Feb. 21, 2003

Still in the hunt for one of the highly coveted top four spots in the Southeastern Conference standings, South Carolina takes on the hot Auburn Tigers Sunday in a key conference match-up.

Game time is 3:00 p.m. and all fans who bring a church bulletin will receive their ticket for only $2.

The Gamecocks find themselves tied for sixth place Sunday only a game out of fourth place while the Tigers, winners of three of the last five games, are eighth in the standings behind USC.

However, five teams are within one to two games of the highly desirable fourth spot so the Tournament seedings will most likely come down to the last regular season games on March 2nd.

South Carolina enters Sunday’s game with a 18-6 mark and a 6-5 record in the SEC. The Gamecocks are 12-2 in the new Carolina Center and defeated #13 Arkansas, 83-59, last Sunday at home. Today’s game is the second of three consecutive home games for USC, leading up to Thursday’s Home Finale/Senior Day for three Gamecocks; Jocelyn Penn, Petra Ujhelyi and Linda H?glund.

Jocelyn Penn continues to lead the Gamecock scoring with an average of 24.6 points per game. The senior is second in the SEC behind MSU’s LaToya Thomas (25.2 ppg) and is fifth in the nation. Gamecock junior Cristina Ciocan is second on the team in scoring at 12.7 points per contest and is second in the SEC with 6.8 assists per game. Ciocan has now recorded five double-figure assist games this season (for a total of nine in her career) and three double-doubles this season.

Senior Petra Ujhelyi paces the SEC and team’s rebounding efforts with 9.6 boards per contest and is third in scoring (11.3 ppg). Ujhelyi is now ninth on the South Carolina rebounding list with 776 boards. With her tenth double-double of the season at Georgia (18 points and 12 boards), Ujhelyi is first in the SEC and is tied for fourth in the NCAA with 10 double-doubles.

Auburn (17-7, 5-6) is led by Natasha Brackett who averages 16.8 points per game and Le’Coe Willingham who pulls down 6.5 boards per game. Brackett was named the SEC Player of the Week in week five (Dec. 9-15) after averaging 14.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists against NC A&T and Alabama A&M.