Jan. 2, 2004

Recap?|? Box Score?|? Notes

– South Carolina Coach Dave Odom: “We continue to play hard and play unselfish. When someone tells you that your team plays that way and plays like they know what they’re doing, then I think you’re team is doing some good things. Those are the kind of things that give you a chance to be a pretty good basketball team and I think that’s what we are right now. No more, no less. We certainly do not have any reason to go out in front of The Colonial Center and beat our chests. Appalachian State plays a lot like us. They like to run the floor, press and trap on defense. I am pleased with the fact that we finished our non-conference season with 13 wins. Now, we close that chapter of our season. Are we ready for the SEC? I don’t know. We’ll have to see. We’ll have to find out what happens. The emphasis tonight was to take good, open shots. We made the extra pass and it paid off tonight.”

Appalachian State Coach Houston Fancher: “We didn’t shoot the ball well and they ran with it and got easy points. They have some skilled players on their team. Tonight they really hurt us on the glass and that is something that hasn’t happened this season even against teams bigger than South Carolina. Coach Odom has them playing very well. After the game I apologized to him for not being more competitive but you have to give them credit because they are a good basketball team.”