March 5, 2002
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Arkansas couldn’t have started its Southeastern Conference schedule much worse. Now the Lady Razorbacks plan on finishing their season in style.
India Lewis scored 23 points on five 3-pointers as Arkansas upset South Carolina (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 12 AP) 79-61 on Friday in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals.
Arkansas, which started the league schedule by going 1-5, reached the semifinals for the second straight season with its ninth victory in its last 11 games.
Point guard Amy Wright said the Lady Razorbacks thought it would be a very long year when they struggled early.
“Now the sky’s the limit for us. Everybody’s playing together. Who knows where we’ll end up after this tournament? Who knows where we’ll end up in the NCAA tournament? We’re going to take one game at a time, come out and know we’re going to play hard,” she said.
The Lady Razorbacks (19-10) will play No. 6 Vanderbilt or 11th-seeded Auburn in the semifinals Saturday night coming off the two biggest margins of victory in the tournament.
The Gamecocks (22-6) came into the tournament off their best season since joining the SEC for the 1991-92 season. They had a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed and needed only one victory to reach the semifinals for the first time.
They became the fourth upset victim in six tournament games because the Gamecocks couldn’t hang onto the ball, turning it over 16 times in the first half alone and finishing with 24.
South Carolina coach Susan Walvius said the Lady Razorbacks played her game plan perfectly, while her Gamecocks were too tight.
“It comes down to being able to come out here and play in a tournament, handle the pressure of this and being the higher seed when you’ve got a target on your back and step up to that challenge. We didn’t do a good job of that today,” she said.
Arkansas turned those mistakes into 29 points. The Lady Razorbacks led 39-31 at halftime and improved to 17-0 when leading at the half. They led by as much as 14 before padding the margin in the final minute.
Coach Gary Blair credited Wright and Lewis for getting into the passing lanes and disrupting the Gamecocks.
“We’ve got to force turnovers. If we ever lose that turnover battle, we’ll probably lose 95 out of 100 times,” he said.
South Carolina managed to get within four three times in the second half, the last at 57-53 on a basket by Teresa Geter with 9:43 to go. That was as close as they could get as Dana Cherry scored the next five points in a 10-0 spurt that stretched the lead back to 14, and the Gamecocks didn’t threaten again.
Shameka Christon and Cherry each added 18 for Arkansas.
The Gamecocks couldn’t get leading scorer Jocelyn Penn into the game. She had 10 points in the first half and finished with 14, below her average of 17 per game. Shaunzinski Gortman led the Gamecocks with 19, and Geter added 10.
Penn gave South Carolina its biggest lead at 16-12 off a three-point play with 11:21 to go. That was the best the Gamecocks could do while the Lady Razorbacks went through a nearly six-minute drought without a field goal.
When Joy Oakley finally scored for Arkansas, it pulled the Razorbacks to 16-14 and started an 18-4 run that Cherry capped with a basket for a 30-20 lead with 5:53 to go. Arkansas led 39-31 at halftime.
