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COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina men’s basketball announced its non-conference schedule for the upcoming 2022-23 season on Monday. The Gamecocks will have an exhibition to start the year with 13 more games before SEC action begins.

The Gamecocks will step on the floor for the first time under head coach Lamont Paris with an exhibition vs. Mars Hill on Nov. 2 at Colonial Life Arena. Admission will be free. The Lions are led by South Carolina hoops great Larry Davis, who is in his first year as head coach. Davis, who became a member of the South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017, scored 1,068 points in just two seasons in Garnet and Black (1995-97). It’s the second-most points scored by any two-year player in program history. He was a vital part of the program’s 1997 SEC Championship squad.

The team will host South Carolina State on Nov. 7 in the home opener. The Gamecocks will then face Clemson at home on Nov. 11. It will mark the just the second time in 171 all-time meetings the two in-state rivals will play in November. The first November game between the Tigers and Gamecocks took place on Nov. 17, 2013 at Clemson. South Carolina leads the all-time series 91-80.

The Gamecocks will then head east to the Holy City to participate in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. The program will be making its third all-time appearance in the event and first since 2016. Carolina faces Colorado State in its opening game on Thursday, Nov. 17, with tipoff slated for 5 p.m. (ET) on ESPNU. The Gamecocks will play again Friday and Sunday, both matchups pending the outcome of the previous game.

South Carolina will then return home to face USC Upstate on Friday, Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving.

The Gamecocks then head to Washington D.C. for a pair of games at George Washington (Nov. 30) and Georgetown (Dec. 3). Presbyterian comes to Colonial Life Arena on Dec. 11. The Gamecocks will then hit the road again for a matchup at UAB (Dec. 14). The Blazers, led by head coach Andy Kennedy, played in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. UAB is the reigning C-USA Tournament Champion.

Carolina will then face East Carolina on a neutral floor in Greenville, S.C., at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday, Dec. 17. It will be the Gamecocks first time playing at Bon Secours since defeating Marquette and Duke in the first two rounds of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule with a pair of home games vs. Western Kentucky (Dec. 22) and Eastern Michigan (Dec. 30).

2022 South Carolina Men’s Basketball Non-Conference Schedule

11/2 – vs. Mars Hill (exhibition)

11/7 – vs. SC State

11/11 – vs. Clemson

11/17 – vs. Colorado State (Charleston Classic)

11/18 – TBD (Charleston Classic)

11/20 – TBD (Charleston Classic)

11/25 – vs. USC Upstate

11/30 – at George Washington

12/3 – at Georgetown

12/11 – vs. Presbyterian

12/14 – at UAB

12/17 – vs. East Carolina (Greenville, S.C.)

12/22 – vs. Western Kentucky

12/30 – vs. Eastern Michigan

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

t sounds like the Sixers will take their show on the road for head coach Doc Rivers’ third training camp.

Marc J. Spears said Tuesday on ESPN’s NBA Today that Rivers told him the Sixers will travel to Charleston, South Carolina before this season.

“They’re going to Charleston, South Carolina,” Spears said, “to get away from family, to just concentrate on basketball and each other as a team, get their camaraderie. And along with basketball, Doc wants them to learn some American history. They’re probably going to go to a slave museum and learn about the Gullah culture out there in South Carolina.”

Rivers’ first two Sixers training camps were at the team’s training complex in Camden, New Jersey.

Neither camp occurred under typical circumstances. The start of Rivers’ first season was heavily impacted by COVID-19; Tyrese Maxey and Mike Scott missed the beginning of camp after testing positive for the virus. Maxey stepped into the starting point guard role last year with Ben Simmons seeking a trade and holding out of camp.

Rivers has previously liked having camp somewhere besides his team’s usual practice hub. He held his first Celtics training camp in Burlington, Vermont, and traveled to Europe ahead of Boston’s 2007-08 championship season. The Clippers went to Hawaii.

"I'm a big proponent of going away for training camp," Rivers said in a 2007 Boston Globe story by Spears. "We did it the first year when I was here and we had a lot of success that season, so I'm a big fan of getting the group away, especially when there are a lot of changes involved."

Among the notable changes for the Sixers this offseason are signings of P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr. and a trade for former Grizzlies guard De’Anthony Melton.

The team has not yet released its preseason schedule, though an Oct. 3 game against the Nets in Brooklyn is already on the calendar.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Throughout the state, animal shelters are seeing an all-time high in animal intake numbers, causing shelters to declare a state of emergency for the second time in history.

The summer is always the busiest time for shelters, but this summer specifically, a combination of different factors has created an influx of dogs overcrowding shelters.

Some reasons for the influx could be the increasing population, home rental problems, kids going back to school, moving problems and flooding.

Joe Elmore, Charleston Animal Society President and CEO, brought Bo, a shelter dog since the beginning of August, to an interview to show how this emergency can really affect the animals.

“The state of emergency means that dogs such as Bo, don’t have a place in shelters because we’re all so overcrowded right now and they need homes,” Elmore said. “Well, what is the risk? The risk is that animals like Bo may not make it out alive at shelters across our entire state. We need people that come in and make room for one more in their homes and in their hearts for animals.”

Being the largest animal shelter in the state, the Charleston Animal Society has over 700 animals in the system at the moment with 60 dogs available for adoption right now.

“My heart is breaking for these animals,” Kay Hyman, director of community engagement, said. “They’re sitting in a cage. They want to be at your house, on your couch, in your backyard. They don’t want to be sitting in a kennel.”

Shelters like the Charleston Animal Society and Berkeley County Animal Center said more dogs are coming in than being adopted, which is where the problem stems from.

If unable to adopt, both shelters ask people to consider fostering. Tiffany Hoffman, Berkeley County Animal Center Event Coordinator, and her family are on their 28 foster dog.

“Fostering is so rewarding,” Hoffman said. “It’s like anything, you try it once and you are hooked.”

Using social media to promote is also very helpful in getting the word out about animals in shelters. The Charleston Animal Society is waiving all adoption fees and providing potential owners with $250 worth of food and supplies.

“We need to get 100 adoptions out this weekend,” Elmore said. “Cats and kittens also, but the ones that are most risk are the dogs because they don’t do well when they stay in shelters for a long time.”

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized an Omicron-specific booster, marking the first redesign of coronavirus vaccines since they were rolled out nearly two years ago. The Omicron variant has been the dominate strain since early this year, with the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants being especially transmissible.

It is anticipated that on Friday, Sept. 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will sign off on the authorization. After that, it’s all systems go.

“Once it’s given the OK, we’ll put in an order, and it should ship pretty quickly. The entire process should take about a week, meaning we should have it available to anyone who wants it the week of Sept. 12, maybe sooner,” said Danielle Scheurer, M.D., MUSC Health System chief quality officer.

The new booster comes at a point in the pandemic when approximately 90,000 infections and 475 deaths are being recorded daily in this country. Though hospitalizations have become much rarer, COVID-19 is still the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Though this targeted booster should help to slow the spread of the virus, Scheurer is skeptical that it will fly off the shelves.

“My guess is the uptake will be low. So many people have gotten COVID at this point, and many just aren’t getting that sick. I think people are just over it. I hate to say it, but I think a lot of folks are going, ‘I’ll just take my chances,’” she said.

But Scheurer cautioned that people who are at higher risk, such as older Americans or those with preexisting health conditions, should seriously consider getting this booster. And for those who aren’t in the higher-risk category, one motivator to get this booster might be to avoid getting long COVID, when virus-related symptoms can linger indefinitely beyond an infection.

As for the science behind the new booster, Scheurer said it was synthesized in the same way the first vaccine was, only it’s bivalent, meaning the encoded messenger RNA targets two spike proteins, instead of one: the original virus and Omicron and its known subvariants. Additionally, the dosage for this one is a little lower.

“I think it’s important that people know that this is intended to act as a booster, not a stand-alone vaccine,” she said. “Meaning that for people who haven’t been vaccinated, the course of action is to get your original two doses and then this.”

Two boosters will be available: one by Pfizer BioNTech, for use in people age 12 and up, and the other by Moderna, targeted to those 18 years and up. MUSC expects to receive the Pfizer booster.

Though MUSC is in the process of decommissioning all of its stand-alone vaccine sites, the new booster will be offered at the MUSC Health Pharmacy at Rutledge Tower as well as by most, if not all, MUSC Health affiliated primary care physician sites.

Though things seem to be trending in the right direction in this country, Scheurer still remains vigilant.

“Given the volume of people who have gotten Omicron, I’m kind of surprised we haven’t had another rapidly evolving variant,” she said. “I think we’ve been pretty lucky. But then again, this might just be the new normal – a world where we coexist with COVID and life goes on.”

Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina travels down I-26 to the South Carolina Lowcountry this weekend for its much-anticipated 2022 season opener as the Catamounts visit the Charleston Southern Buccaneers. Kickoff of WCU's first of back-to-back road games to open the schedule is set for Noon.

Saturday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and will also be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with airtime of the Pepsi Tailgate Show at 11:00 am. Fans across western North Carolina can hear the game locally on eight CSN affiliates: in Sylva, 105.7 FM and 540 AM WRGC "The River"; 104.9 FM and 1050 AM WFSC in Franklin; WISE Sports Radio 1310 AM and 102.9 FM in Asheville; 970 AM WYSE in Canton; and Cullowhee on 95.3 WWCU-FM, with live streaming audio online at CatamountSports.com.

Fans can also follow the game with live stats accessible online at CatamountSports.com with timely in-game updates on Twitter using @Catamounts and @CatamountsFB.

Picked fifth in the preseason polls back at the end of July, optimism is high in Catamount Country as memories of the strong finish in 2021 that saw WCU win four of its final five games and post a fourth-place finish in the league. WCU's four victories last year were the most for the Purple & Gold since winning seven in 2017 – and the four SoCon wins were its most in five years after winning five league games back in 2017. That strong finish is coupled with an infusion of talent that bolsters the Catamount roster, spurring expectations across the Cullowhee Valley.

WCU is expected to turn the "Play Fast, Score Faster" offense under second-year coordinator Kade Bell over to QB Carlos Davis who is in his third season in Cullowhee. Davis has played in seven games over the past two years with a pair of starts including leading WCU to its first victory under Kerwin Bell in the 45-31 road win at The Citadel in Charleston. Davis threw for a career-high 401 yards in earning SoCon Offensive Player of the Week accolades while returning tailback TJ Jones amassed 205 total yards including 132 on the ground with a pair of scores and 73 yards and a touchdown through the air in the victory.

Defensively, Chazmon Scales took over as WCU's defensive coordinator during the offseason after serving as a co-coordinator with Justin Hinds – who was hired by the Chicago Bears as an assistant defensive line coach – a year ago. Much like his counterpart Kade Bell, Scales is a high-energy coach that inherits a veteran secondary, a bigger defensive line, but a question mark entering the year at linebacker. WCU graduated its top four LB's from a season ago with just Giovanni Ricciardi and Skylin Thomas representing the lone returners. A talented group of newcomers including four transfers and one freshman grace the opening weekend two-deep including EJ Porter, Va Lealaimatafao, Ed Jones IV, Nick Louis, and freshman Hayward McQueen.

First-year special teams coordinator Chris Norris has among the most veteran group with a pair of accomplished placekickers in Richard McCollum and Paxton Robertson, two game-proven punters on the two-deep in Robertson and starter Brandon Dickerson, and a pair of long-snappers in Kevin Thompson and Colby Cross. WCU must replace dependable punt returner Daquan Patten who graduated after last season and will miss preseason All-American kick returner, Calvin Jones after he suffered an injury in the spring – but, the Catamounts have several capable skill players to fill the return portion of special teams.

Western Carolina and Charleston Southern meet for the first time on the football gridiron in the anticipated frontend of a nonconference home-and-home as the Buccaneers are slated to come to Cullowhee next fall.

The Catamounts seek their first season-opening victory since 2018 when it downed Newberry in Cullowhee in its first game of the year. WCU must look back to the 2002 Kent Briggs-led squad for the last time it scored a road victory in its season-opening game – a 23-3 victory at Liberty while the Flames were still an NCAA FCS program. WCU closed 2021 with three-consecutive victories away from Cullowhee, looking for a fourth as it tangles with the Buccaneers on Saturday.

Coming off a third-place finish in the Big South Conference a season ago, Charleston Southern was tabbed in a tie for third with Gardner-Webb in the six-team league's preseason poll this year. The Bucs landed three players on the preseason All-Big South squad – leading wide receiver Cayden Jordan, leading tackler LB Garrett Sayegh, and safety Hombre Kennedy. Defensive end Anton Williams was an honorable mention for third-year head coach Autry Denson's squad.

Charleston Southern returns just four players on an offense that averaged 369.7 yards and 24.5 points per game a year ago, while seven starters return on defense. The Buc defense limited opponents to 366.7 yards per game and surrendered 28.9 points per game in 2021.

The Bucs have a very tough schedule in 2022, hitting the road for games at North Carolina State (Sept. 10) and Eastern Kentucky (Sept. 17) following Saturday's opener. CSU also hosts fellow SoCon for Furman on Sept. 24 before opening its five-game league schedule, visiting former Big South member Kennesaw State in late October.

Game 1: Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 • Noon Location: Charleston, S.C. (Buccaneer Field – 4,000) Records: Western Carolina (0-0) at Charleston Southern (0-0)

WCU Football Media Center Western Carolina Football Game Notes

BROADCAST INFORMATION: TV / Video Stream: ESPN+ (subscription required) Announcers: Killian McClatchey, Jack Delongchamps, and Justin Biegel Radio: Catamount Sports Network PBP: Gary Ayers; Color: Daniel Hooker; Producer: Jeff Bryson Live Stats Link

CSN Affiliates: Sylva – 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC Franklin – 104.9 FM / 1050 AM WFSC Asheville – WISE Sports Radio 102.9 FM / 1310 AM Canton – WYSE Sports Radio 970 AM Cullowhee – 95.3 FM WWCU Online: CatamountSports.com

Keep track of everything related to Catamount football and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (FB.com/CatamountSports), Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountsFB), and Instagram (wcu_catamounts).