THURSDAY SPORTS: Gamecocks win first tournament game since ’08

For the first time since 2008, South Carolina (13-19, 5-13 SEC) left its first game with a win at the SEC Tournament as freshman guard Duane Notice exploded for a career-high 23 points to lead the Gamecocks past Auburn (14-16, 6-12 SEC), 74-56, in the tournament’s opening game at the Georgia Dome Wednesday night. Also in double figures for Carolina was senior guard Brenton Williams with 16.

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Lefty starter Zack Erwin allowed just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts in 7.2 innings pitched to lead No. 14 Clemson to a 2-1 victory over Appalachian State at Doug Kingsmore Stadium Wednesday night. It was the first meeting between the two schools since 1997. Erwin (1-0), who did not issue a walk, set a career high for innings pitched and tied his career high for strikeouts for Clemson (10-5).

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Jordan Simpson homered, drove in two runs, and scored three times to lead Furman to an 11-9 victory over Duke in baseball action Wednesday afternoon at Jack Coombs field. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for Furman, which improves to 7-10.

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Furman guard Stephen Croone has been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 22 Second Team. The sophomore paced the Paladins and ranked second in the Southern Conference by averaging 19.1 points per game en route to earning All-SoCon honors this season.

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It was announced Wednesday that both the NBA’s Kobe Bryant and the NHL’s Rich Peverley are done for the season. The L.A. Lakers’ Bryant played just six games this season because of a broken bone in his knee that’s kept him out since shortly before Christmas, and it hasn’t healed enough to allow him to play. The Dallas Stars’ Peverley, whose heart arrhythmia was discovered before the season, collapsed on the bench earlier this week when his heart briefly stopped. He won’t play again this season, and tests will be done to see if it’s safe for him to ever play in an NHL game again.

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New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony said Wednesday that he’s heard 11-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson will be joining the team, the strongest sign yet that Jackson will be taking over the Knicks’ basketball operations. Anthony told reporters, “Everything’s in his hands now.” Jackson played on the Knicks’ last championship team in 1973, and later went on to win six NBA titles as a coach with the Chicago Bulls and five more with the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Jerry Sandusky’s wife is speaking out in a CNN interview, declaring that the former PennState assistant football coach is innocent of sexually abusing young boys. Dottie Sandusky blames the news media for her now 70-year-old husband’s 2012 conviction of 45 counts of child sex abuse, which got him a 30- to 60-year jail sentence, saying he, quote, “was found guilty before trial.” When asked why she still believes her husband after hearing the testimony of the men who said they were abused by him as boys, she said, “Because he’s innocent,” and accused some of those who said they were Sandusky’s victims of looking for money. Attorney Marci Hamilton, who represented one of the victims, said in response, “Mrs. Sandusky is our best recent example of our deep denial of the reality of child sex abuse. . . . Never underestimate the ability of a pedophile to charm and deceive the adults around him or her.”