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ERIC GAY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS * Kentucky’s Chuck Hayes, center, and Randolph Morris, left, walks off the court as the Michigan State team celebrates at the NCAA Austin Region final at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. Michigan State beat Kentucky, 94-88, in double overtime. UK bows out in regional final By JAIME ARON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN, Texas — A 3-point prayer, answered. One overtime, then another. And when the dust settled on the most breathtaking finish of an astonishing weekend, Michigan State was holding the last ticket to the Final Four. Patrick Sparks’ desperation 3 at v the end of regulation danced oh so softly on the rim, bouncing four times before falling through for Kentucky. But wait — was his right toe on the line? Five minutes of tension passed while the referees reviewed the replay over and over at the scorer’s table. It was a 3-pointer, all right, forcing overtime. Yet even with the wind knocked out of them, the Spartans refused to fold. As the final seconds of the first overtime ticked away, Kelvin Torbert stood near halfcourt, smiled at his teammates and screamed, “Let’s go!” — and they did, not even allowing a last shot. Then the Spartans took over in the second overtime. Dulling away for a 94-88 victory and capping a weekend filled with heart k stopping finishes. Michigan State is headed to its fourth Final Four in seven years and will face North Carolina on Saturday. The trip to St. Louis will be sweet vindication for the Spartans’ upperclassmen, a group that’s been chided for being soft, weak and underachieving. Torbert, Alan Anderson and Chris Hill — seniors who were so close to breaking the chain of Final Fours begun by their predecessors from 1999-2001 — simply wouldn’t let it happen. “It will go down in history as a great college basketball game,” Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. “It hurts right now, but some of our guys will appreciate it later on.” After Louisville and Illinois both advanced Saturday with improbable comebacks that ended in overtime, this was the first time in NCAA tournament in history that three regional finals went to an extra period. And only once before had it happened in two of the four games, in 1992. Fueled by Sparks’ longball at the end of regulation, the second seeded Wildcats jumped to a 79 75 lead at the start of the first extra period. But they never led ■ SOFTBALL Continued from page 10 basemen Kristin Hall became a double on an error, allowing Schoonmaker and Long to score. Down 6-3, USC fought for two more runs in the next inning and three in the sixth to compete but were unable to overcome the earlier slaughtering by the Tigers. Junior Melanie Henkes fell to 9-4 on the season in the loss, giving up eight runs on nine hits in the first two innings of the contest. Senior Aleca Johnson completed the game by allowing two runs on five hits in the final four innings. Comments on this story ? EAttail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu again and Smith remains without a trip back to the Final Four since winning it all in 1998. They’ve gone down in the regional finals three times, twice now to the Spartans. The loss also deprived the Bluegrass state of having two teams in the Final Four; only Louisville will be there now. With 5:25 left in regulation, fifth-seeded Michigan State seemed poised to advance easily. Torbert followed a block on defense with a basket on the other end, putting the Spartans up 70-62. But Ravi Moss hit a 3-pointer with 1:55 left and Kelenna Azubuike made another with 1:06 left, making it a one-point game. Shannon Brown upped it to 75 72 by hitting two free throws with 19.8 seconds left. What followed is a play that was scrutinized courtside for more mail live 1I11HULC5, uui 11 iccincu like an eternity to everyone holding their breath inside the Erwin Center. Sparks missed a 3-pointer, then Azubuike got the rebound and dribbled to the right corner, only to miss another. The rebound went all the way to Sparks near the top of the key and his shot hung on the rim and then fell in. A junior who grew up in Kentucky dreaming of playing for the Wildcats, Sparks walked away stonefaced, flashing an index finger before breaking out in wild celebration. He also redeemed himself for missing the front end of a one-and-one with 27.1 seconds left after he replaced Ramel Bradley, who collided so hard with Anderson he was taken to the locker room with a bloodied chin. As officials reviewed whether the ball was shot in time (it clearly was) and whether the tip of his right blue-and-white sneaker was touching the line, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was holding a clipboard and a pen, ready to diagram plays. GAMECOCK TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE Top 10 as of today 1. Larcey Simpson, reader, 81 points 2. Ernest Stroman, reader, 77points 3. Tina Devlin, reader, 71 points (tie) Shawn Rourk, reader, 71 points 5. Jonathan Frost, reader, 70points (tie) Stephen Zabrek, reader, 70points 7. Brian Bujford, reader, 67points 8. Crystal Byrd, reader, 65 points 9. Patrick Kilcogne, reader, 62points (tie) John Wilson, reader, 62 points The Law Offices of Edward W. Longshore II i ^ Melissa J. Kimbrough ■ DUI / Underage Drinking / Open Container Drug & Traffic Offenses Appointments welcome! 1720 Main Street Suite 106 765-2108• 765-2796 Summer's coming & that means you'll be going. You don't have to lug everything home. Store your items @ Shurgard this summer and they'll be right here when you a get back next semester! Reserve Your Space TODAY! CALL 765-1616 $ 10 off a purchase of $25 or more! Valid at Shurgard of Rosewood Not valid with other offers. Offer expires 4-30-05. SHURGARD 1305 Rosewood Drive Columbia, South Carolina 29201 Offer applies to I** Full Month’s Rent ONLY. Valid at Shurgard of Rosewood Only with new rental; Not valid with other offers. Offer expires 4-30-05. SHURGARD 1305 Rosewood Drive Columbia. South Carolina 29201 CALL US AT SHURGARD 765-1616 SELF STORAGE ■ SPURRIER Continued from page 10 know the fans, the alumni and everybody that loves Carolina football is on the same team, and we’re all pushing in the same direction. If we can keep that up, then we’ve got a chance to achieve some big things. JH: Did you ever seriously contemplate retiring after Washington? SS: Oh, sure. When I left I said 1 may be finished or I may not, I don’t know. For a few days I thought I was finished. But then again, after just thinking it over, I said if there is an opportunity such as Carolina, and to me this was the perfect one, I would take it. This is the perfect opportunity in the sense that we’re at a major university in the South, in the SEC, and we have not achieved all that much over the years. So, we have an opportunity to do some things that have never happened before. This is the challenge that any coach who loves a challenge, I think, would love to have. JH: What did you miss most about coaching in your time off? SS: Well, to be honest, I didn’t think about coaching when I was off. The idea hit me that I needed to coach again around October or November. For a while there, 1 got away from it. In the fall I just said, ‘Hey, I’m not finished. I’m not going to lay around the beach for 30 years. I can’t play golf that well to play golf every day because I get bored or frustrated doing that.' So you look at yourself and say ‘What do you want to do in life?' and I said ‘Well, I’m a football coach, and I have more fun than I do doing anything else.' So here was a chance to do it again. So, again I’m thankful to President Sorensen and Athletic Director Mike McGee for giving me this chance. JH: Who do you look up to as a coach? SS: Well, there’s several. I always liked Tom Osborne at Nebraska. He’s always been a good class guy who won the right way. Probably my best friend in the coaching fraternity is Bob Stoops at Oklahoma because we coached together at Florida, and we’ve remained close and I talk to him on the phone at least once a week on the phone. Of course, Vince Lombardi was one of the greatest of all time. I like Joe Paterno too. He’s struggled lately, but he’s a class guy. ■ BASEBALL Continued from page 10 enough, though, as he stniggled in the decisive inning, quickly giving up two runs before the coaching staff could replace him. King and Gregg were the lone players to receive multiple hits for Carolina, each going 2-for-4 with an RBI. A day removed from a tense battle of wits, the Gamecocks allowed a three-hour, 36-minute weather delay to prevent them from playing to what Tanner believes they are capable. Senior Zac McCamie suffered his first loss as a Gamecock, dropping his career record to 12-1, as USC allowed unforced errors to give Florida the 7-3 series-tying advantage. Senior Tommy Boss collected the win for the Gators. “We didn’t play like we’re capable of,” Tanner said. “Florida capitalized on our mistakes and that’s what good teams do — capitalize on other team’s mistakes.” Carolina went on top first when sophomore Jon Willard’s sacrifice fly brought in junior Chris Brown in the top of the third. The Gators evened the score in the bottom of the inning as Tolleson’s throwing error gave Florida sophomore Gavin Dickey the free pass to home plate. Dickey participated in a football scrimmage earlier in the day as a quarterback for the Gator football team, going 5-of-7 for 96 yards and a touchdown. The bottom of the fourth would be enough to overcome Carolina when the Gators scored three runs on a bases-loaded walk and a- right field double. The Gamecocks closed the score 4-3 in die sixth thanks to timely hitting by sophomore Ryan Mahoney and Willard, who batted 3-for-3 for the day. A season-high eight batters allowed the Gators to increase the lead in the bottom of the eighth, and the series would be decided on Easter Sunday. As was the case in the first two games of the series, the Gamecocks went ahead when Tolleson scored on a Michael Campbell single with two outs in the first. Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, they would collect only three more hits in the next eight innings compared to 11 for the Gators. Fletcher was credited with the loss, giving two runs in two innings pitched. Junior Andy Lambert, sophomore Arik Hempy and freshman Andrew Cruse split the final seven innings almost evenly, as the Gators hit themselves to a 6-1 victory and series win. Florida went on the board with a two-run single in the second inning and added insurance with a home run bv senior leff Corsaletti in the third. The long ball was the first and only by either team for the entire series. The remaining scores came on single run innings in the fifth, seventh and eighth, with one of those runs coming courtesy of a bases-loaded walk. Brown, batting .388 going into the series, saw his hitting streak extend to seven games after reaching base in all three games of the series. With the exception of Willard’s 4 of-11 weekend, the Gamecocks struggled overall offensively during the series. Gregg and King, the hot bats in the opener, went hitless Saturday and did not play Sunday. Carolina returns to action Tuesday night, playing at Sarge Frye Field against Brown University. The Bears bring a 3-8 record to Columbia. Game time is 7 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu mil—r i|