Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

■ 10 . GAME SCHEDULE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING n AMT'APT TTQ at Auburn Invitational, Friday liAU 1 U O WOMEN'S BASKETBALL vs. Southern Utah Story ideas? Questions? Comments? at Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout, 10 p.m. Friday E-mail us at gdmecocksports@hotmail.com MEN'S BASKETBALL at Clemson, 7 p.m. Saturday : USC marches past The Citadel BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THE GAMECOCK The USC men’s basketball team (7-0) made history Wednesday night with a 70-38 win over The Citadel Bulldogs. The win marked the first time USC has started its season 7-0 since the 1971-72 season. The 38 points scored by the Bulldogs made up the lowest point total by a Carolina opponent since Maryland’s 31 points in 1971. Leading the Gamecocks was forward Renaldo Balkman with a career-high 15 points. Forward Carlos Powell added 13 points, and forward Brandon Wallace racked up 10 points and 11 rebounds with three blocks to record a double double in his first collegiate start. Wallace was starting for Kerbrell Brown, who was suspended for academic reasons. The defense was without a doubt a high point for USC in Wednesday’s win. After trailing 8 6 early in the game, the Gamecocks went on a 21-0 run in which seven USC players scored and Carolina forced six turnovers. During the run, the Bulldogs were 0-for-13 from the field. Overall, the Gamecocks forced 21 turnovers, held The Citadel to a 22.7 shooting percentage and allowed the Bulldogs to make only one of 25 three-pointers. As a team, USC recorded 10 blocks and 11 steals. Carolina matched its road win total from last year with the vic tory in McAlister Field House, the first true road game on its schedule. “I thought the Cadets gave us a good challenge as far as playing on the road,” USC head coach Dave Odom said. “But make no mistake, that’s not near what we’re going to face on the road Saturday night.” The Gamecocks will face their arch rival, the Clemson Tigers (3 1), on Saturday night at Littlejohn Coliseum. Clemson started the season with an impressive win over Gardner-Webb, a team that gave the Gamecocks problems in the Guardians Classic. Since the win, the Tigers have struggled a bit with narrow wins over High Point and Wofford, accompanied by a loss to the No. 21 Purdue Boilermakers in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Clemson is competing in its first season under new head coach Oliver Purnell, who is excited about his team. “They’re anxious to prove that .they’re better than they were last year and that they’re better than people are predicting they will be,” Purnell said. The Tigers return a lot of expe rience, as four of last year’s five starters return to the team, which finished 15-13 last season. After being a perimeter-based offense last year, Purnell has emphasized the importance of the inside game. The team has received a spark from center Sharrod Ford, who is averaging 15.5 points and 10.3 re bounds through four games. Also having a good season inside thus far is forward Chris Hobbs, who is averaging 13.3 points and 7.5 re bounds. Other threats the Tigers present include forward Olu Babalola and newcomer Vernon Hamilton, who are both off to a “They’re anxious to prove that they’re better than they were last year and that they’re better than people are predicting they will be.” OLIVER PURNELL CLEMSON HEAD COACH, ON HIS TEAM good start. Saturday’s game marks the be ginning of a tough stretch for both the Tigers and the Gamecocks. Clemson will face such opponents as Georgia and No. 19 Cincinnati over the next few weeks. As for Carolina, its undefeated record will be severely tested over the holidays. After traveling to Clemson, the Gamecocks will trav el to Philadelphia to take on leg endary coach John Chaney and the Temple Owls. The team then returns home to take on Charleston Southern be fore a big matchup Dec. 20 with the ACC’s N.C. State and All-ACC guard Julius Hodge. The game will test South Carolina’s unde feated mark against nonconfer ence opponents at the Colonial Center. After what should be a few tune-ups against S.C. State, Yale and Appalachian State, USC will prepare for its daunting SEC schedule, which starts with a huge game at home against the No. 2 Florida Gators on Jan. 7. Tip-off for Saturday’s game at Clemson is set for 7 p.m. and will be televised on SEC-TV. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com FILE PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Kerbrell Brown, left, and Renaldo Balkman, right, defend a shot in a game earlier this season. Balkman led the Gamecocks with 15 points In a 70-38 win over The Citadel. « Women’s basketball to play in Lobo Shootout Gamecocks defeat Stetson in tuneup for New Mexico tourney BY WES WOLFE THE GAMECOCK The USC women’s basketball team (4-1) beat the Stetson Hatters (1-2) on Tuesday night 94 66 to give head coach Susan Walvius her 100th win as a Gamecock. “Honestly, I didn’t even know that tonight’s game gave me 100 wins at South Carolina,” Walvius said. “I never really pay attention to those types of things. As a coach, you’ll win a lot of games when you have good bas ketball players.” The Gamecocks played well for Walvius, led by forward Olga Gritsaeva, who scored 29 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and notched seven assists. Forward Iva Sliskovic had 20 points, playing typically on tar get by going 7-of-10 from the field. “Cristina Ciocan had another double-figure assist game tonight, and she did a really good job of getting our team going tonight in the transition game,” Walvius said. Ciocan’s 10 assists comple mented her 13 points and eight rebounds on the night. At the end of the first half, it would’ve been hard to imagine Carolina pulling out such a large win. The Gamecocks went into halftime with a five-point lead, but in the first five minutes of the second half, they went on an 11-2 run to take a solid lead. “We talk as a team about the importance of the first five min utes of the game and of the sec ond half,” Walvius said. “These are two of the most critical times to establish momentum. I thought that after starting out slowly tonight, we did a good job of coming out strong in the sec ond half.” The Gamecocks take their four-game winning streak on the road Saturday to play against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at the Southwest Airlines Lobo Shootout in Albuquerque, N.M. Southern Utah is 3-1 going into Saturday’s game after vic tories against Utah State, Sacramento State and an over time win against Wyoming. The Thunderbirds’ last game was a loss at home to Idaho State, 98-65. The. meeting between Southern Utah and Carolina is the first game between the schools, but Southern Utah has a 0-7 record versus other SEC op ponents, including Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky and Ole Miss. Forward Lacey Yates leads the Thunderbird offense with 16.8 points per game and was one of the leading scorers in three of Southern Utah’s four games this season along with being the lead ing rebounder in three of the four games. But the Gamecocks will have to watch out for a second-half ♦ TOURNAMENT, SEE PAGE 11 Chemistry is most impressive feat by men’s basketball team BRAD SENKIW GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Young and experienced players show promise. The time has finally come: my last column as sports editor of The Gamecock. Don’t worry; I’m not going to write some emotion-laced column full of sappy sports mo ments I’ve experienced or what I’ve learned from USC. I’ll save you, the readers, from having to read it and me from having to write that junk. Anyway, there is a more press ing issue I would like to address. A few weeks ago, I had an idea to blast the men’s basketball team, along with head coach Dave Odom and several of his players. I thought it would be a good plan to highlight all the miscues that have occurred over the past several months with the program. Instead, I found myself not wanting to get on any bad sides and decided to let things play out. I’ll admit I was one of the first to say this team might be the worst in USC history. With all that said, I don’t think the 7-0 start is anything to go crazy about. I have been im pressed by this team, not because of its record but because of the chemistry I’ve seen so far. This isn’t the type of team that’s going to wow anyone like a Florida or UConn squad would, but it has been able to quickly gel and might prove to give some of the better teams it plays some com petition. □ Odom said in a press conference earlier this week that he’s heard the whispers saying his team isn’t any good and the teams it’s beaten aren’t either. - He also said people need to wait and see how some of these teams pan out at the end of the year. I’ll be the first to say that beating Richmond in the finals of the Guardians Classic was no small feat. The Spiders’ Mike Skrocki, the team’s leading scor er and a solid offensive player, was held in check much of the game. Richmond also has what Dick Vitale rated in ESPN The Magazine as one of the nation’s top defenders in Tony Dobbins. And this was the team that ousted the Gamecocks last time USC made the NCAA Tournament. Beating Richmond to win a tournament this year i. something fans and players can be proud of. The point of all this is to en courage fans not to forget about the men’s basketball team. This team might not have been select ed in the top 25 or a contender in the SEC, but it possesses some thing few USC teams have shown in the past: promise. With four newcomers and only one senior, this Gamecock team could be preparing the way for some solid teams in the fu ture. Gone are the days of big, slow post players and large guards who just use their bodies. This new edition showcases quickness that I haven’t seen i years and the possibility of hit ting outside shots — something ♦ CHEMISTRY, SEE PAGE 11 Bulldogs happy for second chance against LSU BY PAUL NEWBERRY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATHENS, GA. - Second chances are rare during a college football season. As fate would have it, two Georgia players can make amends for their most miserable day of the year. Back in September, Billy Bennett missed three field goals, and Tim Jennings gave up the winning touchdown pass in the Bulldogs’ 17-10 loss to LSU. On Saturday night, No. 5 Georgia (10-2) will get another crack at the third-ranked Tigers (11-1) in the Southeastern Conference championship game. No one is looking forward to the rematch more than Jennings and Bennett. “I’ve got another chance,” Jennings said. “I didn’t think I would get a second chance. I’m very thankful.” In the first game with LSU, Jennings was beaten by Skyler Green for a 34-yard touchdown catch with 1:22 remaining. The sophomore cornerback paused briefly when quarterback Matt Mauck rolled out, allowing Green to slip into the clear. “I took it very personally,” Jennings said. “I had an opportu nity to make a play, but I didn’t make it. I was down on myself.” So was Bennett, who had never missed three field goals in a game in his career. It was totally unexpected. Bennett is one of the most reli able kickers in college football history, setting an NCAA record with 83 field goals. His success rate is about 78 percent, but the odds didn’t hold up at Tiger Stadium. Bennett missed from 43 yards. He missed again from 42 yards. Finally, he banged a 36-yarder off “I didn’t think I would get a second chance. I’m very thankful.” TIM JENNINGS GEORGIA CORNERBACK the left upright. “After the third one hit the post, I had to laugh,” Bennett said. “What could I do? It was just ridiculous.” If those kicks had gone through the uprights, Jennings’ miscue at the end might not have mattered. Georgia rallied to tie the game at 10 when Tyson Browning took a screen pass 93 yards for a touch down. Devery Henderson returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards. Five plays later, LSU faced third-and-4 at the Georgia 34. The Tigers called a play for star receiver Michael Clayton, but Georgia foiled that plan by blitz ing. Mauck avoided the rush by rolling out, while Jennings pulled up to see what was going on. “I thought we were getting pres sure, but I didn’t know the quar terback had rolled out,” Jennings recalled. “I looked back at the last minute, and Skyler got behind me 3 or 4 yards.” Jennings didn’t have time to re cover from his split-second blun der. Green was open. Mauck spot ted him. Game over. The following week, Jennings had a chance to return home to South Carolina, where friends didn’t show a lot of sympathy. They kidded him mercilessly. They taunted him with a picture of Green’s catch in a national mag azine. “I couldn’t show that it hurt me real bad,” Jennings said. "If I had, they would have stayed on me even more.” Bennett actually made his first two kicks against LSU, connect ing from 33 and 43 yards. But the second one didn’t count because of offsetting penalties, forcing him to try again. It was all downhill from there. “I wasn’t tough enough after the penalty,” Bennett said. Both players have been tough enough since then. Bennett has made 19 of 22 kicks, including the last nine in a row. Coach Mark Richt would relish a chance to put the outcome of Saturday’s game on his kicker’s foot, which could happen in a game matching two dominating defenses. LSU has allowed the fewest points in the country, 10.6 per game; Georgia is right behind at 11.8. “Billy is a great kicker. He’s got a million records. His percentage is extremely high. He’s made . many, many clutch kicks for us,” Richt said. Jennings, a nickel back the first time around, started the fi nal four games of the regular sea son after Decory Bryant had neck surgery. Look for LSU to attack the 5 foot-8 cornerback, trying to get him in matchups with the 6-4 Clayton. f \‘ “I know they’re going sifter me, Jennings said. “I’ve got to play the man, not the ball, because he can jump higher than me. When he gets the ball, I’ve got to try to slap it down.” Jennings wants another chance with the game on the line. He would like nothing better than to give Georgia its second straight SEC championship — and knock LSU out of a chance to play for the national title. “I hope the last play comes down to me,” Jennings said, “and I make the play this time.”