Vanderbilt gets road win at S. Carolina

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Posted 8:00AM on Sunday, January 20, 2002

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Vanderbilt's found a new way to success - Matt Freije hits a four-point play, the Commodores win. He's done it the past two games, the first as Vanderbilt ended a 12-game Southeastern Conference losing streak against Auburn (73-67) on Wednesday night, then as part of his 13 points in the Commodores 60-51 win at South Carolina on Saturday night. ``Hopefully, if he keeps making them, we'll keep winning,'' Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. Especially if Freije keeps playing like this. He was at the center of Vanderbilt's 15-0 run that began the second half. He made a short jumper to make it 27-19, then canned a 3-pointer from the left corner as Rolando Howell knocked him into the Commodores bench. Freije, a sophomore, popped up and shimmied as he walked to the foul line to finish the play and give Vandy a 12-point edge. ``Tell him about the shake,'' Freije's teammates said coming from their locker room after the game. ``I guess I was in the moment,'' Freije said. ``Hopefully, I can break it out again. Something's going right.'' The Commodores (12-6, 2-3 SEC) won their second straight Southeastern Conference game after opening 0-3 and losing their previous 12 in the league. They did it with a 19-3 run to start the game and, after South Carolina had cut the margin to four points by halftime, opened the second period with a similar surge to put them ahead 38-19. The Gamecocks (11-7, 1-4) came as close as 50-45 on consecutive baskets by Aaron Lucas with 3:29 to go. But Chuck Moore converted a three-point play on Vanderbilt's next possession to build the lead back up. Stallings said he wished he could say he felt like a turnaround was coming as the Commodores started 0-3 in the league this year. But ``if you'd have talked to me three or four days ago, I felt like I was on life support,'' he said. ``I wasn't sure we'd ever win one. To go from how I felt Wednesday before the Auburn game to now is probably the reason you coach because you enjoy the highs when you have a chance to.'' Freije said there were no fiery rah-rah talks when South Carolina's first-half charge left the Commodores up by four at the half. ``Coach told us to match the intensity and we'd be all right,'' Freije said. Brian Thornton scored eight points and Frieje scored the rest to fuel the run, which ended when Chris Warren got South Carolina's first bucket nearly five minutes in to the second half. Chuck Moore scored 11 points and Brendan Plavich 10 points for the Commodores. ``We knew they were going to make a run and the first five minutes (of the second half) were going to be very important,'' Moore said. ``We got out to a big lead and they couldn't come back from that. I think that was the key to our victory.'' Lucas led the Gamecocks, who had won their previous three against Vanderbilt, with 20 points. Jamel Bradley added 13. Two nights earlier, South Carolina's women's team had a near-capacity of 12,168 fans helped by promotional $1 tickets as the eighth-ranked Lady Gamecocks lost to No. 2 Tennessee 80-61. But a buck was probably too much for this one early on. The Gamecocks opened 1-of-12 with 10 turnovers the first 13 minutes and fell behind to Vanderbilt 19-3. ``This game, while it displeases me, I'm not going to go home and stick my head under a cold shower,'' South Carolina coach Dave Odom said. ``Am I disappointed we didn't make plays? Yes I am. But we're going to keep our heads and play better.'' Jason Holwerda started the Commodores first-half run with two buckets, while Brendan Plavich, David Przybyszewski and Sam Howard had consecutive 3-pointers and Przybyszewski closed the spurt with an inside shot. Lucas had a driving bucket to start the Gamecocks on their way to a 16-4 run the last 6:25 of the half. Howell had the final seven points as South Carolina trailed 23-19 at the break.