Thursday * March 2, 1995
The Battaeion • Page;?
SMU outscores Lady
Aggies, 80-67
Jennifer McLaughlin scored high
21 points while Kim Brungardt hit for
18 as the Southern Methodist
Mustangs best the Texas A&M Lady
Aggies 80-67 Wednesday night at
Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
Lisa Branch led the Lady Aggies
with 17 points followed by Lana
Tucker with 13 and Martha
McClelland with 10.
Texas A&M took a 30-27 lead at
halftime but were outscored 53-27 in
the second half. The Mustangs move
to 18-8 overall and 9-5 in Southwest
Conference play. The Lady Aggies
fall to 17-8 and 8-5.
Rockets’ Horry back
on injured list
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston
Rockets forward Robert Horry, off
the injured list less than a week, is
expected to miss up to two more
weeks because of an aggravated
back problem.
The team said Wednesday that
Horry had been diagnosed as having
an inflamed facet joint on the left side
of his lower back. Rockets officials
were to make a decision on Horry’s
roster status on Thursday, but his
rehabilitation was expected to last
between 10 days and two weeks.
The third-year forward left Monday's
victory over Cleveland after falling in
the third quarter.
Horry was reactivated Feb. 23 after
spending five games on the injured list
with a strained back.
Big 12 officials work
for revenue agreement
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Big 12
officials ended a two-day discussion
Wednesday feeling much better about
the touchiest issue facing the new
super conference.
“I don’t think it will be as much of
a problem as I thought it would be
before this meeting,” said Bob
Bockrath of Texas Tech, chairman
of a special subcommittee studying
revenue distribution.
"It has the potential to be very
divisive when you start talking about
sharing people’s money.”
Subcommittees studying a host of
issues submitted their reports to
athletics directors and primary
women’s administrators, most without
making any final recommendations.
The Big 12, which begins competition
in 1996-97, hopes to reach final
decisfbns on most issues at a lengthy
meeting in May.
From the time the 12 schools first
started talking about pooling their
resources, they fretted over getting
everybody to agree on how to split up
their money.
"We developed some different
revenue-sharing models,” Bockrath
said. “It would be fair to say some
models were accepted better than
others. But at the same time, it
helped define a little bit better what
we need to do in terms of coming to
a final proposal.”
Aggie 8 slide past Mustangs, finish 9-2 at home
□ Wilbert's offense and
McGinnis' defense lead
A&M past SMU.
By Kristina Baffin
The Battalion
In their last game at G. Rollie White
Coliseum, the seniors on the Texas
A&M men’s basketball team (13-15, 6-
7) came through with big numbers to
propel the Aggies to a 67-64 victory
over Southern Methodist University (6-
19, 2-11) last night.
“We cherish this last game at G. Rol
lie,” senior forward Joe Wilbert said.
“Seeing your parents in the stands and
having the fans there was great
for support. I’m glad we could go out
as winners.”
The Aggies
started out
slowly at the
start of the
game and fell
behind by as
many as six
before closing
out the half
behind 32-31.
“We had
some really
bad shots in the first half,” A&M coach
Tony Barone said. “But this was a typi
cal seniors night. A lot of the emotion
was let out before the game.”
Stopping the Mustangs on the inside
was a problem for the Aggies in the
first half.
“They (SMU) changed their offense
(from the last time A&M and SMU
played),” freshman guard Kyle Kessel
said. “They didn’t run as much. They
were more patient with the ball. They
made us work thirty seconds on
"I thought the key to the game
for us was Tony McGinnis. He
did a marvelous job of defense
against Troy Matthews."
— Tony Barone,
Head basket ball coach
defense all night and that makes
you tired.”
At the beginning of the second half,
three-pointers by senior guard Corey
Henderson and Kessel helped put the
Aggies in the lead 39-36. After taking a
47-45 advantage with 10:53 to play, the
Aggies never relinquished the lead.
“In the second half we stopped dou
ble teaming the pick and roll for
a while,” senior guard Tony McGinnis
said. “Then when we started to
double team it again we took away
some baskets.”
SMU had one last chance to tie the
game with a three-pointer with five
seconds left but guard Jemeil Rich’s
shot bounced off the rim.
“This was a heartbreaker for us
tonight,” Rich said. “We have lost so many
and to let this one get away, that hurts.
We really felt we could win this one.”
Mustang guard
Troy Matthews,
who was averag
ing 15.9 points a
game, managed
only eight against
the Aggies.
“I thought the
key to the game
for us was Tony
McGinnis,”
Barone said. “He
did a marvelous job of defense against
Troy Matthews. I think Matthews is
one of the top three guards in the con
ference and he’s always very enthusi
astic when he plays us.”
Wilbert led all scorers with 26
points and Kessel had a career-high
nine rebounds.
“This was not a pretty game, but it
was a win,” Barone said. “We set out to
win our last three, and now we’ve won
two. Now we have a tough game
against Baylor on the road.”
Senior guard Tony McGinnis pulls down a
SMU Wednesday.
Roger Hsieh/THE Battalion
Tony McGinnis drives into the lane
Wednesday in G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Five A&M players honored in pre-game ceremony
□ The seniors win their last
game at G. Rollie White.
By Tom Day
The Battalion
They went out in style.
Playing their final home basketball
game at G. Rollie White Coliseum
Wednesday night, five Aggie seniors
said good-bye to their fans in thrilling
fashion, holding off SMU 67-64.
“To us, it was real special,” guard
Corey Henderson said. “This is our last
game we’re going to play here together
as a team and we just wanted to win it.”
Prior to tipoff, seniors Tony McGin
nis, Damon Johnson, Joe Wilbert, John
Jungers and Henderson were honored
by head coach Tony Barone and the
2,882 fans present. In the pregame cer
emony, Barone presented plaques to the
five seniors and their parents.
After the game, Barone said the
players deserve credit for turning
around a once struggling, probation
stricken program.
“The seniors in this program haven’t
received the credit they deserve,”
Barone said. “Damon, Corey and Tony
McGinnis have gone through four years
of college basketball in what I would call
a disaster situation.
“But they have slowly changed the
program from one that had absolutely
no respect to one that if you’re going to
play vis, you’re going to have to beat us.”
Three of Wednesday’s honorees accom
plished this season what few other play
ers can boast. Wilbert, McGinnis and
Johnson became only the third trio in
Southwest Conference history to each hit
the 1,000 career point plateau in the
same season. Wilbert accomplished the
feat in just two years, only the third Ag
gie to do so.
“People complain a lot about the
crowds we get and that we need more
support,” Johnson said. “But, we had
the same fans out here when we were 6-
22 our freshman year, all the way
through last year when we were 19-11
and through this year.
“They came night in and night out
and as seniors we want to thank them
for their support and believing in us.”
Barone said he was more impressed
with what the five seniors accomplished
off the court.
“I have a tremendous amount of re
spect for them,” Barone said. “McGinnis,
Wilbert and Henderson are all going to
graduate in August while Johnson and
Jungers are going to graduate in May.
“I know my contract is (based on)
wins and losses. But, as far as my own
personal contract, it’s a lot more impor
tant to me to see these guys walk out
the door in August.”
rebound in A&M’s 67-64 win against
UM Terrapins battle
for victory over Duke
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Joe Smith
scored a career-high 40 points,
including the game-winning follow at
the buzzer Wednesday night, as No. 6
Maryland survived the absence of
coach Gary Williams to post a 94-92
victory over Duke.
Maryland (23-5, 12-3 ACC) set a
school record for Atlantic Coast
Conference victories and moved the
Terrapins within one win of their first
regular-season league crown since
1980. A victory Sunday at No. 11
Virginia would clinch the crown and
give Maryland the No. 1 seed in next
week’s ACC tournament at
Greensboro, N.C.
Foot-stomping Billy Hahn, holding
back tears during his postgame
comments, got the victory as interim
coach after Williams was admitted to
the hospital Tuesday with pneumonia.
The game featured 14 ties and 26
lead changes and big play after big
play by Smith, who atoned for a
season-low six points in Maryland’s
earlier two-point win over Duke (12-16,
2-13) at College Park, Md.
Line should be drawn between desire to win, physical health
H
CCT T e wanted
to be a
-champi
on.” There is no
doubt that boxer
Gerald McClellan
wanted to be a
champion said his
coach. Bill Miller.
The problem is,
he may never get to be one after
his fight for* the World Boxing
Council super-middleweight
championship on Saturday night
against Nigel Benn in London.
The 27-year-old McClellan,
an American, collapsed in the
10th round due to massive
head injuries.
He was rushed to a local hos
pital where a large blood clot
was removed from his brain. He
remains in critical but stable
condition.
Benn is con
sidering retiring
from the sport,
while McClel
lan’s decision
may have al
ready come.
McClellan’s
fight is no
longer in the
ring, it’s against his body as he
lies fighting for every breath.
The reality of defeat is some
times hard to bear, but when in
the face of death in victory’s
pursuit, the desire to live
should surpass the desire to
win.
Where is this line between
the desire to win and the reality
of death?
For McClellan, that answer
lies unconscious on a respirator.
No one wins in this match.
So the blame could be
placed on the officials for not
stopping the match before Mc
Clellan’s collapse, or Nigel
Benn for his fighting style
or on the doctors for their in
sufficient treatment.
The finger pointing should
go to none of the above. The
blame should rightfully belong
to society’s idea that losing can
not be tolerated.
Everywhere the idea that
winning at any cost is accept
able. Sports commercials, bill
boards, newspapers and maga
zines bombard their audiences
with various “never say die” an
tics to appeal to the competitive
hunger inside sports fans.
Now, some may “knock” box
ing for its sometimes brutal
matches, but, in any sport, the
“no pain, no gain,” theory died
with the dinosaurs.
The victor cannot stand in
true honor at the end of a match
when their opponent is facing
death. Nobody wins.
Meanwhile, neurosurgeon
John Sutcliffe who performed
the operation on Gerald McClel
lan to remove the blood clot said
it was clear when McClellan hit
the mat, something was wrong.
No, something has been
wrong for a long time in sports
everywhere.
McClellan will truly be victo
rious if he lives through his per
sonal battle for life.
The sport of boxing will go
on and the desire to win will
probably never die, but ques
tions must be asked when the
possibility of death becomes a
real contender.
A tragedy will occur if Mc
Clellan, in his bid to win the
WBC super-middleweight fight,
loses his life. People will per
haps label him as a martyr, one
who died for something he be
lieved in. Now that will be the '
true tragedy.
Maybe the new phrase sports
fans should adopt is “winning is
n’t everything.”
Perhaps they will as they con
tinue to await the final decision
of the match, life or death.
While the victory in the ring
may be lost, victory can still be
attained in the hearts of sports
fans everywhere. Accept losing
as something that strengthens
and builds true champions who
can face reality. Only then will
there be true champions.
Meanwhile, McClellan lies
awaiting his final decision in the
last round.
Thursday
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