COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Alaina Coates thinks she and post partner Aja Wilson have picked up right where they left off -- and thats a bad sign for No. 3 South Carolinas opponents.I pretty much feel like were back to where we were, Coates said.Theyd get no arguments from Maine after the Gamecocks ran off to a 79-42 victory on Monday night in the Basketball Hall of Fame Womens Challenge.The 6-foot-5 Wilson had 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting while 6-4 Coates had 12 points and 14 rebounds. The two did about whatever they wanted most of the way against the undersized, young Black Bears (2-3).Theyre good, Maine coach Richard Barron said. What else can you say?The Gamecocks (3-0) used their defense to make quick work of Maine, starting on a 15-0 run, then outscoring their opponents 13-0 to open the third quarter. South Carolina eventually grew the lead to 41 points in the final period.Freshman Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, at 6-2 the primary post backup for Wilson and Coates, added 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and picked up eight boards.South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said when Coates and Wilson play with efficiency and speed, it helps in teaching Herbert Harrigan the right way to play.When she sees our two bigs clicking like that, it kind of becomes contagious, Staley said. She had a pretty good basketball game.The Gamecocks outrebounded Maine 42-27 while Wilson had four of their five blocked shots. Coates swatted away the other.South Carolinas two high-profile transfers, Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray, also finished in double figures with 10 points each. Julie Brosseau had 11 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead the Black Bears.BIG PICTUREMaine: The Black Bears opened with a surprise win at Purdue, but lost for the third time in the past four games. They dont have the size to match up with teams like No. 7 Mississippi State (a 44-point loss on Nov. 12) or the third-ranked Gamecocks. But Maine, which starts four freshmen, showed off some shooting touch in a 59-43 win over St. Peters on Sunday night. Laia Sole, who scored 16 points in the St. Peters win, was named the American East rookie of the week for the second straight time this season.Whats it like starting four freshmen? Its a little bit better than starting five, Maines Barron said.South Carolina: The Gamecocks wont go wrong going inside this season to Wilson and Coates. Coates had 10 points and 12 rebounds by halftime to collect her second double-double of the season and 44th of her career.POLL IMPLICATIONSSouth Carolina will have one more tune up on Tuesday night before things get serious when it faces No. 4 Louisville on Sunday. Lose that one and count on the Gamecocks to tumble from the top five.YOUNG GAMECOCKSAfter taking its big lead, South Carolina played several young players in the final quarter like Herbert Harrigan, Victoria Patrick, Araion Bradshaw and Tyasha Harris, all freshmen. Staley said the group has to get experience because the Gamecocks have only four juniors or seniors returning with significant experience Wilson, Coates, point guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore and guard Tiffany Davis.We may need the young players at some point this season, Staley said.STREAK ENDERWilson set a school record on Sunday night, going 14 of 14 from the foul line in defeating Hampton 92-38. Could Wilson keep it going? No as she missed her first free throw against Maine and finished 0-2 at the line.UP NEXTMaine takes on Hampton here at the Colonial Life Arena on Tuesday night as part of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Challenge.South Carolina finishes a three-game homestand on Tuesday, facing St. Peters as part of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Challenge. Wholesale Basketball Jerseys China . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. Wholesale Basketball Jerseys . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. http://www.basketballcheapjerseys.com/ .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. Basketball Jerseys Outlet . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. Cheap Nike Basketball Jerseys . The team also announced Tuesday that the Braves will wear a commemorative patch on the right sleeve during the season. The patch, shaped like home plate, carries the number 715, Aarons autograph and a "40th Anniversary" banner. NEW YORK -- The distance running calendar rolls on, the winners names change, but the countries of origin do not. So it was no surprise to defending New York Marathon champion Stanley Biwott at his return press conference Friday when one of the first questions posed to him was a familiar one: What makes Kenyan and East African runners so utterly dominant in the distance events? Its the same query the sports and science community have been trying to figure out for years, and the same question that drew identical twins Zane and Jake Robertson to move from small-town New Zealand to Iten, the self-described home of champions, a decade ago to find out.The Robertson twins had little money, precious few connections, but an unshakeable belief even then, at the age of 17, that if they immersed themselves in the famous East African running culture and applied themselves, they could be as great as the Kenyans or Ethiopians someday.They turned down athletic scholarships in the United States. They bucked advice of family and friends, educators and coaches who dismissed them as delusional and arrogant, or even derided them as misfits. Upon arriving in Nairobi, Kenya, they relied on strangers to direct them to the right place. Their first home was a simple mud and wood frame hut that Dennis Kinara, a former runner, was kind enough to offer them. They had to ration money so tightly at the start, for the first month they ate mostly bread and jam.From Competitor.com: Celebs who are running in Big AppleFrom Competitor.com: Diane Nukuri ready to mix it up in NYCFrom Competitor.com: What you need to know about the NYC MarathonPeople thought we were crazy, Zane said this week in a telephone interview from just outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he has moved to from Kenya to train. But once you say What if it doesnt work out? youre already a loser ... What we were interested in was creating something a lot of people dont get. By being here, we believe there are so many advantages that are gained. And it doesnt take a short time. People come here for a month or two months or three months to get their [red] blood cell counts up or be at altitude or do volume training. But its still not possible to gain everything we can gain from living here.Though some other Westerners have followed the Robertsons footsteps and since moved to Kenyas or Ethiopias running hotbeds, the twins were the first. When they arrived in Nairobi, they had to ask for help on how to make the eight-hour bus ride to the running groups they landed with. Zane later survived a near-deadly bout of malaria, and they both escaped the street violence that claimed more than 1,500 lives after the 2007 Kenyan presidential elections, thanks to being tipped off by friends that a mob was headed toward their neighborhood in Iten. Zane says they hid in maize bush for a few days. Our backup plan was if the violence didnt stop and we ran out of food, wed start running to Uganda, Zane explains.Nowadays, Zane doesnt begin training in the hills of Sululta outside Addis Ababa earlier than 6 a.m. because, The hyenas are quite present in the forest. But once its light, its OK. Theyre not hunting me. Theyre going home. But I still wouldnt want to run into a pack of them.Robertson now trains with a group of runners that includes their Ethiopian friend Aselefech Mergia, a contender Sunday in the New York Marathons womens race. The mention of the Robertson twins names brings a smile to her face and that of Kenyan hopeful Lucas Rotich, who will try to dethrone Biwott here and has trained with Jake and Zane in the past.Theyve not only lived in Kenya, Rotich says of the Robertsons, you could say Kenya became their home.Along the way, Zane and his brother have developed a rare insider/outsider perspective into how to combat the daunting statistics that every distance runner who is not from East Africa is confronted with.Among men, athletes of African ancestry hold every major running record from the 1,500 meters to the marathon, and sweeps of all three spots on the medal podiums are commonplace. Biwott led a Kenyan 1-2-3 finish in the New York marathon last year.Through the end of the Rio Olympic Games in August, where Kenyas Eliud Kipchoge won the mens marathon, eight of the top 10 all-time marathon times were run by Kenyans, and the other two belonged to Ethiopians. Of the top 125 mens marathon times ever run, 124 were run by East and North Africans.The same trend has emerged on the womens side of the sport despite the huge hurdles women athletes in Africa still face. Kenyas Jemima Sumgong outran Eunice Kirwa of Bahrain and Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia in Rio to become Ethiopias first Olympic female marathon gold medalist. Mary Keitany of Kenya won the New York Marathon last year, leading another African sweep. While its worth noting that Britains Paula Radcliffes world record of 2:15.25 has stood 13 years, 18 of the top 30 womens marathon times ever belong to Kenyan or Ethiopian women, including every top 30 mark set in the last nine years.Mergia says barriers to African women are rapidly falling because, People back home have started to understand a woman can do anything that a man can.But can a non-African hope to match the times Africans have run? And what magic combination of -- well, what? -- genetics plus self-belief plus training in the same 7,000- or 8,000-foot altitudes and culture and climate explains it?There are also questions whether Kenya and Ethiopias running successes, in particular, come honestly. Despite the Kenyas promises to institute better drug testing -- 40 Kenyan athletes have been banned since 2011 -- a continuing string of corruption scandals prompted dozens of fed-up Kenyan athletes to storm the Athletics Kenya offices in Nairobi in November 2015, demanding top officials resign amid allegations of mismanagement, bribe-taking and attempts to circumvent doping controls. Other athletes have simply left and decided to run for other countries.Kenyan officials missed two more deadlines before finally instituting new, stricter anti-doping rules in June in line with World Anti-Doping Agency directives. That narrowly quashed talk Kenya might be banned from the Rio Games before controversy struck again at the Olympics. Ethiopian officials have come under rightful scrutiny, as well.Robertson was among those openly critical of the lag, complaining to reporters, How many chances do they get?We normally train clean, Kenyas Rotich insisted Friday.dddddddddddd. We encourage people to run clean.Zane is on record as saying he never saw firsthand doping himself. He also says he and his brother know scientists have batted around plenty of ideas about whether there are genetic predispositions that have given African-born athletes an edge. Or that if you take that edge and combine it with rigorous training, it can be honed into the margins that separate also-rans from champions.But, Zane quickly adds, it does the twins no good to buy into theories that argue the African climate and altitude of the Great Rift Valley, where dozens of medalists and world champions have come from, conspired to encourage the development of certain body types over hundreds of years that are unusually well-suited to running. (There are plenty of physiological studies that pinpoint some of the specifics.)Whats more likely is something Jon Etine, the author of the provocative, best-selling book Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It, argues in articles like this one. He maintains that while evolution has undeniably shaped significant physical and physiological differences among different populations around the world, individual success is about coaching, training and dedication. ... Running success is both in the genes and linked to training and coaching, which can lead to a genetic and cultural feedback loop.Etine believes that feedback loop helps describe the dominance of everything from Jamaicas strength in sprinting to Kenyas rule in distance running to Dominicans success in baseball.Rotich and Robertston agree. Both men independently insist there is no secret that explains African dominance in distance events.Both argue that training in a group where world record-holders and champions are the benchmark of expectations is important. So are things like the tempo of stride you gain, the rhythm of accepting each additional step will not just take you further down the road, but require you to stoically endure pain. As Rotich says, We just tell each other, I must fight. I must fight. I must fight.Zane, laughing a little now, says it also helped he and his brother have always been intensely driven and stubbornly sure of their running prospects even before they had the results to prove it, same as many of the African runners.As he puts it, Mentally, the Africans are so, you could say, delusional. But it might be a really good thing. I mean, youll always see Africans in the lead group at a race, and maybe they dont belong there. Theyll blow up. But they truly believe today or tomorrow, they will win. Its a complete self-belief in themselves. And I believe that too. The body follows the mind.Beyond that? Rotich believes that East Africas running success is also explained by a willingness to accept that day-to-day hardships are inextricably wound into both distance running and life. The Robertsons havent just immersed themselves in training since arriving at the Nairobi Airport 10 years ago, knowing no one, only relying on an assurance from some Kenyans Jake roomed with at a youth meet in Japan that if they came, they would be welcomed. Theyve lived the same life as the locals and enjoyed few creature comforts since, often by choice.Rotich says, A lot of people didnt think Jake and Zane would stay because they were white guys who came from a different place. When you grow up in Kenya as a kid, you are just used to things. You may have no shoes. You may go a week without being able to take a shower. You may have nothing to eat from the time you leave for school in the morning until you get home in the evening. There is much poverty. Corruption. I used to run 12-to-15K a day back and forth to school, and if you are late, you get caned.Well, that alone will teach you to run fast, Rotich is told.Oh yes, he nods with a laugh. But everything is like that. When you wake up in the morning in Kenya, you are trying to survive till tomorrow.The Robertson twins were no different. A decade into the twins stay, Jakes progress has been interrupted recently by injuries. But over the past 18 months, Zane has strung together some resounding results.Running the first half marathon of his career last year in Japan, Robertson led at Marugame with 20 meters to go before getting clipped at the wire by Kenyas Paul Kuira. But his time of 59 minutes, 47 seconds made him only the fourth non-African runner in history to run the distance in under one hour. At Rio Olympics in August, Robertson finished 12th in the star-studded mens 10,000-meter race despite missing weeks of training before the Games with a time of 27:33.67, breaking Dick Quaxs 39-year-old New Zealand national record by more than 8 seconds. Then, just last month in Berlin, Robertson won a 10,000-meter race in 27 minutes, 28 seconds, the fastest time by a non-African.Robertson says he and his brother couldnt have done it without the help of each other and the Africans they have met along the way, some of whom he considers as close as brothers. Though at first, I had to earn their respect.His goals for 2017 now include a possible assault on the world record at 15,000 meters and making his debut in a marathon -- perhaps New York, where he ran a road race earlier this year.Like many of his African training partners, Robertson is one of those overnight successes thats been a decade in the making. He has come to believe something preached by Brother Colm OConnell, one of his first coaches in Kenya. OConnell is an Irishman who has lived in Africa for more than 40 years, coached at St. Patricks High School in Iten, and worked with many champions, including David Rodisha.His theory, Zane says, is that you adapt to your surroundings. He believes thats what me and Jake have done. It took many years. But were proof that its not just Africans that can run. Its how you live your life and how you apply yourself to your surroundings. Our training doesnt just fit around the rest of our life. Our live fits around training.Laughing again, Robertson admits there are still people who think he and his brother are nuts for moving to Africa to see what Africa might teach them.And so what?Look at us now, he says. 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