Jan. 15, 2003

Recap?|? Box Score

South Carolina Head Coach Dave Odom: “I congratulate Auburn and Cliff (Ellis). They have an excellent team as advertised. Marquis Daniels is a marquee player. He sets the tone for their team. We tried just about everyone on him except me … The story on our side was missed assignments, both on defense and offense. This time of year, there is no excuse for missed assignments on defense. We did not rebound the ball with the competitive fire that we needed to. The team fought hard and the fans fought hard. Tomorrow’s practice we will have to emphasis execution. This team will stay together and at some point this season, we will be a good basketball team. Chuck (Eidson) needs to quit taking the cheap fouls. His first two fouls would not have broken a piece of china even if you had thrown it from the Empire State Building. We missed way too many easy shots inside. Tony Kitchings had no presence in the first half or in the beginning of the second half. He did play better at the end of the game. Carlos Powell – mid-ankle sprain that will be x-rayed on Thursday. Marius Petravicius (knee surgery next week): I’ve never coached a player who has given more and asked for less. He is a real man.”

Auburn Head Coach Cliff Ellis: “It was a hard fought win. I thought this was a very good college basketball game. Marquis (Daniels) got us off to a good start. I was proud of our free throw shooting. We were strong on the boards and I thought we played very good defense. Overall, it was a solid team effort. I’m proud of our team to be able to come in here and win. Our rebounding was strong and the foul shots we made were huge. In every game we played, in the last few minutes we have been able to get the foul shots down. Our team has good leadership. Our players don’t get hung up. Poise is a major sign of maturity.”