Jan. 1, 2008

COLUMBIA, SC – South Carolina’s Brandis Raley-Ross will be out with a left knee sprain for up to two weeks Gamecock head coach Dave Odom announced today. Odom will be chasing career win No. 400 as a head coach on Wed., Jan. 2 when the Gamecocks host Radford at 7:30 pm.

An MRI revealed no tear and the knee will be re-evaluated during the two-week period while Raley-Ross rehabs the knee daily.

Raley-Ross is currently leading the nation in three-point percentage (30-46, 65%) and is tied for third on the team with 10.6 ppg with Dominique Archie. He has started nine of the 12 games USC has played this year (7-5).

Raley-Ross and Evka Baniulis were shooting in the practice facility on Saturday evening, on a day off, for about an hour. Towards the end of the shooting session Raley-Ross went up to slam dunk the ball and came down awkwardly.

“It was a baby dunk. Everyone on the team was joking I was trying to dunk over Evka or something,” said Raley-Ross who remarked this was his first real basketball injury in his career. “We wanted to be `good’ and not go out on Saturday night so we went to put up some shots instead. I guess Coach Odom can’t be mad because we were in there getting some extra work. I want to be back in a week, but we will see.”

“Evka and Brandis are the best of friends and they were sitting around the dorm on Saturday night,” said Odom. “I love their choice, but maybe not their judgement. We hope it’s not more than two weeks.”

Radford enters the Jan. 2 contest with a 4-9 record after falling 90-60 to West Virginia on Dec. 19. The Highlanders have had two weeks off since that loss.

Radford coach Brad Greenberg is in his first season as a head coach. Radford has four players averaging double figures: Joey Lynch-Flohr ((11.1), who also leads the team with 5.8 rpg; Martell McDuffy at 13.8; Amir Johnson at 13.2; and Kenny Thomas leads the team at 14.2.

Radford plays in the Big South and is the first of two straight Big South teams USC will play in a three-day span as the Gamecocks host UNC Asheville on Jan. 5 in its last non-conference game prior to SEC play. USC is 22-3 vs. the Big South with contests against Charleston Southern (7-1), Coastal Carolina (1-1), Elon (1-0), UNC-A (7-1), Radford (1-0) and Winthrop (5-0).