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GAME SCHEDULE MEN’S TENNIS vs. Tennessee, 2 p.m. Friday WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Tennessee, 5 p.m. Friday BASEBALL vs. Georgia, 7 p.m. Friday uses ROAD through the MIAMI 67 - use 77, * UNLV 66 A double-digit first-half lead was enough to propel the Gamecocks past the Runnin’ Rebels. UhC 69, GEORGETOWN 66 Sophomore Tre' Kelley leads his team past the pesky Hoyas in the Gamecocks’ final home game. use 75, MARYLAND 67 i _ Carolina defeated its second ACC foe of the tournament under the lights of MSG. NIT CHAMPIONSHIP J use 60, ST. JOSEPH’S 57 KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK The 2005 NIT champion USC Gamecocks pose with the championship trophy following their victory against St. Joseph’s on Thursday. The Gamecocks finished the season with a 20-13 overall record. CHAMPIONS! Gamecocks cap off tournament run in dramatic fashion as Kinsey drains last-second game-winner By ALEX RILEY STAFF WRITER NEW YORK — The Gamecock basketball team is short one person on its flight home — the 300-pound gorilla that has been riding its back. Since 1908, great players and teams have played basketball in Columbia but have had very little to show for it. No USC basketball team has ever won a postseason tournament. Until now. As the final seconds ticked off the clock at Madison Square Garden, junior Tarence Kinsey drove the length of the court, popping a 3 pointer with .09 seconds left, ending almost 100 years of futility, as Carolina laid claim to the NIT championship, beating St. Joseph’s, 60-57. Smiling seniors Carlos Powell and Josh Gonner could not hide their giddy emotions. “It’s a great day for me,” Powell said. “It is great as seniors to be champions. It is a great thing for us. It is great for the Gamecocks.” A great day indeed. Powell’s 16 points led all scorers, earning him the title of the NIT’s Most Valuable Player. The Florence native became only one of three Gamecocks (besides Jon Chappell and Jon Land) to make an appearance in two NIT final fours. Added to that, Powell has moved into USC’s top six all-time scorers. While Powell had a great day, the goings were not easy. The Hawks and Gamecocks traded leads and had numerous ties the entire first half, including a tie at 28 on a Rocky Trice cut underneath the hoop at the half. The opening minutes of the second period were a series of traded baskets before a Hawk run. St. Joseph’s pushed its lead to 6 at 40-34 on a Pat Carroll free throw. That lead quickly dissipated with J ♦ Please see CHAMPS, page 9 ( KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK unior forward Tarence Kinsey sealed the victory for :arolina with a 3-pointer in the game’s last seconds. Struggling Carolina to battle envision rivals KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK Senior Steve Pearce, right, and junior Michael Campbell will try to Iea0 the Gamecocks past the Georgia Bulldogs this weekend. ByAJ BEMBRY FOR THE GAMECOCK After cruising through an underwhelming early season, non conference schedule, the Gamecock baseball team has received a rude awakening since it opened SEC play, dropping its first two series. While they can rebound after going 2-4 in the SEC, the Gamecocks face a critical point in the schedule to get back to .500 in conference play when the Georgia Bulldogs visit for a three-game series at Sarge Frye Field this weekend. USC matches up well statistically against UGA. The Bulldogs are 2-3 in conference play, with a league-high 3.97 ERA and dead-last .276 SEC batting average. USC is third in the SEC with a 2.86 ERA and ranks fourth in batting average at .307. Georgia is only a year removed from winning the regular-season SEC title and making the trip to the College World Series, and it is ♦ Pleasesee BASEBALL, page 9 NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK Redshirt freshman wide receiver Sidney Rice, left, goes up for a pass in a practice earlier this week. Rice is a native of Gaffney. 4 NIT victory proves USC excels beyond football field ■ Spirited Gamecocks finally persuade fans ^ of program’s importance For years, USC has been looked at as strictly a football-dominated school. Gazing at the budget and the checkbook, that assumption has been mostly accurate. Thursday night, nothing but the contrary was apparent. As the Gamecock basketball I C A ill competed for a championship, football finally took a back seat. Steve Spurrier, one of the winningest .— JONATHAN SEC history, HILLYARD is holding spring SECOND-YEAR practice right ELECTRONIC \ s, JOURNALISM down the STUDENT street, but we are still watching basketball. The Carolina baseball team is well into its SEC schedule and is fighting for a fourth-straight College World Series appearance. But we are still watching basketball. All the basketball teams in the SEC were at home wondering “what if” last night. We were still playing basketball. football coach Lou Holtz has been the most popular Columbian. His last three teams posted a combined record of 16-19 for a winning percentage of nearly 46 percent. The Dave Odom-led Gamecock basketball team is a combined 55-40 for a winning percentage of .611. Yet Columbia still throws all its support behind the boys on the gridiron, while a nationally televised home game against Florida only draws 11,000 people to the Colonial Center. News flash folks — we play hoops in the Palmetto state. And we play them well. Odom has resurrected a program that was stuck in the shadows and last night that program played on the most famous game in sports at Madison Square Garden. Senior Carlos Powell has been the voice of this Gamecock team, a team that is widely viewed as the most playful, enjoyable team in the SEC. The team’s personality reflects that of its leader — fun behind the scenes, but all business on the floor. For the past two seasons we have watched a team that was picked in each season to finish in the bottom two of their own ♦ Please see HILLYARD, page 9 Spurrier sees holes in team’s early play By MATTHEW NAGY FOR THE GAMECOCK After nearly two full weeks of spring practice with new USC football coach Steve Spurrier, plenty of work is still to be done, especially on offense, as the first full scrimmage nears. It appears to be a race betweei two widely unheralde quarterbacks who have emerged i the beginning weeks of the pivo practice period this mor Antonio Heffner and Bi Nichols are taking the majority s repetitions with the first-team offense, not preseason favorite redshirt sophomore Blake Mitchell. Nichols, a walk-on, and Heffner, who some said could be moving positions this spring, have inched ahead of Mitchell and a mostly sidelined Mike Rathe in the depth chart so far this spring. ♦ Please see SPRING, page r