Jan. 19, 2002
Lexington, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s basketball team travels to Columbia, S.C., on Sunday, Jan. 20 to face the eighth-ranked South Carolina Lady Gamecocks at 3 p.m. ET in the Carolina Coliseum. The game will be televised live on Fox Sports South.
The Wildcats (8-9, 1-4 Southeastern Conference) look to snap a three-game losing streak after falling to Arkansas on Thursday in Fayetteville, 76-64. Sophomore SeSe Helm, the league’s sixth-leading scorer, led the Cats against the Lady Razorbacks with 25 points and is the team’s leading scorer (17.8 ppg) and rebounder (6.8 rpg). She has recorded 596 points in her two-year career and needs only four more to hit the 600-point mark. Junior point guard Rita Adams is the team’s second leading scorer with 10.9 points per game and is the SEC leader in steals and is 11th in the nation, averaging 3.8 steals per game. Senior forward LaTonya McDole is the team’s third leading scorer with 8.9 points per game and is the second leading rebounder with 6.6 rpg.
“South Carolina is a good team and is coming off a tough loss to Tennessee,” UK Coach Bernadette Mattox said. “They will come out ready to play and we cannot come out flat like we have in our past few games.”
South Carolina, ranked No. 8 in both national polls, is 16-2 overall, 4-1 in the SEC. USC’s loss in the league came on Thursday against the No. 2 Lady Vols, 80-61, snapping a 12-game winning streak, 11 of which came in Carolina Coliseum. USC’s only other loss came against intrastate rival at Clemson, 71-63, in late November.
The Lady Gamecocks are led in scoring by junior forward Jocelyn Penn who averages 17.9 points per game. Senior guard Shaunzinski Gortman follows with 14.9 ppg. Leading the battle of the boards is Penn and senior forward Teresa Geter. Both players are averaging 7.1 rebounds per game.
Coach Susan Walvius is in her fifth season at the helm of the Lady Gamecocks.Kentucky leads the all-time series, 17-9, but is 4-7 when playing in Columbia. The Cats have lost three of the last four games against USC in the Carolina Coliseum, including a 70-62 setback last season. The teams split meetings, however, with the Cats winning a nail-biter, 61-59, in Lexington last season. Coach Bernadette Mattox is 6-6 against USC, 1-5 when playing in Columbia.
UK and USC have met twice each year for six straight years. Four out of the six years, the teams have split meetings with each team winning on their respective home floors. UK won both games in 1999, while USC defeated the Cats twice in 1996.
