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8 Game/Schedule WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. UT-Chattanooga, 2:30 p.m. MEN’S TENNIS vs. North Carolina, 2 p.m. Tuesday/ Pnntaot BASEBALL vs. Furman, 5 p.m. Wednesday c»UI I la01. MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Kentucky, 8 p.m. Wednesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Georgia in E-mail us at gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu the SEC Tournament, 6 p.m, Thursday Howell out for season with injury I PHOTO BY DAVID STAGG/THE GAMECOCK Center Rolando Howell is assisted as he walks off the court after breaking his wrist. BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THE GAMECOCK Rolando Howell’s USC basketball ca reer came to an end Sunday after Carolina’s team doctor said Howell’s broken wrist will sideline him for the season. Howell injured his wrist during Saturday’s 63-47 win over Georgia. Howell has overcome adversity once this season and was playing possibly the best basketball of his career. “It’s a tough experience, a learning experience,” Howell said. “I have a pos itive outlook on things and I’m going to play basketball again.” Howell began his senior seasion rid ing out a 12-game suspension for some off-season legal issues. However, Howell ended up missing more time than ex pected after fracturing his foot in prac tice before ever setting foot on the floor in a game. “It’s probably been my toughest year here, but at the same time you have to overcome adversity and I’ve been s. through a lot of adversity,” an emotion ally-drained Howell said in front of sev eral reporters yesterday. “Life is full of challenges, and I have answered all my challenges so far, and I can answer this one as well.” The senior center responded to his early season adversity by returning from his injury to average nine points per game and 5.4 rebounds, numbers that would have been much higher had Howell been in the starting lineup all season. He fought his way into the starting lineup in the Mississippi State game, a contest in which he scored 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds against All-SEC lock Lawrence Roberts. Howell remained a starter and sta tistically outplayed players such as Roberts, Vanderbilt’s Matt Freije and Florida’s David Lee. “I was just doing whatever I could to help this team win, and I think I did that,” Howell said. “I was getting com fortable, and it’s just tough. But it’s something I’ll have to deal with and just move on.” The Gamecocks will now proceed through their second stint of the season without Howell, and they feel that be ing without him early may be a bless ing in disguise. “Its ironic how things work,” senior point guard Mike Boynton said. “We were lucky to have that experience ear ly on. I think its something we will look forward to, because now people will def initely count us out. We can find a way to get it done, or we can pack up the tent and say ‘Rolando is out, it’s over.’ But I don’t think we have any guys who are willing to do that.” In filling the void that Howell leaves, USC head coach Dave Odom will look for post players Carlos Powell, Kerbrell Brown, Brandon Wallace and John Chappell to step up their game a notch. “It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart for him, and it breaks my heart for our team,” Odom said. “But at the same time you just say there are still some good things out there for our bas ketball team. We aren’t even finished with the regular season and we’ve got two postseasons to play.” Just in case emotions weren’t stirred up enough by the injury, Howell and four other seniors will be honored on Wednesday night in what will be their last regular season home game in a Gamecock uniform. Carolina will face none other than the team Howell passed up to come to Carolina, the Kentucky Wildcats, in front of a sold-out emotional crowd in the Carolina Center. Howell was 30 points shy of joining Carolina’s 1,000-point club. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Baseball pulls solid weekend hat trick BY TRAVIS BOLAND THE GAMECOCK The No. 7 USC baseball team (9-0) continued to flex its early season muscle in a round-robin tournament this weekend, de feating Duquesne, Radford and George Mason. The Gamecocks were forced to play a double header on Saturday due to in clement weather on Friday. USC-20 Ouquesne-2 USC opened the tournament against the Dukes of Duquesne hy pounding out 15 hits and scoring 20 runs for the third time in seven games. The leader of the Gamecock attack was senior catcher Landon Powell who was 2-of-5 while driving in four runs. The big blast came in the bottom of the eighth, with the Gamecocks on top 13-2; Powell crushed a three-run homer deep over the left centerfield wall. The Gamecocks batted around three times in the game, both in the first and second innings and also in the eighth. They scored five runs in each of the first two innings. Billy Buckner (2-0) pitched five innings for the Gamecocks allowing just one run on two hits and striking out five. The Carolina bullpen finished the last four innings allowing just one more run and two more hits. In total, USC pitchers struck out 12 batters while only walking two. USC-11 RU-0 Game two featured more of the same as the Gamecocks took down the Highlanders of Radford 11-0 in seven innings. Once again the USC bats were very much awake as the first six Gamecocks reached base. Junior Steve Pearce delivered a three run homer as the Gamecocks jumped on top 5-0 in the bottom of the first. That would be all junior Aaron Rawl (2-0) would need as he pitched five scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and strik ing out five. Juniors Jason Fletcher, Zac McCamie and Cliff Donald kept the Highlander bats quieted for the remaining two in nings, allowing one hit and strik ing out two. Senior Bryan Triplett and freshman Tommy King each had solo home runs in the fourth in ning as the Gamecocks pounded out 11 hits over six innings. USC-5 GMU-0 USC finished the weekend se ries with a 5-0 win over the George Mason Patriots. George Mason entered the game unde feated and gave the Gamecocks fits over the first three innings. Carolina’s bats were silent un til the bottom of the fourth when Powell singled; junior Brendan Winn followed with a two-run home run to put the Gamecocks on top 2-0. Melillo followed with a triple and scored on a King sin gle to make the score 3-0. Winn Junior Chad Blackwell struck out two in the ninth to close the door on the Patriots. The Gamecocks next play host to the Furman Paladins on Wednesday at Sarge Frye Field. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu also had an RBI single in the eighth to give him three on the day. That was more than enough for junior Matt Campbell (2-0), who pitched eight innings of scoreless baseball. He also struck out eleven and didn’t walk a sin gle batter. He struck out seven of the first 10 batters he faced. PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Matt Campbell Is greeted by his teammates after a strikeout. Gamecocks leash Bulldogs in blowout BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THE GAMECOCK Many experts might have pen ciled the USC basketball team (21 7,8-6 SEC) into its NCAA tourna ment bracket on Saturday night, as the Gamecocks completed a season sweep of the Georgia Bulldogs (14-11, 6-8) with a 63-47 victory. “It was a great win for the Gamecocks," USC head coach Dave Odom said. “We will get no call from the NCAA committee, so we will play on." The win marked the third sea son sweep of Georgia Since USC joined the SEC in the 1992-93 sea son. The win insured Carolina of at least a .500 record in the SEC and stopped a two-game losing streak in front of a Colonial Center crowd of 17,814. USC shot a very impressive 53.5 percent from the field and held Georgia without a field goal in the last 10 minutes and 25 sec onds of the game. Carolina’s de fense returned to dominance, holding Georgia to its third-low est point total of the season. The Gamecocks scored 22 points off UGA tumovers-and gave up zero points off turnovers. “We covered for each other very well," Odom said. “We stopped letting them penetrate so much, and that was really key for us." The Gamecocks did a superb job in making Georgia go into its very thin bench, as three of Georgia’s top six players had three fouls at the half. Georgia, a team that relies on its starters, was forced to test its depth, and the Gamecocks took advantage, forcing only Josh Gonner to play 30 minutes for USC. The Bulldogs had two players in double figures, with senior point guard Rashad ♦ Wright scoring 13 and freshman Levi Stukes scoring 12. Wright played 33-of-40 minutes while Stukes was forced to play 37 min utes. Breaking out of a recent quiet streak was USC guard Josh Gonner, who scored a game high 22 points while picking up four steals and three rebounds. Adding an emotional and physi cal spark for Carolina was fresh man forward Renaldo Balkman, who added 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds in a very timely performance. The victory may not have come without a great price, how ever, as center Rolando Howell went down early in the second half with a wrist injury. Filling in for Howell was fan favorite John Chappell, who was put in following the injury and fueled the crowd with four points, three rebounds and a block in nine minutes. The junior academic All-American from New Berlin, Wise., left the court to chants of “Chappell, Chappell, Chappell." “How about John Chappell," a grinning Odom said. “Who could not be happy for John Chappell? Who’s worked harder? Who de serves more? Who’s played less? Who’s gotten less credit? Who’s come up bigger in a time we need ed him most? I’m so pleased, and I can tell you everybody in our locker room is very happy for him as well." The night didn’t start out posi tive for Carolina, as the Bulldogs jumped off to a 5-0 start and held USC to just two points in the first five minutes of the game. The turnaround started at the 7:40 mark in the first half when Carolina went on a 7-0 scoring run to tie the game at 24. The teams battled for the rest of the half, with Georgia holding the one-point halftime advantage 31 30. The second half was all Gamecocks, as Carolina had runs of 16-7 and 16-0 to create a com fortable margin. Gonner provided some highlights for Carolina with three fast-break slams in five min utes to get the crowd into a fren zy. Gonner had 17 of his 22 in the second half. A technical foul by Georgia’s Jonas Hayes with 7:57 put the game securely in the hands of Carolina, and timely foul shooting sealed the deal down the stretch. The Gamecocks will once again look for the “big one” on Wednesday night as the red-hot Kentucky Wildcats come to Columbia. The game will start at 8 p.m. and will be televised by Jefferson-Pilot Sports. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ’Noles knock out softball team in Leadoff Classic BY STEPHEN COLLINS THE GAMECOCK Despite winning its pool and amassing a 3-2 record in the NFCA Leadoff Classic Tournament, the No. 20 USC soft ball team (11-2) was eliminated in the semifinals Sunday by No. 11 Florida State (17-2). The Seminoles’ Tatiana George hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning to beat the Gamecocks 3-1. Veronica Whootson homered to left-center in the first to put Florida State up 1-0. USC would tie the game in the sixth when Chrissy Schoonmaker singled then scored on an errant throw by the Seminoles. Both teams were held scoreless until the ninth inning where All-ACC selection George homered to score Leslie Palmer and send the Gamecocks home. Melanie Henkes (3-1) took her first loss, while Casey Hunter (8-0) of the Seminoles got the win. The Gamecocks began the weekend with a tough loss to No. 16 Fresno State (8-4). USC was shut out by Jamie Southern (4-1) of the Bulldogs and held to only three hits. Aleca Johnson fell to 3-1 but gave up only one run on seven hits. After the first-round loss to Fresno State, which was also the first loss of the Gamecocks’ sea son, Carolina rebounded to beat Princeton 6-0 on the strength of Stacey Johnson’s one hit shutout. With the win, USC head coach Joyce Compton improved to 900 366-2 for her career in NCAA Division I. Against 18th-ranked Arizona State (18-9), the Gamecocks scored early and often and were able to hold off a late rally, earning them the 5-3 victory. Carolina won be hind a strong performance from Melanie Henkes and the big bat of Meghan Cornett, who went 2 for-3 with three RBIs and a home run. In the quarterfinals of the Gold Bracket, Carolina won its third straight, upsetting th<^ No. 7 Michigan Wolverines (12-5) 2-1. Freshman Chrissy Schoonmaker drove in the winning run in the eighth inning with a single to left. Stacey Johnson allowed only one run on six hits as she upped her record to 5-0. As semifinalists in the Leadoff Classic, the Gamecocks posted a 3-2 tourna ment record and will take on Mississippi State in a double header on Saturday in Starkville, Miss., at noon. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu USC can roll on without Rolando Like many Gamecock fans, I went into panic mode after Rolando Howell went down with a broken wrist in the second half of the Gamecocks’ victory over the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday. As any Gamecock basketball fan knows, the team cannot af ford to lose the only “true” cen ter it has — or can it? While Rolando Howell has made some tremendous SINCLAIR contributions to Fourth-year the USC basket journalism ^11 team the student Gamecocks like- , ly will play bet ter without him. rails may nave iorgouen me Gamecocks started out the sea son without the services of Rolando Howell. Without Howell, the Gamecocks raced out to an 11-1 start and had the most impressive victory on their NCAA tournament resume — a win against N.C. State. The Gamecocks are a young team, rich in talent and lacking only in experience. Players like Tre Kelley and Renaldo Balkman have really stepped up their con ference play. The absence of Howell makes it easier to get these young play ' ers more experience playing to gether. It also allows talented youngsters like Brandon Wallace and Tarence Kinsey more min utes and opportunities to con tribute. In fact, early in the season, the biggest problem may have been implementing Rolando Howell into a lineup that was already playing well without him. While Howell led the team in rebounds, he was simply incon sistent in other areas. With Howell, you are always unsure if you will get the guy who single handedly lit up Mississippi State or the one who could not score against Arkansas. Despite being one of just two se niors on the team, Howell is fourth in scoring average on the a team. There are three players that are within one field goal of his scoring average per game. With the minutes Howell was getting, these three players will pick up the scoring slack for the Gamecocks. While impressive scoring out bursts against Alabama and Mississippi State were encour aging, the fact is that Howell re ally has not contributed overall this year any more than several other players currently riding USC’s bench. The Gamecocks have always played great defense, with or without Howell. In fact, many fans seem to enjoy the full-court press the Gamecocks have used almost to perfection this season. Whether Kerbrell Brown, Tarence Kinsey or Brandon Wallace get a majority of Howell’s minutes, the press should be more effective considering that all of these players are quicker than Rolando Howell. Do not get me wrong. USC will certainly miss Rolando Howell. Despite injuries and suspensions, Howell has been one of the best Gamecock basketball players for the past four years. Howell pro vided the Gamecocks with re bounding and a legitimate pres ence inside. The one tnrng Howell brings to the table that most Gamecocks lack is experience and senior lead ership. Howell can still provide these things to the Gamecock bas ketball team without playing a single minute. This Wednesday against Kentucky, I will cheer as loud as anyone when Rolando Howell is announced on Senior Night. The contributions of Rolando and Ivan Howell, Mike Boynton, and Kerbrell Brown cannot and should not be overlooked. The time was near for the Gamecock basketball team to be gin life without Rolando Howell anyway. If Just came a few game s earlier than expected.