our players really enjoy, they focus in a little bit more, when the competition is a little stiffer, South Carolina coach Dawn

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Almost in the shadow of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, No. 3 South Carolina and No. 4 Louisville played a game that was about entry into a select club.South Carolina is already in, just as its coach is enshrined among select company in the building across the highway from the MassMutual Center. Louisville is not yet in the club. The Cardinals have championship aspirations -- but not yet championship expectations.Connecticut, Notre Dame and South Carolina have those expectations.And after South Carolinas 83-59 win Sunday, that is how it is going to stay for now.I think our players really enjoy, they focus in a little bit more, when the competition is a little stiffer, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of the high-profile matchup. So it was great to see them come out and play this way and rise to the level of a competitive basketball team.Were still in search of who we want to be on both sides of the ball.Possessing both the potential and personnel to be a lot of things on both sides of the ball, that ought to worry the rest of the country.Sunday started as if two participants thought it was a Hall of Fame audition. South Carolinas Kaela Davis and Louisvilles Asia Durr traded long jumpers as both teams shot better than 70 percent from the field for much of the first quarter. South Carolina has played that game before and won against a top-tier opponent. It opened the season by scoring 92 points in a win at Ohio State while shooting the Buckeyes out of their own arena. Even with Aja Wilson limited by foul trouble that night, Davis and Allisha Gray took on all comers.But that wasnt how South Carolina went about it Sunday. They didnt give Durr a chance to grow her legend in a duel.At Ohio State, Davis outscored the nations leading scorer. Against Louisville, the Gamecocks collectively silenced the rising star.We knew a lot goes through her, Staley said of Durr. Shes a big part of what they do and the flow of how they want to play. So it was really key to us to make her work for everything, maybe deny her some touches and kind of crowd her space a little bit.Durr hit the fourth shot of her torrid start with just over five minutes remaining in the first quarter. That 3-pointer tied the score at 13. She hit her fifth field goal with just over one minute remaining in the third quarter. In the time between those baskets, South Carolina outscored Louisville 48-28.In what remained of the first quarter and through the entirety of the second quarter, Durr took two shots and missed them both. Nor did she get to the free throw line. When South Carolinas Bianca Cuevas-Moore picked up early fouls, freshman Tyasha Harris came in and suffocated Durr.Making sure that they made her work really hard for it and put other people in positions to shoot the ball for them, Staley said of the plan. And maybe they werent ready to be the main focal point of their offense, because Durr has been that for the first couple of games of the season.Mariya Moore tried with some success to hit those shots for Louisville. Briahanna Jackson hit a couple off the bench. In foul trouble, Myisha Hines-Allen couldnt help. But in a second quarter that separated the teams and a third quarter that settled matters, Louisville looked like a team without answers on the offensive end. Nothing came easy.That it was Harris who was so instrumental is notable. A highly touted freshman from the same Indiana high school that sent Kelly Faris to Connecticut, Harris, in her fifth game, played the way complementary pieces must for championship contenders. She played South Carolina defense.The first thing I learned was drop-cross-run, said Gray, the transfer from North Carolina who spent last season practicing with South Carolina. We dont slide anywhere. Its easy to guard your opponent when you run and sprint to the space to beat your opponent.Staley said after the game that she wasnt satisfied with the defense, that there was too much gambling and not enough discipline. Tell that to Louisville coach Jeff Walz after his team shot 38 percent with 17 turnovers.I just thought the pace of the game, I thought we controlled that, Staley said. I thought Louisville wanted to play a little bit quicker from the games that Ive seen this year. They wanted to get up and down a little bit more. There were a lot of fouls in the game, so a lot of stoppage of play, which I think benefits us, because we can be more calculating offensively in what were trying to do. And thats to get the ball inside to our bigs.Ah yes, those bigs. The day didnt go perfectly for South Carolina, either. In a game with a lot of the aforementioned whistles, both Davis and Gray ended up on the bench in foul trouble for stretches of the pivotal second quarter. But while the Gamecocks collectively stifled their opponents on the defensive end, Wilson and Alaina Coates combined to outscore the Cardinals 10-9 on their own in the period.In a disappointingly empty arena, it wasnt difficult to make out Walzs instructions to his team as the game wore on. So much of it was centered around Wilson and Coates. About blocking them out every time the ball went up. About watching out for the high-low sets when Wilson would feed the ball to Coates on the block. About running the offense that limited their ability to dictate terms in the paint.Coates finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Wilson had 17 points, five assists and two blocks. South Carolina finished with 40 points in the paint and 17 more rebounds than Louisville.Hines-Allen on the court would have helped. But not to that degree.Theyre two of the best posts in the game, Walz said. [Coates] has a motor like I havent seen in a long time. ...She doesnt worry about who [theyre] playing. She just does it right because thats what youre supposed to do. I watch them on film, theyre up 30 at half, and shes sprinting the floor every single time.Asked if he thought South Carolina was really 24 points better than his team, Walz said no. Hes probably right. But the roles are set for now.Louisville has been to the Final Four, of course. The Cardinals have made that trip more often than South Carolina and played for the championship, something the Gamecocks have yet to do. But in each case, Louisville reached the semifinals as a surprise, a team that broke the bracket.To do that once, let alone twice, is a feat worthy of celebrating, an indication both of what Walz can do with time and what players can do with the same. There is a reason people will remember the game against Baylor forever. But such runs arent blueprints for the future.You dont build a program to be the one that pulls off the upset. You build it to be the favorite.Louisville is getting there. South Carolina is there. Cheap Air Max 95 Wholesale . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Cheap Air Max 95 For Sale . The Vikings announced Thursday that Priefer will be one of seven holdovers from the previous staff, along with offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, wide receivers coach George Stewart and others. Norv Turner will mark his 30th year of coaching in the NFL as the offensive co-ordinator, as widely reported for weeks, and George Edwards will be the defensive co-ordinator. http://www.wholesaleairmax95australia.com/ . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Wholesale Air Max 95 Australia . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Cheap Air Max 95 Australia . The Barrie Colts defenceman, who impressed many with his play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, is the top-ranked skater in the February rankings. He has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in 45 games with the Colts this season. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A pair of seven-footers ended up having a big night for Florida State.Michael Ojo recorded the first double-double of his career -- 13 points and 10 rebounds (both career highs) -- and Christ Koumadje had a career high 14 points as Florida State defeated Winthrop 100-86 on Friday.It makes it so much easier. When Ojo and Christ play big-time like that, it opens up so much for us, said guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who had seven points and nine assists.Ojo, a 7-foot-1 senior center, missed last season due to a knee injury. Nine of his points came from the line, where he has struggled in the past. Ojo made only 40.2 percent of his foul shots his first three years but was 9 of 12 on Friday and is making 75 percent (12 of 16) for the season.When I came back after my rehab this is one of the things Ive been working on consistently, Ojo said. This year I feel like I have to make them to leave something behind to be remembered about.Koumadje, a 7-foot-4 sophomore who is the tallest player in Seminoles history, got the first double-digit scoring game of his career as he was 7 of 8 from the field. During a 10-0 run in the first half that allowed FSU to take a 31-19 lead, he had a pair of alley-oop dunks off assists by Rathan-Mayes and Dwayne Bacon.Christ runs the lane so well, hes the tallest guy on our team and probably one of the fastest, Rathan-Mayes said. He puts so much pressure on defenses when he plays like that, when he plays with confidence and, like I said, he just opens up the floor for us.Dwayne Bacon led the Seminoles (3-0) with 15 points while Jonathan Isaac added 14 and Braian Angola-Rodas 11. The combination of Ojo and Koumadje allowed the Seminoles to have a 50-32 points-in-the-paint advantage.Winthrop (2-1) steadily whittled down the lead and got within 58-54 five minutes into the second half on a Fisher free throw before FSU went on a 9--0 run.ddddddddddddI thought we settled down in second half, defended a lot better and executed well. We wore them down with our depth, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said.Xavier Cooks led the Eagles (2-1) with 23 points while Bjorn Broman added 16 and Roderick Perkins 11.Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey said he thought Florida States size ended up wearing them down. By the five-minute mark of the second half the Eagles had four players in foul trouble.We were close enough to be semi dangerous in the second half. We missed some open looks and at the same time they keep coming at you, he said.BIG PICTUREWinthrop: Non-conference road games have been difficult for the Eagles. They have dropped 20 of their last 27 and 36 of their last 54 overall road games.Florida State: The Seminoles showed off their depth as 11 players played within the first 10 minutes with eight scoring. Ojo and Koumadje played a combined 12 minutes in Tuesdays 21-point win over Iona but played 30 on Friday.CENTURY MARKIt is only the fifth time in a regular-season game in Hamiltons 15 seasons that the Seminoles have scored in triple figures. The last time was a 109-62 victory over Nicholls State in last years opener.HE SAID ITIts like getting a couple root canals playing against their talent and athleticism, Kelsey on Florida State.UP NEXTWinthrop: The Eagles conclude a three-game road trip on Monday against Illinois. It is the fourth time in the past five years they are facing a Big Ten team.Florida State: The Seminoles host Detroit Mercy on Sunday. This marks the first time since 1994 that they are facing the Titans.---More AP college basketball at http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25---Follow Joe Reedy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joereedy ' ' '