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Dec. 19, 2004

THE BASICS
South Carolina is home to face Birmingham Southern at 7 p.m. Monday at the Colonial Center. It is the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

ON THE AIR
The game will be broadcast live on WISW 1320 AM Columbia, with Andy Demetra handling play-by-play and Robin Muller providing analysis. For listeners outside of Columbia, the live broadcast will also be aired worldwide via the internet on the official web site of South Carolina athletics, www.uscsports.com.

ACCESSING THE WEB BROADCAST
To access the internet broadcast, go to www.uscsports.com, then click the “Audio/Video” link at the top of the screen. Follow the prompts from there to select the game you want to listen to.

SEASON TICKETS AVAILABLE
Season tickets for South Carolina women’s basketball are now available for only $40, making Gamecock women’s hoops one of the best values in town. Playing in the nation’s most difficult conference, plus an intriguing non-conference slate that includes home games against Clemson, N.C. State and Charlotte make for an exciting season of women’s basketball.

PACKING THE GAMES IN
Monday’s game is the fourth game in seven days for the Gamecocks, who are in the midst of a stretch in the schedule in which they play five games in nine days. USC beat Florida A&M, 88-55 Tuesday before suffering a 75-48 loss to NC State Thursday. The Gamecocks lost, 69-56 at Middle Tennessee Saturday before hosting Birmingham Southern and South Carolina State on Monday and Wednesday of this week, respectively.

COMMON OPPONENTS
Birmingham Southern and South Carolina have both faced Jacksonville, with the Panthers suffering a 61-52 setback at the hands of the Dolphins and South Carolina handing Jacksonville a 79-54 defeat.

THE COACHES
Susan Walvius is in her eighth year at the helm of the South Carolina women’s basketball program and her 15th year overall as a head coach. Prior to USC, she coached at Virginia Commonwealth and West Virginia. The 2002 SEC Coach of the Year led the Gamecocks to consecutive top-20 national finishes and NCAA tournament appearances in 2002 and 2003. Her 2002 squad advanced to the Elite Eight. Janine Hoffman is in her fifth year at Birmingham Southern, where she has compiled a 66-51 record. Prior to joining the BSC staff, she spent two years as the head women’s basketball coach at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., from 1997-99. During her tenure at Millsaps, she also served as Senior Women’s Administrator, a position that included the duties of compliance officer and academics coordinator.

A CAROLINA WIN WOULD:
• Mark the Gamecocks’ 15th consecutive win over teams from the Big South Conference. • Improve USC’s record to 16-3 in non-conference games played at the Colonial Center. • Move the Gamecocks to 3-6 on the year, a mark that is one game better than the 2-7 start turned in by the 2000-01 USC squad that finished the year with an 11-17 record, then came back in 2001-02 to go 25-7 and advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Among the players on the 2000-01 team were eventual WNBA players Teresa Geter, Shaunzinski Gortman, Jocelyn Penn and Petra Ujhelyi.

A CAROLINA LOSS WOULD:
• Snap a 14-game winning streak in games played against teams from the Big South Conference. • Move South Carolina to 15-4 in home games played at the Colonial Center against non-conference opposition, with all four losses coming this season. • Be USC’s third consecutive defeat, marking the longest such skid of the season. • Move the Gamecocks’ record to 2-7 on the year, a start identical to that of the 2000-01 USC squad that finished the year with an 11-17 record, then came back in 2001-02 to go 25-7 and advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Among the players on the 2000-01 team were eventual WNBA players Teresa Geter, Shaunzinski Gortman, Jocelyn Penn and Petra Ujhelyi.

EBONY JONES ADDED TO ROSTER
South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Susan Walvius announced the addition of freshman Ebony Jones to the roster on Dec. 18. Jones, a 5-6 shooting guard from Aiken HS in Aiken, S.C., enrolled at South Carolina last year and served as a team manager during the 2003-04 season and the beginning of the current season. “This is tremendous honor to get a chance to play basketball for a school like South Carolina,” Jones said. “This is a great opportunity and I will do everything I can to help this team.” A nursing major who is a sophomore in academic standing, Jones was a standout playing for coach Aubrey Pompey at Aiken HS, garnering all-state recognition as a senior and all-conference accolades during her junior and senior years. She played in the North-South All-Star Game as well as the South Carolina vs. Georgia All-Star Game.

KULCSAR EMERGING AS A BRIGHT SPOT
Sophomore forward Larissa Kulcsar earned her first start of the season in Carolina’s game against Florida A&M, and has started each of the last three games. Her scrappy style of play has been very helpful, but so has her production. Since becoming a starter, Kulcsar is averaging 10.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on .607 shooting from the field. She set or matched all of her career highs in South Carolina’s game at Middle Tennessee.

STRUGGLING FROM DEEP
South Carolina has lost its last two games due in part to the fact that the Gamecocks have struggled from three-point range as a team. Carolina shot 4-of-20 from deep against Middle Tennessee (.200 pct.) and was 3-of-12 from beyond the arch against N.C. State (.250 pct.) When the last two games are combined, USC is shooting 7-of-32 from three-point range (.219 pct.) Stacy Booker, who led the SEC in three-point field goal percentage entering the N.C. State game at 12-of-24 (.500 pct), was 0-for-3 against the Wolfpack and was 0-for-7 against Middle Tennessee.

TURNOVER TROUBLES CONTINUE
Turnovers have been a problem for the Gamecocks this year. Carolina commits an average of 21.3 turnovers per game. In USC’s last three games, the Gamecocks turned the ball over 24 times vs. Middle Tennesee, 24 times vs. N.C. State and 23 times against Florida A&M.

DRY SPELLS A PROBLEM
The Gamecocks enter Monday’s game with a 2-6 record, despite being competitive for the majority of games. Carolina has fallen victim to scoring droughts in their games in which the opponents have gone on runs that led to victory.

CAROLINA’S DRY SPELLS
vs. Washington (11/14/04), Washington-65, USC-53
USC led, 33-24 with 17:02 remaining when Washington went on a 27-5 run to take a 51-38 lead with 5:52 remaining.

vs. UNLV (11/15/04), UNLV-66, USC-63
USC led, 39-36 with 16:18 remaining when UNLV went on a 22-10 run to take a 58-49 lead with 5:34 remaining.

vs. Charlotte (11/30/04), Charlotte-78, USC-72
USC led, 21-19 with 5:55 remaining in the first half when Charlotte went on a 26-12 run to take a 45-33 lead with 1:10 remaining in the first half. The 49ers never gave up that advantage.

vs. Clemson (12/3/04), Clemson-87, USC-79
USC led, 79-78 with 3:02 remaining in overtime when Clemson went on a 9-0 run to close out the game.

vs. NC State (12/16/04), NC State-75, USC-48
NC State led, 44-42 with 12:45 remaining in the game, then went on a 31-1 run to take a 75-43 lead with 1:05 remaining.

vs. Middle Tennessee (12/18/04), Middle Tennessee-69, USC-56
Immediately following a 17-4 Carolina run that tied the score at 41, Middle Tennessee went on a 19-9 run to take a 60-50 lead with 3:42 remaining to seal its victory.

SIMMS A MODEL OF CONSISTENCY
Sophomore captain and Spring Valley graduate Lauren Simms came into the season with high expectations after earning Freshman All-SEC recognition last year. She has not disappointed in the early going, reaching double-figures in all but one game and averaging a team-best 15.8 points per game. She ranks among the SEC’s top 10 in points per game and set a new career high when she scored 29 points against Charlotte on November 27, then she came back to score 25 points against rival Clemson, with 21 of those points coming after halftime.

RETURN TO SENDER
With seven players on the roster standing 6-0 or taller, South Carolina is one of the SEC’s best teams in terms of blocking shots. The Gamecocks have rejected 51 shots in eight games this year, for an average of 6.4 shots per game. USC’s single-season school record for blocks is 115, held by the Gamecocks of 2001-02. The current team is on pace to block 179 shots during the regular season. South Carolina blocked 10 of Florida A&M’s shots last Tuesday, marking the second time this season USC has swatted 10 shots in a game. The Gamecocks also sent back 10 of Jacksonville’s shots on Nov. 27.

BARNWELL’S JOHNSON ALL OVER THE PLACE
Sophomore Melanie Johnson, a Barnwell HS graduate, enjoyed a career night against Florida A&M Tuesday, setting career highs in nearly every major statistical category. She scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to go with seven steals, four blocks and four assists.

NOT ENOUGH FROM THE POST PLAYERS
Post play has been a question mark for South Carolina early on, as the two post players who get the most minutes (Ilona Burgrova and Iva Sliskovic) have combined to average only 8.3 points per game on 23-for-59 shooting from the field (.390 pct.) Of the post players on the South Carolina roster, only Larissa Kulcsar shoots better than .420 from the field.

UNDERCLASSMEN ABOUND
There are no seniors on the South Carolina roster. In fact, the team has only one junior. Forward Olga Gritsaeva is the only upperclassman on a roster that features eight sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and one true freshman.

THREE-POINTERS MADE STREAK STILL INTACT
The Gamecocks have knocked down at least one three-pointer in 97 consecutive games, dating back to November of 2001, which marks the longest such streak in school history.

WHAT’S NEXT
The Gamecocks are back in action at 5 p.m. Wednesday when they host South Carolina State in the front end of a doubleheader with the USC men’s team, who squares off against South Carolina State’s men at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WISW 1320 AM Columbia and on the internet at www.uscsports.com, with Andy Demetra handling play-by-play and Robin Muller providing analysis. ┢┢