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S THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, November 17, 2003 q \ME SCHEDUI E ■ "V ■- ’V 7 11 / Ni MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Gardner-Webb, 8 p.m. Monday vs. Elon or Idaho, Tuesday CONTACT IIS I_I U I vs. Navy, 8 p.m. Friday uuninui ukj | | ■ | ^ WOMEN’S BASKETBALL at Clemson, 8:30 p.m. Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I V F B B 111 VOLLEYBALL vs. Alabama in SEC Tournament, 6 p.m. Friday E-mailusatgamecocksports@kotmail.com _JL m m FOOTBALL vs. Clemson, 7 p.m. Saturday USC suffers another Gator bite GAME 11 ©Florida 0A (8-3,6-2 SEC) fBt use (5-6,2-6 SEC) SOUND BITE “You have to not be afraid to lose; you have to reach out and take chances, gambles, weigh the odds and go with that.” LOU HOLTZ use HEAD COACH BY THE NUMBERS 122 Daccus Turman rushed for 122 yards on 18 carries, just one yard shy of his career-best 123 yards, which he picked up against Virginia earlier this season. Cory Boyd added 43 yards. 73 Chavez Donnings returned a punt 73 yards at the end of the first half. The longest Gamecock return belongs to Dick Harris, who scored on a 77-yard return in 1971. 6 Florida and USC combined to fumble the football six times. The Gators lost two of their three fumbles while the Gamecocks gave up only one of their three. BY WES WOLFE THE CAMECOCK The USC football team had to play a flawless game to defeat Florida, but a botched fake punt attempt and a key fumble gave the Gators a 24-22 victory Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. “Teams have to learn how to win,” USC head coach Lou Holtz said. “You have to not be afraid to lose; you have to reach out and take chances, gambles, weigh the odds and go with that. We’ve got to learn how to _ i-=-1 win.” ■ Carolina’s of fense, when it ran, ran with the legs of running back Daccus Turman, who had 20 carries for 122 yards in the Boyd game. Also, Cory Boyd finished with 15 carries for 43 yards and one touchdown. The running game was anoth er key to Florida’s offensive at tack. Running back Ciatrick Fason ran the ball 20 times for 190 yards, while DeShawn Wynn had 41 yards on nine carries and one touchdown. “Six to eight weeks ago, we might not have won this game,” Florida head coach Ron Zook said. “We played a very good team today. South Carolina had a great plan, and Coach Holtz def initely had his team prepared to play.” Carolina (5-6, 2-6 SEC) came into the game for the third time this year needing one more win to become bowl-eligible. Early in the game, it seemed like that win was possible. Carolina got the ball first but punted and pinned Florida (8-3,6-2 SEC) on its own 8-yard line. On Florida’s third play from scrim mage. defensive end George Gause sacked Florida quarterback Chris ^ PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC’s George Gause tackles Florida’s Ciatrlck Fason in USC’s 24-22 loss to Florida on Saturday. Leak in the end zone for a safety. A run by Turman for 25 yards set up USC on the next series, and Boyd punched the ball into the end zone. Following the next point, Carolina led the Gators 9-0. The Gamecocks caught a break on their next defensive series when Wynn fumbled the ball, which was then recovered by linebacker Marcus Lawrence on the Carolina 19-yard line. Carolina punted on its next pos session, sticking Florida on its own 10-yard line. The Gators man aged to put their offense together with runs of 20 and 30 yards by Fason, who put Florida close to the end zone. Leak ran the ball in, and Florida cut Carolina’s lead to two points. Just before the half ended, wide receiver Chavez Donnings ran back a Florida punt for a touch down and put Carolina up 16-7 as time expired. The third quarter proved to be the Gamecocks’ undoing. In the first drive following the half, Fason broke a 40-yard run and set up a touchdown pass to tight end Ben Troupe, which brought UF back within two points. Turman scampered for 24 yards on USC’s next possession, but Carolina was forced to punt, and Florida punted on their next pos session as well. After the Gamecocks still couldn’t get a drive together, USC ran a fake punt that did not make the first down and Florida took over at the Gamecocks’ 21. Carolina held the Gators to a field goal, and Florida took the lead 17-16. USC returned the ball to Florida when a fumble by Williamson on the USC 10-yard line gave the Gators a chance to score again, which they did and put the lead to 24-16. When Carolina got the ball again, the offense put together an admirable drive to give the Gamecocks a chance to tie, 24-22, before the extra-point try. USC went for two, but the run by quar terback Dondrial Pinkins was stopped short of the goal line. Pinkins finished the day 13-of-24 for 137 yards passing and 34 yards rushine. Carolina could not penetrate the Florida 40-yard line in its last significant drive of the game. Free safety Taqiy Muhammad still had a positive attitude after the loss, though. “We didn’t fold out there today, and I am proud of our team,” Muhammad said. “By the end of the night, we just have to let this go and get ready for Clemson. I re ally don’t want to be sitting at home for Christmas break.” USC will try once again to be come bowl-eligible when it plays in-state rival Clemson at 7 p.m. Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium. The game will be broad cast nationally on ESPN2. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Men’s basketball to open season with Bulldogs BY JOEL WALLACE THE GAMECOCK Dawn breaks Monday on the USC men’s basketball team’s new season, and the first team sched uled to hear the Gamecocks crow is Gardner-Webb. The Gamecocks are coming off an 81-62 win in an exhibition game against the Lithuanian club team Inter Hoop last Thursday. Five Gamecocks scored in double fig ures as USC extended its exhibi tion game winning streak to 12. Inter Hoop came into the game having lost 85-76 to Missouri last Monday. “We had good improvement on defense, and it was very intense,” USC head coach Dave Odom said. “We had great leadership out on the court at all times, and it was a really good performance by the team. Inter Hoop shot the ball re ally well against Missouri, and they were ranked fifth in the coun try, so we did a good job.” The Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs won two exhibition games last Week in preparation for their regular-season opener against Carolina. The Bulldogs looked impressive, scoring over 90 points in both of their games de spite playing without starting cen ter Tim Behrendorff, who will miss the first eight games of the season. The Bulldogs return 10 players from last year’s squad, including point guard Andre Manning, an Atlantic Sun Conference All Freshman Team member in 2002 2003. Also, incoming freshman Matt Pait looks as if he will get some playing time. Pait was a first team All-State selection in Indiana last season, boasts a 41-inch verti cal leap and averaged 18.1 points per game as a senior. If the Gamecocks beat Gardner Webb on Monday, they will face the winner of the Elon-Idaho game. Elon is entering its inaugural campaign in the Southern Conference with a new head coach and former USC assistant, Ernie Nestor. The Phoenix return eight lettermen, including three starters, from last year’s Big South Conference runner-up team. Elon will rely on returning starters Steven Harvin and Big South All Freshman selections Scottie Rice and Rasmi Gamble. “It’s a very challenging, de manding schedule for our basket ball team,” Nestor said. “We have a tremendous 16-game league schedule as well as some very powerful nonconference oppo nents. We’re very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. We wanted to challenge our play ers with our schedule, and I’m cer tain that we’ve done that.” Idaho is hoping this year’s team will have an easier time putting the ball in the basket, something the Vandals are known to have trouble with at times. “I hope you see a team that doesn’t struggle to score as much as we have the last two seasons,” Idaho head coach Leonard Perry said. “That’s the one area I hope we’ve improved. I do feel we have more talent than we have in the last two years.” If the Gamecocks win their first two games in the Guardians Classic, they will travel to Kansas City, Mo., for the semifinals next Monday. The opening round of the Guardian’s Classic against Gardner-Webb is set to start at 8 p.m. at the Colonial Center. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Rivalry can cause coaching changes BY PETE IACOBELLI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CLEMSON — Is this the last go round for Bowden vs. Holtz? About every five years, the talk of the Clemson-South Carolina game seems more about the coaches’ future than this season-ending rivalry. That’s the case this year, too. Although it’s just as likely both Tigers coach Tommy Bowden and Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz will patrol their sidelines next year as them leaving. That hasn’t always been the case — and not by the coaches’ choice. In 1993, Clemson’s Ken Hatfield and South Carolina’s Sparky Woods both coached their final games at their schools in the Tigers 16-13 victory at Williams-Brice Stadium. Five years later, their replacements — the Tigers’ Tommy West and the Gamecocks’ Brad Scott — were gone before kickoff at Death Valley and a 28-19 win for Clemson, although Scott’s fate wasn’t officially known until the following week. Now, with Bowden’s status up to his administrators and a new Internet site — www.firelou holtz.com — taking Holtz’s tenure to task, the future of then yearly battle doesn’t look as rosy as it did a few years ago. You’d figure that Bowden’s job, shaky after poor losses to Georgia (30-0) and Wake Forest (45-17), would be more solid after the Tigers (7-4) posted their first win over Florida State since the Danny Ford era, then followed Saturday with a knee-cracking 40-7 win over Duke. South Carolina’s largest news paper, The State of Columbia, ran nearly a full page on the question, “Tommy Bowden, Should He Stay Or Should He Go?” Thirteen of the 15 printed let ters supported Bowden. But Bowden, who has won three of his four meetings with Holtz, hasn’t heard one word about next year from athletic di rector Terry Don Phillips. “I just assume eventually they’re going to let me know something,” Bowden said Sunday. Phillips says he’ll evaluate the program with Bowden after the regular season. ♦ COACH.NG, SEE PAGE 9 PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK USC's Katelyn Panzau became the fifth Gamecock to pick up 1,000 assists in a freshman year on Nov. 14 against Florida. Volleyball loses to Florida, UGA BY JIM ROCHE the gamecock The USC volleyball team (12-16, 6-10 SEC) came into this weekend looking to upset No. 3 Florida and powerhouse Georgia to get ready for the SEC Tournament. But it was the Gators (27-1,15-0) and Bulldogs (17-12,10-6) who would get the last laugh as the Gamecocks dropped their final two home matches of the season. Carolina lost a 3-0 game at the hands of Florida Friday night, de spite Shonda Cole’s 12 kills and USC’s seven team blocks. USC’s freshmen setter Katelyn Panzau recorded 32 assists and be came the fifth freshmen in Gamecock history to record 1,000 assists in a single season as a freshman. Florida’s senior Aury Cruz had 22 kills as the Gators won the three games 30-23,30-25 and 30-17. In game one, USC kept the game close, as there were nine tied scores and four lead changes. Cole had five kills but was matched by Florida’s Cruz with five kills as well, and the Gators took the game 30-23. Game two saw more of the matchup between Cole and Cruz as Cole posted six kills to Cruz’s 10 kills, but Florida edged the Gamecocks 30-25 despite USC hav ing their best hitting percentage yet at .238. In game three, Panzau posted her record-setting 1,000th assist of the season, but it was the Gators who enjoyed the most glory by running away with the game, hit ting five straight aces in a row to win game three 30-17 and the match 3-0. “This is the hardest I’ve seen this team play all year,” USC head coach Kim Hudson Christopher said. “Florida has a great program, but their offense is centered mostly around senior Aury Cruz.” The Gamecocks dropped their second straight match of the week end to the Georgia Bulldogs 3-1 in the Gamecocks annual Senior Day contest to close out the end of the regular season. USC’s Sarah Morgan led the team with 18 kills in the loss. USC started out the first game ♦ VOLLEYBALL, SEE PAGE 9