The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Sports

Sophomore forward Dominique Archie will be relied on by the Gamecocks to help keep Florida forward Marreese Speights, who lit USC up last meeting, in check. (Photo by Mary Ann Chastain / The Associated Press)

The South Carolina men's basketball team travels to Gainesville tonight as they take on the Florida Gators in a critical SEC Eastern Division matchup.

The Gamecocks look to continue to improve upon their solid play over the last month, while the Gators are looking to snap an unusual SEC skid.

South Carolina (12-12, 4-6) has not won very many conference games this season, but they have been competitive over the course of the schedule. Following a blowout loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Jan. 12, the Gamecocks have gone 4-4 in SEC play with two of those losses coming by two points or less.

One of those losses was to the Florida Gators (19-7, 6-5) who have drastically sputtered since their two-point victory in Columbia.

Since the victory, UF has dropped four out of its last five, including questionable losses to LSU, arguably the worst team in the SEC, at home and a blowout to the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.

"Florida has lost four out of five games, but I think it is more a product of who they've played than they are not playing well," said head basketball coach Dave Odom. "The truth of the matter is, they are playing at home, they've lost four out of five basketball games and there is no doubt in my mind they will have that place electric tomorrow night. The atmosphere will be terrific."

For the Gators to pull out the expected victory against the Gamecocks, they'll need another solid outing from their star freshman Nick Calathes, who has continued to impress coaches across the league by averaging 15.2 points per game.

South Carolina will match the Gators star with one of their own in sophomore point guard Devan Downey, who dropped a staggering 29 points against the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday at the Colonial Center.

In the victory, Downey hit a critical 3-point shot and connected on his foul shot to put the Gamecocks ahead by two with 12 seconds to go. Downey, as usual, sealed the victory with a steal in the final seconds.

"I know they'll try to take the ball out of Devan's hands," Odom said. "We've got to do some things to make sure that Devan doesn't lose control of the ball and then get it back and we are playing at the back end of the shot clock."

Continued...

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