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TH#%AMECOCK SPfPTS Page 12 ^ e ■ >. S — _l_ ^—s Monday, March 13,2006 Gators win second-straight title John Bazcmore / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Florida’s Joakim Noah tips in the winning shot with 11 seconds left to give the Gators a 49-47 win in the SEC tournament championship Sunday. The Gamecocks were denied an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament while shooting 18-for-60 during the game. USC will face Western Kentucky as the No. 3 seed in the first round of the NIT. Florida denies USC shot at NCAA bid, enters postseason tournament at No. 2 Tom Benning STAFF WRITER NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Florida won its second consecutive SEC tournament title Sunday, ending USC’s run at an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. Here’s how the other games played out. DAY1 USC 59 Mississippi State 44 In the opening matchup of the tournament, USC began sluggishly against Mississippi State. Three minutes into the game, the Bulldogs held a 9-2 lead, and forced USC head coach Dave Odom to call a 30-second timeout. However, MSU’s poor ball handling allowed Carolina to respond with a 13-5 run ana go into tne nan witn a 32-25 lead. For the game, the Bulldogs turned the ball over 17 times, off of which USC scored 22 points. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks had a season-low of four turnovers. “Obviously, the story of today was that we played well defensively and we didn’t turn the ball over,” Odom said. “That’s a tremendous departure from our most recent games.” Carolina pulled away in the second half, leading at one point by 17. Renaldo Balkman led all scorers with 12 points, and Tre’ Kelley and Tarence Kinsey each added 11 points. Kentucky 71 Mississippi 57 In Rod Barnes’ final game as head coach at Ole Miss, the Rebels made a valiant effort to make him go out a winner. Despite a capacity Kentucky crowd, the Rebels muscled their way to a 29-26 lead at halftime. The second half was a different story. With the Rebels’ post players limited by foul trouble, Randolph Morris came alive and ended up with 17 points. The loudest cheer of the night came when Wildcat guard Rajon Rondo knocked down two free throws with 11:02 left after missing his first seven shots. Vanderbilt 76 Auburn 71 A flurry of 3-pointers and back-and-forth action made the Vanderbilt-Auburn game an interesting matchup. Vanderbilt’s Derrick Byars’ 12 first-half points allowed the Commodores to only be down 34-31 at the break. Vanderbilt took their first lead of the game three minutes into the second half after back-to-back to-back 3-pointers. The ‘Dores and Tigers combined for 22 3-pointers. Auburn guards Quantez Robertson and Frank Tolbert kept it close, and with 1:35 left, the difference was only two, 68 66. Arkansas XU Georgia 61 Arkansas thoroughly dominated the Bulldogs in the nightcap. Georgia hung around early and closed the gap to five at the half. However, Arkansas opened the second period with a 21 8 run .and never looked back. Neither team was particularly sharp, as the teams combined for 37 turnovers, but UGA could not overcome the scoring power of the Hogs. The highlight of the game came in the first half when Arkansas guard Ronnie Brewer flew down the paint for a one-handed putback slam. DAY 2 — Quarterfinals use 79 Tennessee 71 Unlike Carolina’s first two matchups against the Vols, TOUM • 13 Gamecocks split with Clemson Tanner’s squad wins 6-2 on March 4, falls 6-4 on March 5 in first two meetings this season Illatt (Doore FOR THE GAMECOCK CLEMSON — USC head coach Ray Tanner stood in front of over 5,000 fans at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in what he called a “boxing match he couldn’t win.” Four Gamecock pitchers had a shot at the Tiger hitters in the seventh inning, three with two outs, but Clemson DH Marquez Smith used a bases-loaded single to give Clemson a 6-4 victory on March 5. The win gave Clemson a weekend split after the Gamecocks took the March 4 game at home, 6-2. “I was just trying to get another run on the board and put us ahead,” Smith said. “Luckily it got through the hole for me. Freshman Alex Farotto came on to pitch for the ^Gamecocks with two outs in the bottom of Travis Storrer, and the game was tied at four. Tanner then called on junior Jeff Jeffords who gave up Smith’s single, giving the Tiger’s their first lead in either game of the weekend series. Senior Shawn Valdes-Fauli finally ended the two-out rally by striking out first basemen Andy D’Alessio. “I can’t take you through that,” Tanner said. “I mean, that was like a boxing match and we just kept going past the 15th round. I don’t know what happened.' We kept trying to counter and get out of the jam and Marquez Smith had a big hit just out of reach of [James] Darnell. That’s baseball.” USC started the game with a two-out rally of its own. Clemson pitcher Stephen Faris downed the first two Gamecocks before giving up two singles followed by a two-Rf?I double by Justin Smoak. Carolina led 2-0 to the defensive side of the ball for both teams. Carolina third baseman Neil Giesler used every inch of his 6-foot-5-inch frame to take a double away from Storrer in the second. Clemson left fielder Tyler Colvin returned the favor in the third by making a catch off the wall and doubling off Giesler at second. “We played good defense all day long,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said after the game. “I thought our pitching was good and thought we were just good enough to win.” Clemson got on the board in the third with a leadoff triple from short stop Stan Widmann. Adrian Casanova grounded to first to bring Widmann in and bring the Tigers within a run. Carolina had a chance to gain and extend their lead going into the seventh tiled 3-3. Smoak was hit by a pitch to single gave the lead back to USC. Clemson pitcher Josh Cribb was able to get out of a first and-third jam by getting Gamecock Cheyne Hurst to ground out to second. USC had a similar opportunity in the eighth. With runners on first and third, Giesler was called for interference at second base during a double play. “He called me out and that’s the rule,” Giesler'said. “I didn’t even look where I slid. I wasn’t trying to take anybody out.” The play resulted in a run being taken off the board, and Clemson pitcher Steve Prichard ended the inning by getting Smoak to fly out to right. “The rule in college baseball is that you have to slide directly into the bag irregardless of any situation,” Tanner said. “Did he have to call it? No, but he did. He was not wrong, He was right.” Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK USC senior Neil Geisler fields a ground ball and flips it to pitcher Andy Lambert for an out during a loss at Clemson March 5. The Gamecocks split the home-and home series. The rivals play twice more this season. in the ninth, as he retired the side. USC used 20 different players in the struggle, but they couldn’t recover from their seventh inning difficulties. “The most important feel sorry for ourselves and not let up when we got down,” Leggett said. “We did a good job of getting ourselves back in the ball g!ame and win.”