Wednesday, hebruary 5, 19at>/The Battalion/Page 9
Sports
A&M gets tough with Sam Houston
Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ
A&M’s Beth Young (13) drives the ball down the court and past Sam
Houston State’s Brenda Greer during Tuesday night’s action.
Winning season now
within reach of Aggies
By DOUG HALL
Sports Writer
It wasn’t Texas A&M Coach Lynn
Hickey’s idea of a perfectly executed
win, but Tuesday night’s 91-74 vic
tory over Sam Houston State never
theless will go down as the Lady Ag
gies’ 12th victory of the season.
“That’s No. 12,” Hickey said.
“And at this time of the season, I
don’t care if it’s pretty or if it’s ugly,
it’s a win.”
The Lady Ags now stand at 12-9
on the season. Barring any major
upsets in their remaining seven
games, the Ags should finish over
the .500 mark for the first time since
1980.
Hickey, in only her second year at
A&M, is obviously pleased with the
progress her young team has made.
“The main thing is that this time
last year, that game would have been
a real struggle,” Hickey said. “This
year, we’re disappointed it wasn’t a
30-point victory. That’s a big step.”
Tuesday night the Lady Ags com
bined a tough full-court press with
59.3 percent field goal shooting and
strong rebounding to hand the
Bearkats their 11th loss in 20 games.
“We had some good games offen
sively,” Hickey said. “We stayed in
our press the whole game and really
worked hard.”
A&M’s all-time leading scorer,
Lisa Langston, paced the Ags with
23 points and nine rebounds. Paula
Crutcher pitched in 20 — 16 of
those coming in the first half.
The Lady Ags trailed Sam Hous
ton twice in the opening minute, but
took the lead for good with over 18
minutes left in the first half when
Lisa Jordan hit from inside to tie the
score at four. In the process, Jordan
was fouled and given the chance for
a three-point play.
Her free throw was short, but
Crutcher came up with the rebound
and promptly put the ball back up
for two.
Using Crutcher’s strong shooting
and 12 Sam Houston turnovers, the
Lady Ags opened their lead to 17
with less than seven minutes remain
ing.
Despite the fact that the crowd of
250 was sensing a blowout, Sam
Houston used some accurate shoot-'
ing of its own to draw within eight
(49-41) at the half. Sam Houston was
led by sophomore forward LaV-
oynna Nelson who scored 18 points
and A&M Consolidated product Ju
lie Thomas who contributed 16.
Hickey was somewhat disap
pointed the Bearkats were able to
score 15 points in the final five min
utes of the half. Similar lapses this
season have led to defeats against
Southwest Conference teams such as
Arkansas and Houston.
“We scored really well in the first
half,” she said. “But in the last part
of the first half, we just didn’t play
defense. We did a much better job in
the second half.”
Hickey said much of the trouble
the Aggies experienced was a result
of playing a non-conference team
with a sub-.500 record.
“That was a tough game to play,”
Hickey said. “It’s hard to get up for a
team like that because they’re going
out there for everything. Sam Hous
ton worked hard. They had a real
good effort.”
She went on to say that playing a
team like Sam Houston or UT-San
Antonio was similar to the Texas
game for A&M.
“That makes the whole season,”
she said.
Sam Houston came within six
points of making that “season” when
they closed to 53-47 with only 1:49
gone in the second half.
However, that was as close as the
game would get. Buckets by
Crutcher, Donna Roper and Lisa
Jordan in the next three minutes
shot the Aggie lead back up to 11
points.
Lady Ag Notes:
A&M Coach Lynn Hickey said
sophomore forward Holly Hodges
broke out with chicken pox in the
locker room after practice on Mon
day. She also said seven of her play
ers, including starters Roper and
Crutcher have not had the pox and
were exposed at the most susceptible
time.
Photo by MIKE SANCHEZ
A&M’s Lisa Langston (left) battles Sam Houston State’s Donna Giles
for a rebound. The Lady Ags downed the Bearkats 91-74 Tuesday.
wiMm
—^ t z
THE 11
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