Jan. 31, 2003

The South Carolina Gamecocks look to continue the winning ways Sunday on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. (ET) with the action carried by WISW Radio (1320 am). Mike Morgan and Michelle Marciniak will call the action.

After suffering through a rough month of January in which the Gamecocks faced four Top 25 teams and six teams who participated in the NCAA Tournament participants last year, South Carolina defeated Florida Thursday night at home, 78-64.

Senior forward Jocelyn Penn is tied for second in the country with an average of 26.6 points per game and leads the SEC and the Gamecocks in scoring. Junior Cristina Ciocan is second on the team in scoring at 11.9 points per contest and is second in the SEC with 6.9 assists per game. Senior Petra Ujhelyi paces the SEC and team’s rebounding efforts with 9.2 boards per contest and is third in scoring (11.1 ppg). Ujhelyi leads the conference with her eight double-double performances this season.

With her 19 points against Florida on Thursday, Penn moved into fifth place on the all-time Gamecock scoring list with 1,728 points. She has already broken two school records (single-game scoring and career steals) and is on her way to a third USC record; points scored in a season. The Naismith candidate holds the NCAA’s top three scoring performances this season with a 51-point game against Stetson, a 50-point outing against Wofford and a 45-point day against the College of Charleston.

The Kentucky Wildcats are 9-8 and 2-3 in the SEC so far this season. Kentucky, who had Thursday night off, is 7-1 at home in Memorial Coliseum with the lone home defeat coming at the hands of Western Kentucky. Last week, Kentucky split their two games with Mississippi and Georgia. On Thursday, January 23rd, Kentucky defeated Ole Miss at home, 83-66 but lost at Georgia on Sunday, 71-59.

The Wildcats have four players who average in double figures with senior Rita Adams leading the way at 13.8 points per game. Junior SeSe Helms paces the team’s rebounding efforts with 6.6 boards per contest.

South Carolina is currently tied with two other teams for fifth place (with Arkansas and Vanderbilt) in the SEC while Kentucky is alone in the eighth spot. Kentucky leads the all-time series by a 17-11 mark but the Gamecocks have taken four of the last five contests.