February 7, 2002

Shaun Gortman scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds as host South Carolina swept the season series from rival Georgia for the first time ever with a hard-fought 64-59 win Thursday night at Carolina Coliseum.

The win gives South Carolina its seventh Southeastern Conference win on the year, the most for any Lady Gamecock squad ever. With the loss, Georgia drops to 15-7 overall and 4-6 in the SEC.

Trailing 38-30 with 16:37 to play, the Lady Gamecocks (19-3, 7-2 SEC) sprinted to a 28-11 run over the next 11:48 to give them a lead Georgia could not overcome down the stretch. South Carolina forced 24 Lady Bulldog turnovers on the night and turned those miscues into 30 points.

USC enjoyed a 30-14 advantage in points off turnovers Thursday night, a key to the South Carolina win.

“We’re excited about this,” said South Carolina head coach Susan Walvius of her squad’s seventh SEC win. “I don’t think we played particularly well, but we played hard.”

USC center Petra Ujhelyi added 12 points, five rebounds and four steals in her most complete effort of the season.

“I don’t think people realize how solid Petra is,” said Walvius. “We needed her to step up and she did.”

South Carolina jumped out to a quick 15-4 lead in the game’s first seven minutes, but Andy Landers’ Georgia squad rallied to cut the margin to just four at the break, 30-26. South Carolina forced 14 turnovers in the first half and grabbed eight steals, but USC missed 12 shots in the paint, keeping Georgia in the game over the first twenty minutes.

Additionally, USC did not attempt a foul shot in the first stanza while the Lady Bulldogs converted 10-of-13 attempts at the foul line, causing quite a stir among the 4,111 partisan South Carolina fans in attendance.

The absence of Lady Gamecock Teresa Geter hurt USC inside, as Georgia utilized their significant height advantage to dominate the glass, out rebounding Carolina 36-26.