Gamecocks lead youth movement

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas and South Carolina turned Walton Arena into a gigantic day-care center Saturday.
The teams played a combined 17 freshmen and sophomores, and the Gamecocks' youth was better served as South Carolina won 76-65 before 18,412 fans.
"Like I told our kids, apparently their freshmen are better than we've got and they've got better sophomores than we got," Razorbacks Coach Nolan Richardson said. "They executed a lot better than we did, and we're at home.
"We're going to have to face these guys a lot of years, and if they're already better than we are, we'd better get on the stick."
It was a potentially devastating home loss for Arkansas, which failed to build upon a 71-64 victory over Ole Miss on Wednesday night in Walton Arena and now has five of its next six games on the road.
"You're supposed to take care of your home court, and South Carolina is the bottom of the Eastern Division," Razorbacks freshman forward Carl Baker said. "We just had no intensity, no energy, no nothing.
"Everybody wanted to beat Ole Miss real, real bad. We came out [Saturday] like it was just another game ... It didn't look like we were out there playing to win."
South Carolina (9-5, 1-1) was led by senior guard Herbert Lee Davis' 16 points, but the Gamecocks played six freshmen and sophomores and got significant contributions from all of them.
Freshman guard Chuck Eidson was South Carolina's most impressive player, going 36 minutes against Arkansas' pressure defense and finishing with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
"Eidson has an incredibly innate ability to read passes and think the game," Gamecocks Coach Eddie Fogler said. "He's not the quickest or fastest, but he's as smart as you could imagine for his age. ... I trust his decision-making."
Also coming up big for South Carolina were sophomore guard Jamal Bradley (13 points), sophomore forward Damien Kinloch (12 points, 7 rebounds) and freshman centers Marius Petravicius (7 points, 5 rebounds) and Tony Kitchings (4 points, 3 rebounds).
Arkansas (9-6, 1-1) was led by senior guard Chris Walker's 13 points, but played 11 freshmen and sophomores. Freshman forward Alonzo Lane had 12 points and 7 rebounds while sophomore guards Teddy Gipson and T.J. Cleveland added 11 and 10 points.
Freshman guard Joe Johnson, who has been the Razorbacks' leading scorer and rebounder since gaining his eligibility five games ago, struggled, hitting 3 of 11 shots and finishing with seven points.
"It's like we're an up-and-down team," Walker said. "Some games we have it, some games we don't. This is one of those games we didn't bring it.
"I'm not taking anything away from [the Gamecocks], they made some big shots. They shot better than we thought they would. The difference was we didn't bring it."
South Carolina shot a season-high 59.3 percent from the field and hit a season-high 10 three-pointers in 18 attempts.
Bradley, who came into the game averaging 3.2 points, hit 4 of 6 three-pointers in the first half -- including three in a 1:49 span -- to ignite a 17-2 run by the Gamecocks that gave them a 39-25 lead.
"Bradley got them on a roll," Richardson said. "It relaxed them and they shot well all day."
Arkansas shot 37.3 percent from the field, hitting 10 of 29 three-pointers.
"We couldn't throw it in the ocean, and we kept trying," Richardson said.
Arkansas used a 15-4 run to pull within 56-53 with 11:43 left after a steal and layup by Cleveland brought the crowd back to life, but the Razorbacks couldn't pull closer the rest of the game.
"You need to come up with some great offensive and defensive plays to get over the hump," Richardson said. "We never did."
Instead it was South Carolina making the big plays down the stretch, whether it was a three-pointer by Davis, drive by Eidson, layup by Petravicius or dunk by Kinloch.
"You could hear the crowd getting on their feet," Eidson said. "If you don't get a score, you're going to give them more confidence and they're going to get back in the game, but we answered them every time."
South Carolina broke an 11-game road losing streak, going back to 79-74 victory at Florida on Feb. 21, 1998, and won at Arkansas for the first time in five tries since both teams joined the SEC nine years ago.
"The thing that sticks out for me with our team is the ability not to fold, particularly in the second half when Arkansas made their run," Fogler said. "Poise was the big issue.
"We answered each time we had to answer. That was key."
Arkansas jumped ahead 14-5 the first five minutes as Lane scored seven points, but the Razorbacks couldn't sustain that momentum and the Gamecocks got a three-point shooting roll to take control of the game.
After Bradley hit one of his three-pointers, he turned to the South Carolina bench and pumped his fist.
"This is the hardest place to win in the United States," Bradley said. "In order for us to get that win we had to create the enthusiasm for ourselves, and that's what we did today. That's what got us going in the first half."
While Arkansas is 93-13 at Walton Arena, the Razorbacks are just 5-3 there this season, also losing to Oklahoma and Wake Forest.
"We're not used to losing at home," Walker said. "Now we're losing either here or there.
"We need to get it together and turn the season around."

This article was published on Sunday, January 9, 2000

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