South Carolina to hold NIT second-round

Posted 6:19PM on Thursday 17th March 2005 ( 20 years ago )

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) No matter the opponent, the NIT has decided to stay in South Carolina. Tournament officials told the Gamecocks on Thursday that it will host either Arizona State or UNLV at the Colonial Center in the second round Tuesday night. The game will start at 7:30 p.m. Arizona State and UNLV played their first-round game Thursday night. South Carolina (16-13) kept its season alive this past Tuesday on Josh Gonner's driving basket with 2.1 seconds left for a 69-67 victory over Miami. There were only 6,307 fans at the arena, which fits nearly three times that many. On the afternoon of the game, South Carolina coach Dave Odom handed out free tickets at a campus lunchroom. After the victory, though, Odom guaranteed a bigger crowd should his team play at home again. ``We'll double what we had here tonight,'' he said after the victory. Odom said in a statement that choosing South Carolina now for the second-round game meant students and fans have plenty of time to get tickets, which go on sale Friday. ``Our team commented after the Miami game how loud the crowd was on Tuesday night and how much they helped them in the second half ,'' Odom said. The Gamecocks led Miami much of the game, but found themselves trailing 64-60 with about four minutes left. Then South Carolina limited the Hurricanes to one field goal the rest of the way, ending a closing 9-3 run on Gonner's driving leaner. The is South Carolina's ninth time in the NIT and second in Odom's four seasons. In its last appearance in 2002, Odom took the Gamecocks all the way to the championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York where they lost to Memphis. Odom had said Tuesday night that there was a 50-50 chance the Colonial Center would get a second game since Arizona State's arena in Tempe, Ariz., was preparing for a NCAA Women's Tournament regional. In 2002, UNLV came to South Carolina for a second-round game at the old Frank McGuire Arena while the Colonial Center was under construction. The Gamecocks won that game, 75-65, before 10,048. Should South Carolina win Tuesday, it's not out of the question to have a third home game. That's what happened when the Gamecocks went to the NIT in 1996, beating Davidson and Vanderbilt at Frank McGuire Arena before falling to Alabama. Gamecock senior Carlos Powell said Tuesday night that despite not reaching the NCAA tournament, the players looked at the NIT as a new season. ``I don't know where it's going to end,'' he said. ``I hope it's Madison Square Garden.'' First, though, Powell and his teammates get at least one more home game. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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