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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1979)
c kniationa] ~~ Havinj Se nate« ^Pfonvorl, bill g'ed tL owfall to ibute to Robinson plays final home game By MARK PATTERSON Battalion Sports Staff Tuesday night’s TCU game arked the end of the regular sea- i for the Texas Aggie basketball m jt was end of the home season the men in maroon. And as well, liras the final home game in Joey hinson’s basketball career. Robinson, the only basketball y e r at Texas A&M to letter four ars on the court, took advantage the situation and went out with ] e , Getting his first start of the son, the senior from Tulsa hit Joey Robinson it took ||| 55 mimi secondk history, ree-minutf' was ready e of nine shots for 10 points and Rep. llj ged 28 minutes of game time be- e exiting to a standing ovation to be defc ® the fans. ter(R.NJ, “I wasn’t expecting to start to- dit,” Robinson said after the jogging»j -60 Aggie victory. In the locker the hom im before the game Coach Met- irst menljftold me I was going to. I wasn’t acting it at all. id tie foiJ'Coach also said something that idemefeel good. He said I wasn’t serveredtn Ring the start as a token, but that lad worked for it in practice. ” were Sen,I Practice in this, his final season, who wast sheen difiicult for Robinson, who season was a starter for the Ag- until Thur lange pro e filibusten h a hand y delaying 1 fths of the at off debati eenient,U Byrd has rith a stn imit the Senate. Conn ), 4 is. Yet Robinson has accepted his pver the Hi ates wherei this year and has taken it in It’s hard to be a starter for a year as mad® Id adjust to becoming a valuable ArthurKnli JStitute,” Shelby Metcalf said of theSr )utRobinson’s worth to the team, within all ut the experience he’s gained will walked tulip Joey with whatever he does from now on. I have to admire him for hanging in there. He came here and stepped right onto a championship team (1976). He’s also been through the rough time we’ve had the past two seasons, but now he gets to be with the team on its way back up. He can draw on that for the rest of his life.” In retrospect, the four years Robinson has been through as an Aggie have been diverse. Though the times were memorable, if given his college career to do over again Robinson said he would change some things in his past. “That first year was so great,” Robinson remembered. “I came off a high school (Oklahoma) state championship team and in my first year we won the conference. It couldn’t have been any better. “But the next two seasons were a struggle. My sophomore year we did better that we were suppose to do (14-14), but my junior year we didn’t do as well as we should have (12-15). ” “Joey isn’t really big enough to be a forward and he can’t handle the ball well enough to play guard, so he really is an in-between player,” Coach Metcalf descibed the only senior on this year’s team. “But the style of basketball we play here is just right for his talents. “With a point guard and two wings Joey has the opportunity to utilize his talents. He is the kind of player you need to run the wing for you. “But really, I’m just happy he came our way. He’s such a well ad justed person who gets along with everyone he meets. He just loves everybody.” And, if the reaction that greeted the announcement that Joey Robin son was starting in his final home game as a Texas Aggie is any indica tion, the fans are as fond of Robin son as he is of them. He will he missed. Two good halves Ags defeat Owls Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. Texas A&M’s Rynn Wright tries a move that is only legal in Horse. Wright was given a technical for hanging onto the backboard, but the big sophomore led the Aggies with 23 points as Texas A&M defeated Rice 92-60 Tuesday night in G. Rollie White Coliseum. The Aggies finished the season in third place in the Southwest Conference. By SEAN PETTY Battalion Sports Staff Texas A&M coach Shelby Metcalf put some new polish on the pre viously lackluster Aggie basketball team and together they outshined the Rice Owls 92-60. The Aggies so controlled the game from start to finish that the only exciting thing the whole night was the announcement at the end of the game of the outcome of the Texas-SMU game which SMU won. There was one more moment at the beginning of the game that brought the small crowd of 4,395 at G. Rollie White to its feet. That moment came when the announcer said for the last time at G. Rollie, “At guard, No. 40, Joey Robinson.” The first four-year basketball let- terman at Texas A&M drew a stand ing ovation. The Aggie victory was rather routine but it showed something the Aggies hadn’t done for a long time; play two halves of good basketball. “I think we got everything back together,” Robinson said of the Ag gies’ win. “We needed to have a real good game against Rice in order to be ready for the (Southwest Confer ence) tournament. “Tonight was the best first half we’ve played in a long time. We just really felt great and were excited about playing this game,” he said. The Ags should have felt better going into the Rice game because it was the first time they had gone into a game with a few days rest in 15 games. “We had a chance to get our legs back and with the legs came the in tensity we had been missing for so many games,” said Metcalf. “I was real pleased with the team’s play. They played very loose and had a good time playing tonight. "We needed to loosen up badly,” he said. “We needed to play like this and win big to go into the tour nament with confidence.” The Aggies won big in more ways than one. The victory over Rice gave Metcalf and his men their 22nd victory of the season, thus setting an A&M record for victories in one sea son. “22-7 is a real nice record,” Met calf said. “I have no complaint that we re not in either of the top 20 polls. We lost some tough games hut it’s been a real good, fun season. I think we are ready to go to this tournament and do a good job.” The Aggies were led by sopho more Rynn Wright who had 23 points and 10 rebounds while Ver non Smith scored 10 points and hit the boards for 14 rebounds. Freshman Rudy Woods broke out of a slump and scored 20 points. Everything went right for the Ags who seemed to get back everything they have been missing for the past few games. They outrebounded the Owls 50-27, passed the ball well and worked for the open shot on offense, played tough, aggressive defense and outscored the Owls both halves. “You have to give A&M credit,” said Rice coach Mike Schuler. “They had been down some but they lined up tonight and played well. I think they have the best tal ent in the league. “If they are allowed to play their type of game we just can’t stay with them. We just aren’t as physical or aggressive as they are.” The Aggies put a new dimension in their offense against the Owls and it obviously worked well. “We just really polished up our old offense,” Metcalf said. “There’s a new option and we just spread things out a little more. “I thought Tyrone (Ladson) did a great job for us tonight, Metcalf said. “He gave us the floor game we needed from him. I told him before the game to look for the inside shot and if it wasn’t there, go ahead and shoot. He did exactly what I asked because he had eight assists tonight so I was very pleased. “I thought Rynn was just great tonight,” he said. “He was really something else in the second half. I was going to take him out but he was so hot and I was having so much fun watching him I couldn’t take him out.” Metcalf probably hopes his days of watching the Ags win easily will continue throughout the SWC tour nament and beyond because as he said, “There is only one team in the entire country that will win the rest of its games. If we lose at the Sum mit, we ll just be back home hitting fungo balls.” BOX SCORE RICE (60) Darden 7 5-6 19, Rieke 1 3-4 5, Burkholder 2 0-0 4, Tudor 2 0-0 4, Wilson 4 2-2 10, DeCello 1 2-2 4, Burns 3 3-6 9, McCage 1 0-0 2, Mott 0 1-2 1, Miller 1 2-2 2, Daniels 0 0-1 0. Totals 21 18-25 60. TEXAS A&M (92) Smith 5 0-0 10, Wright 10 3-7 23, Woods 8 4-5 20, Goff 3 2-2 8, Ladson 0 4-5 4, Robinson 5 0-1 10, Britton 2 2-4 6, Sylestine 2 2-2 6, Cul- ton 0 1-2 1, fones 1 0-0 2, Pederson 10-12, Schlicher 0 0-0 0, Baird 0 0-0 0. Totals 37 18-29 92. Halftime — A&M 38, Rice 23. Fouled Out — Rieke. Total Fouls — Rice 24, A&M 28. Tech nical Fouls — Rieke, Wright. A — 4,395. Southwest Conference Standings Texas Arkansas . . . Texas A&M Texas Tech . Baylor Houston . . . SMU Rice TCU .13-3 .13-3 .11-5 . .9-7 . .9-7 .6-10 .5-10 .4-12 1-14 .813 .813 .688 .563 .563 .375 .333 .2.50 .067 ^ WC notes Horns, Hogs tie for first XK. HtC w , — United Press International DALLAS — Southern Methodist d superior jumping ability and .streak shooting of Phil Hale and ,| u M Branson Tuesday night to stun S ] jjklj p-ranked Texas, 81-66, and leave 1 ., Southwest Conference title split , e J ween the Longhorns and the Ar- isas Razorbacks. nlinthln ^ e)tas beaten SMU last pnliki In ^> 98-62, in one of the worst jses in Mustangs history. And |ms appeared ready to do it again lesday night when the Longhorns their first seven shots and iped to a 17-10 lead. Jut SMU had 10 straight points, of them by Hale, to take a 20-17 l an advantage they never lost. Iranson hit eight points late in half to open a 41-31 SMU lead intermission. Texas could come closer than seven points in the ■ond half. fexas ended the regular season fij th a 20-6 record and a 13-3 nth we st Conference record. Ar- lsas > ranked 12th, nipped Texas igtodj™ in Lubbock, 66-65, to share conference crown with Texas for second straight year. Branson led all scorers with 20 ill ints, while Hale hit 17 and guard (lairl o Allen hit 16 for the Mustangs. »neupil P Baxter paced the cold-shooting ' i "ghorns with 15 points. Rer Texas hit its first seven Fs, it could manage only seven l re goals out of 16 attempts .mationJ rviet rorayki ;ainst ks ca»i n rkian fi agg rfi! * ; tO tl» ,, a«l out f® (head* it L ia shoih’ I the So# t publish 11 w to th K I rated a ^ 'resident ember t h shares s' 11 ot allo'' ,ar ' 1 in that c®' / interfetfj i Id be con* ' I touching lussia’s) ezhne' nited St# I in the first half. The first half was symbolized by one trip down the floor for Texas, during which SMU’s Reggie Franklin blocked three shots and Branson blocked one. Franklin, playing his last game at home for SMU, scored 11 points and blocked five shots. SMU, with one game left, has a 10-15 overall record and is 5-10 in conference. Arkansas-Texas Tech LUBBOCK — Sidney Moncrief hit a 10-foot jump shot with two sec onds left Tuesday night that gave Arkansas a 66-65 victory over Texas Tech and brought the 12th ranked Razorbacks a share of the Southwest Conference title with Texas. Arkansas shot 79.4 per cent from the field and opened a 33-27 halftime lead by hitting 15 of 17 shots. The Red Raiders stayed in the game by forcing 19 Arkansas turn overs and took the lead for the first time on a slam dunk by Jeff Taylor with 51 seconds to play. Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton or dered his club to wait for the final shot and as Moncrief got the ball he was surrounded by three Texas Tech players. But Moncrief got off the shot from the free throw line and after bouncing once on the rim the ball fell through for the winning basket. The Razorbacks are 21-4 for the year going into next week’s SWC post-season tournament. Moncrief finished with 25 points to lead all scorers while U.S. Reed hit 15 points for the Hogs. Ben Hill paced the Red Raiders with 21 points, the only Tech player in dou ble figures. TCU-Baylor SMU In AUSTRIA May 21-July 4 This summer, study with SMU in Austria! Spend four and a half weeks in Graz and the remainder of the time in Salzburg and Vienna. Live with an Austrian family while you enjoy and explore the Austrian life style. For information, mail the coupon below. Return to: Southern Methodist University International Programs Office Box 391 Dallas, Texas 75275 (Phone: 1-214—692-2338) Please send me information on the SMU-in- Austria program. Name Address. Telephone School Attending. WACO — Baylor’s Vinnie Johnson scored a career high 50 points and broke two school records to lead the Bears to a 109-72 route over Texas Christian in Southwest Conference action Tuesday. The win leaves Baylor at 15-11 for the season. Baylor’s conference rec ord matches Texas Tech’s 9-7 mark, but Baylor won the coin toss Tues day for fourth place going into the post season tournament. 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