November 29, 2001

#25 South Carolina fell from the ranks of the undefeated Wednesday night with a 71-63 loss at Clemson. Three Lady Gamecocks scored in double figures with Shaunzinski Gortman leading the way with a game high 17 points. Jocelyn Penn added 11 points while Ines Ajanovic provided 10 points off the bench. Penn pulled down nine rebounds in the game to lead both teams on the boards.

With three offensive fouls called on their first three possessions, South Carolina fell behind to and Clemson mounted a 14-4 run behind Leah Roper’s six points. The USC defense held the potent Clemson offense without a basket for five minute and caught back up to Clemson. South Carolina took the lead at 20-18 with 6:42 to play and built a four-point lead (22-18) as senior Ines Ajanovic came off the bench to score seven points in three minutes. The Tigers tied the game at 22 and took a 28-26 lead into the locker room at halftime. South Carolina managed to hit only nine-of-23 shots in the first half (39.1%), hit only one-of-seven three point opportunities and committed 13 turnovers.

South Carolina returned to score seven quick points in the first four minutes of the second half and took the lead at 33-32 behind Ines Ajanovic’s basket and free throw. That would be the last Gamecock lead of the game as Clemson responded to build the score back up to 46-37 behind Lakei Stokes’ eight points in 20 seconds. After two Julie Aderhold three-pointers, Clemson pushed the advantage out to 13 points in the second half (59-46) with only four minutes to play but a late USC 14-5 rally pulled the team back within four points with 34 seconds to play. But South Carolina could not get closer as Clemson converted its seven-of-eight foul shots for the victory. Clemson outscored South Carolina by 12 points from the free throw line (25 to 12).

“We struggled offensively tonight,” said USC Head Coach Susan Walvius. “This was one of our uglier performances and we put our heads down when things went wrong. You have to give Clemson credit. They are a very good team, especially defensively. The Clemson game is very important to us and it’s almost it’s own season. We only play them once a year and we’ll have to live with this result all season. This game was very disappointing. I was interested to see how we would handle the national ranking. And tonight, we played not to lose the ranking or the game. We were back on heels trying not to make mistakes.”