight, and I stepped up and took full advantage of it.” But with all that Boynton did to keep USC in the game, Powell provided the points to back Boynton up. The forward from Florence scored a career-high 21 points —15 of them in the second half — and contributed seven as sists, also a career-high, to pace Carolina offensively. “Certainly Carlos had a great day today. When he’s playing that well, the ball moves, there’s a lot of energy out there. We were able to do some things offensively,” Odom said. Powell was surprised with his effort; he knew he had 21 points, but he said he “probably never had seven assists” in as long as he could remember. Yet even with all Powell did, Odom could not help but put the focus back on Boynton. “I appreciate knowing that I’ve got players on the court that know what to do. They may not be able to do what you want them to do, but they know what to do,” Odom said. “Mike Boynton epitomizes that. He is a player who hadn’t played a lot lately, but to stay in the game mentally, in the game and in practice, it shows you he’s a special person, if not a special player.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Baseball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 after singles by Nick Gardiner and Hank Parks, Melillo brought in a run with a sacrifice fly. Two bat ters later, Clemson reliever Robert Rohrbaugh walked Buscher with the bases loaded, giving Carolina a 4-0 lead. Clemson came right back late in the game with a two-run homer by Johnson in the eighth inning and a two-run home run by Frank in the ninth inning. Rawl then turned on the juice and ended the Clemson rally by striking out three straight batters to end the game. “They only had a day to enjoy (their win), so now we got a month to epjoy (our) one win,” Rawl said. “It’s a big momentum change for us.” Gardner-Webb comes to Columbia on Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. game against USC. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com BRIEFLY USC nets wins over Bulldogs, Rebels The 24th-ranked Gamecock women’s tennis team cruised to a 7-0 win over Mississippi State in the SEC opener Friday. Carolina came out strong, winning two of the three doubles matches. Kathy Boyanovich and Magda Wojdylo defeated Yumi Ueda and Elaine Fagan 8-0 in the No. 1 doubles match-up. Jodi Kenoyer and Catherine Brown came back to defeat Magdi Rekasi and Annastasia Kugakolova 8-6. Mississippi State’s Marcelle Hirt and Justyna Switala took the third doubles match 9-7 over Justine Walsh and Danielle Wiggins. The Gamecocks won all six singles matches to complete the i victory over the Bulldogs. Sunday, the Gamecocks won 4-3 against Ole Miss on Sunday afternoon, improving to 6-1 over all and 2-0 in the SEC while the Rebels dropped to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in the SEC. The Gamecocks took two of the three doubles matches. Wojdylo and Boyanovich upset 34th ranked Mira Radu and Virginia Tomatis, while Kenoyer and Wiggins also won for USC. In singles play, USC’s Kenoyer, Wiggins and Wojdylo would go on to win points for the Gamecocks, gaining the victory. Carolina tops MSU, loses to the Rebels The 15th-ranked Carolina men’s tennis team used three sin gles victories and a critical dou bles win to open the SEC season with a 4-3 win over Mississippi State and improve its season record to 8-0. MSU leads the all time series 11-4, but USC’s four victories have come in the past six contests between the schools. Tom Eklund and Marcus Westman paced the Gamecocks in doubles with an 8-5 win over Romain Ambert and Rene Charles Combette. Seth Rose and Carl Wermee clinched the No. 2 doubles point for the Gamecocks with a 9-7 win over Florent Girod and Jerome Le Belicard. Angelo Niculescu, Ben Atkinson and Wermee all won singles matches. Sunday, TJSC lost 4-2 to eighth-ranked Ole Miss. -1 Keeping an eye on the ball PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Kathy Boyanovlch gets ready to backhand the bail during a match in February. Boyanovlch and the USC women’s tennis team beat Mississippi State and Mississippi over the weekend. Senkiw CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 demonstrate his or her feelings toward America. If the coach thinks it is disrespectful and goes against the team’s guide lines, then that coach should re move the player. If other players they are being disrespected, they have a right to quit or ask the coach to re move the demonstrator. The whole problem I have is the loss of focus this can bring to a team. These women are attending a college to get an education and play basketball. If someone is keeping this from happening, that person should be taken out of the picture. It is distracting for the other women, as well as the coaches, to be caught up in this. Even though I would kick Smith off my team, I do admire her courage and zeal. She knew what kind of trouble she was stir ring up and didn’t do this for any national attention. As far as peo ple running out on the court with flags and fans booing her on road games, these people are equally demonstrating their views, and it’s something Smith must deal with. It becomes illegal if violence or any kind of property damage occurs, but if that never hap pens, Smith must take the na tional outcry. It strikes me as important to address this issue because of the past. Athletes have protested during many Olympic events, and it is now something we don’t just hear about — we live it. People have the right to protest either side of the issue. I just wish Toni Smith could protest outside of a basketball stadium, for her team and her school. Senkiw is a third-year print journalism student. Basketball CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 play was a “coach’s choice.” Center Tony Kitchings also struggled in the outing with six ' points and only one rebound. Freije led the Commodores with 22 points, and center Brian Thornton scored 13. Vanderbilt now falls to 0-10 on the road. Despite the Commodore’s subpar road record, Odom knew the win for the Game cocks wasn’t a simple task. “This certainly was not an easy win,” Odom said. “But it was much needed.” The Gamecocks return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Alabama in a re match of one of last year’s SEC Tournament semifinal games. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com OXFORD, MISS. (AP) — Despite the absence of leading scorer Jocelyn Penn, No. 16 South Carolina had no trouble beating Mississippi. Penn, the nation’s fourth-lead ing scorer at 24.9 points per game, sat out the regular-season finale with a sprained ankle, but sever al Gamecocks picked up the slack in a 91-68 victory on Sunday. “This game was for J.P,” said Gamecock guard Sarah Burgess, who had a career-high 15 points. “We wanted to come out and play well without her and we were able to get off to a fast start.” Cristina Ciocan had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists, Kelly Morrone scored 19 points, Petra Ujhelyi had 16 and Olga Gritsaeva 10 for South Carolina. South Carolina started the game with a 13-0 run and scored its second-highest point total of the season. The Gamecocks (21-6,9-5 SEC) Ash Wednesday I § March 5,2003 Masses: 8:00 a.m. 12:15 p.m. 7:00 p.m. St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel 1610 Gfreene St. Opposite the Nursing Building 799-5870 http://wvyw.stthomasmoreusc.org L__ Carolina “Productions Presents: * fln Cvening with Susan £. Jayfot Wednesday, Match 5ih Russell House ballroom 7:30pm• www.sa.sc.edu/cp _