The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 21, 2004, Page 10, Image 10
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10 Game.Schedyie'
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL at Florida, 7 p.m. Thursday
MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. LSU, 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Pnntart l Id * WOMEN’S SWIMMING vs. Miami, 11 a.m. Saturday
L»UI ILdcl. MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRACK at SEC Invitational in
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? Gainesville, Fla., Sunday
E-mail us at gamecocksports(agwm.sc.edu
USC destroys
division rival UT
in 21-point rout
BY JONATHAN HILLYARD
THE GAMECOCK
The USC men’s basketball team
(16-2,3-1 SEC) continued its early
success in SEC play by demolish
ing division rival Tennessee 85-64
at the Colonial Center Saturday
night. The win tied the largest
margin of victory over an SEC op
ponent at home since 2000.
“I really believe that those that
have seen us play are more im
pressed with how we play than the
number of wins," USC head coach
Dave Odom said following the vic
tory.
Regardless of Odom’s state
ment, Carolina continues its best
start in over 30 years. Saturday’s
win, in fact, was Odom’s 50th win
at USC (50-33), making him the sec
ond fastest coach in Carolina his
tory to reach the 50-win plateau,
behind only Frank Johnson.
The highlight of the win was
the offensive effort by the
Gamecocks. Carolina would fin
ish the game with an unselfish 25
assists and a low turnover count
of 11. In addition to its & points,
the second-highest points total of
the season, USC shot an outra
geous 64.7 percent from beyond
the three-point line, coupled with
a field goal percentage of 63.6, the
school’s best under coach Odom.
• “When we have it going, we re
ally have it going,” said senior
point guard Mike Boynton.
“Tennessee just caught us when
we were clicking on all cylinders. ”
Boynton, who celebrated his
22nd birthday by putting a hurt on
the Vols, had a solid performance
with 13 points, seven assists and six
rebounds. Sophomore guard
Tarence Kinsey, despite not start
ing after being late to a pre-game
meal, and junior forward Carlos
Powell also had solid games with
13 points and 12 points respectively.
* However, the star of the game
was withoqt a doubt junior guard
Josh Gonner. Gonner scored 19
points in the second half and end
ed the game with a career-high 24
points. He finished a spectacular
10-of-13 from the field, including
3-of-4 from behind the arc.
me game was rougn ior me vis
iting Volunteers right from the
get-go, as USC opened the game on
a 21-3 run that had the Colonial
Center shaking. The run saw the
Gamecocks shoot an unconscious
9-of-12 from the field, coupled with
Tennessee committing six
turnovers and shooting a crip
pling l-of-5 from the field. While
UT did experience a hot streak,
the first half was basically all
Gamecocks. In addition to
Boynton’s 11 points and Powell’s
nine, USC scored 16 points off 10
Volunteer turnovers to take a 40
27 lead into halftime.
The second half was the same
story for Carolina. If any momen
tum had been taken away from
♦ MEN, SEE PAGE 11
■ wm _—i
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Forward Renaldo Balkman slams the ball in (JSC’s blowout of
Tennessee on Saturday. Balkman had six points on the night.
Victory over Vols
illustrates success
of Carolina offense
BY BRAD SENKIW
THE GAMECOCK
While the USC men’s basketball
team has proved to be one of the
best teams defensively in the SEC,
Carolina mirrored an offensive
powerhouse on Saturday against
Tennessee. The 85-64 win capped
the largest SEC victory for
Carolina since equaling a 21-point
win over Alabama in 2000.
The Gamecocks looked as if
they were shooting into Lake
Murray after connecting on 11 of
their 17 attempts from behind the
three-point line for a 64.7 percent
age. Carolina also had success in
side the arc with a 63.6 percent
overall shooting percentage.
It was the best shooting night
that the Gamecocks have experi
enced in head coach Dave Odom’s
career at USC.
“I thought we were much more
aggressive off the dribble and the
pass,” Odom said. “I thought the
unselfishness of our team today
was extraordinary. I was amazed
at it.”
After a dismal shooting night
against Auburn last Wednesday,
in which the Gamecocks shot 15
percent from behind the arc, se
nior point guard Mike Boynton
contributed Saturday’s hot shoot
ing to Thursday’s practice when
the coaching staff employed an all
offensive workout.
“They wanted to fine-tune some
things, work on screening, work
on our footwork and work on our
passing and catching,” Boynton
said. “That kind of helped us to
day.”
Tennessee began the game in a
zone defense, something Odom ex-,
pected to see after the Gamecocks’*
recent offensive struggles.
Boynton said the key to break
ing UT’s zone was to force the ball
in the middle of the floor, opening
up looks for the outside shooters.
But this time, Carolina drilled the
shots given to them.
“Every zone is a little bit differ
ent, but at the same time we know
our offense is going to work,”
Boynton said. “We believe in the
system that coach has instilled in
us, and we just executed it.”
Junior guard Josh Gonner took
advantage of the strategy by nail
ing 10 of his 13 shots from the field,
including a 3-for-4 performance
from behind the three-point line.
Gonner reached a career-high
with his 24 points, 10 shots made
and a 76.9 shooting percentage. |
“I had a lot of open looks, most
of them with the shot clock running
down, but they were still open
looks,” Gonner said. “I got the op
portunity to set my feet, get my shot
going, and I was knocking it down.”
Now USC looks to build upon
their latest offensive success, just
as they’ve done on the defensive
end. And the confidence exhibit
ed against Tennessee is what the
players believe in.
“We’ve got a team full of people
that can shoot the ball, that can
score the ball,” Gonner said. “We
just go out and play ball. Some
days they fall, and some days they
don’t.”
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ^
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Guard Kelly Morrone plays defense. Morrone scored a team-high 15 points in a loss to Arkansas.
BY JIM ROCHE
THB (IAMECOCK
The USC women’s basketball
team lost its sixth game in a row
against the Arkansas Lady
Razorbacks by 66-52 in front of
1,593 people at the Colonial Center
Sunday afternoon.
Arkansas standout forward
Shameka Christon had 31 points
to lead the Lady Razorbacks to the
win, while USC’s guard Kelly
Morrone had 15 points in the loss.
The Gamecocks shot just 23 per
cent in the first half and could nev
er really close the gap against the
Lady Razorbacks (13-3, 2-1 SEC),
as USC dropped to 0-3 in confer
ence play and 8-7 overall.
The first half started out slow
for both teams. South Carolina
only scored 8 points in the first 12
minutes of the game. USC con
verted 5-of-8 free throws and shot
62.5 percent behind the line in the
first half, but the Lady Razorbacks
capitalized on USC turnovers,
outscoring the Gamecocks 15-2 on
points off turnovers. Despite the
scoring drought, USC only trailed
by 10 at halftime 28-18.
The second half was the com
plete opposite of the first, as both
teams mounted strong offensive
attacks. USC closed the gap to sev
en when guard Lauren Simms
stole the ball and went the other
way for a break-away lay-up ear-,
ly in the half. Christon countered
by hitting key shots for Arkansas
down the stretch. USC went inside
to forward Iva Sliskovic several
times and found success, but
Christon and post Katrina NeSby
were too strong for USC to catch
up.
“Confidence is a powerful thing
in this game, and we are not play
ing with confidence right now,”
said USC head coach Susan
Walvius.
The Gamecocks will look to get
back on track this Thursday as
they travel to Gainesville, Fla. to
play the Florida Gators.
“I think it will take a lot of de
termination, and we have to
refuse to lose to get over this los
ing streak,” said Simms.
The Gators are coming off a
win (83-73) over No. 11 Georgia.
Florida is 2-2 in SEC play and 12-5
overall. The Gators have several
key players including senior All
American center Vanessa
“We need our
leadership to step up.”
SUSAN WALVIUS
use HEAD COACH
Hayden who leads the SEC in re
bounding and forward Tashia
Morehead who scored 22 points
and recorded 12 rebounds in
Florida’s last game against
Georgia. Florida comes to the
game leading the SEC in blocked
shots, averaging seven blocked
shots a game. USC will need a
strong scoring effort from senior
guards Morrone and Cristina
Ciocan, and a strong attack down
low by Sliskovic to keep Hayden
off the boards.
“We need our leadership to step
up,” said Walvius. Perhaps a
match up against the Gators is
what the Gamecocks need to get
back on track and raise their con
fidence level after this hard six
game losing streak.
Carolina will tip-off against
Florida Thursday at 7 p.m. at the
Stephen C. O’Connell Center in
Gainesville, Fla.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
We need a good Super Bowl,
not hype or smack-talking
The face of the NFL is one of
flashy, arrogant personalities
who seem to practice their touch
down dances more than their
passing routes.
Athletes such
as Terrell
Owens with his
infamous
Sharpie inci
dent, and, most
recently, Joe
Horn and his
SHAWN $30,000 cell
ROURK phone call
Second-year made earlier
print this season, left
journalism a few black
student marks on the
face of the
NFL.
So isn’t it a little ironic that
the two teams in this year’s
Super Bowl are two of the most
no-nonsense teams the NFL has,
not to mention some of the more
humble players and coaches you
can find in any professional
sport?
People like Jake Delhomme,
who would rather put the glory
Qn his receivers and running
backs than take any for himself,
and New England head coach
Bill Belichick, who is one of the
most low-key and laid-back
coaches in the league, are show
ing that running your mouth is
not a prerequisite for being suc
cessful in the NFL. Heck, even
the infamous Rod “He Hate Me”
Smart, leftover from the now-de
funct XFL, is keeping his mouth
shut and letting his running do
the talking.
The players in the upcoming
Super Bowl don’t talk much. They
only talk enough to get past the
hundreds of press conferences
they will be put through. The oth
er irony is that there are two
weeks in between the conference
championships and the Super
Bowl this year, plenty of room for
hype —-exactly what both teams
do not use or have a lot of.
Some people have called these
teams boring. I say, so what?
With all the flair and spectacle
that is the pre-game show of the
Super Bowl; with the billions of
dollars that will be spent on com
mercials; with the very groovy
Janet Jackson performing at the
halftime show, why must both
teams be made up of flashy char
acters and superstar personali
ties? Why can’t we have a close,
exciting football game?
I like the fact that neither
team is very polished on both
sides of the ball. I like that both
teams like to hit hard and are not
afraid to run the ball up the mid
die.
That’s what the Super Bowl is
about: the best football of the
year. Most of the “experts”
around football believe this is go
ing to be a close game, made up
of two defensively driven teams.
Last season’s Super Bowl left a
lot to be desired in Tampa Bay’s
blowout of Oakland, which I am .
still a little sore about. I person- 0
ally am ready for a little excite
ment surrounding the actual
football game in the Super Bowl
instead of having the announc
ers rehash the past 19 weeks of
football over the last four min
utes of the game because the
score is 45-10. Four of the past
five Super Bowls have been de
cided by double-digit point
deficits; that doesn’t make for
good TV, so it’s no wonder peo
ple say fewer and fewer people •
are watching the Super Bowl.
My idea of a good Super Bowl
is one that comes down to fourth
and long with under 30 seconds
left in the game and the Hail
Mary to win it all — cue the NFL^
Films music. Now that is excite-^
ment, and then maybe when
Delhomme goes down in the his
tory books for throwing the said
pass to win the game, maybe, just
maybe, he’ll take credit for doing
something great on this team.
SEC.News.and.Notes
Georgia’s Wright
gets weekly honor
Georgia's senior guard
Rashad Wright has been named
the SEC player of the week for
last week. Wright led the
Bulldogs (9-5,1-2 SEC) to a huge
65-57 road win over then fifth
ranked Kentucky in
Kentucky’s first loss in 22
games. Wright scored 20 points
in the contest and shot an amaz
ing 80 percent from behind the
three-point line.
The 20 points marked an
SEC career-high for Wright. He
played all but one minute in the
game and held Kentucky coun
terpart Cliff Hawkins to one
point. Wright's playing time av
erage of 36.4 minutes leads the
SEC, and he needs 18 assists to
become Georgia's all-time as
sist leader. Wright is averaging
14.6 points per game along with
three rebounds and three as
sists. This is the first time he
has had the honor, but he is the
second Georgia Bulldog to be
named player of the week this
season. Jonas Hayes was hon
ored Jan. 5.
Full game schedule
set for this week
Week two of SEC play
brought many surprises
throughout the southeast. With
Kentucky and Florida's upsets
at the hands of Georgia and
Vanderbilt, no team in the SEC
has a perfect conference mark.
The conference madness will
continue this week with a full
schedule of games1. On
Wednesday Alabama will trav
el to Georgia to take on the
Bulldogs; Arkansas will go to
Auburn for an early division
showdown; 17th-ranked Florida
will host 20th-ranked
Mississippi State at 8 p.m. on
JP Sports; and Ole Miss will de
fend its home court against the
LSU Tigers.
On Saturday, in a match-up
between Bulldogs, Georgia will0
travel to Starkville to take on
Mississippi State at 1 p.m. on JP
Sports; Arkansas plays host to
Vanderbilt at 3;05 p.m. on JP
Sports; Auburn travels to
Florida at 4 p.m. on CBS; Ole
Miss plays host to Alabama at 6
p.m. on Fox Sports Net; and USC
will play host to LSU. Sunday
features marquee match-ups
with Kentucky traveling to
Notre Dame at 4 p.m. on CBS
and Tennessee playing host to
Louisville at 7 p.m. on ESPN.