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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1996)
1 January 31,191 >uatro E DONOTKNOW1 OVLD NOT EXIST! iPESTRUCTURESt COST. (H^VE YOUE IVIN& IN THEM: ICHfiE ire inevitably go alies. .and that some 'ing to do that,’ we feel like we d on. There are ating from each us.” ronflicts began, hemistry profes sed the difficulty d quizzes, made ier percentage of stopped return- ) students, have increased tutoring, Hart- se students are y started selling e starting doing ing,” she said, ng the students, te mad. st completely j t's one or tv: re blowing this dinner" 4ssoc. The Battalion Wednesday January 31, 1996 Sports Page 7 sports GLANCE Cubs sign Sosa for two-year extension CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs have reached agreement with power-hitting outfielder Sammy Sosa on a two-year contract, but aid not disclose financial terms in announc ing the deal today. The contract avoids salary arbitra tion for Sosa. He sought a salary of $5.9 million for 1996 when he tiled for arbitration. The Cubs responded with an offer of $4.9 million. Sosa, 27, hit .268 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs last season. He led the team in homers, RBIs and stolen bases, with 34, becoming the only player in Cubs history to hit more than 30 homers and steal more than 30 bases in a season. Sosa enters his fourth season with the Cubs. He was acouired in a March 30, 1992 trade with the Chica go White Sox. Sosa's contract leaves the Cubs with only two remaining players awaiting arbitration — pitcher Frank Castillo and catcher Scott Servais. Philies sign former All-Star Santiago PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Phillies today signed four-time All-Star catcher Benito Santiago to a one-year contract worth $1.1 million, plus incentives. The signing of Santiago, who has also won four Gold Gloves, indi cates the Phillies don't think Darren Daulton, who had offseason knee surgery, can be their everyday catcher this season. Santiago, 30, hit .286 in 81 games with the Cincinnati Reds last season, with 11 homers and 44 RBIs. Defensively, he led all NL catchers with a .996 fielding per centage. Over the last two seasons, he has thrown out 37 percent of would-be base stealers. Finnish swimmer breaks own record MAIMO, Sweden (AP) — Jani Sievinen of Finland broke his own world short course record Tuesday in the 100-meter medley event at a World Cup swimming meet. The 21-year-old clocked 53.10, smashing his previous of 53.78 set in November 1992 during the Euro pean Sprint Championships in his native Finland. Cowboys to enjoy parade on Feb. 7 DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Cow boys and city officials on Tuesday an nounced the date and the route of next week's Super Bowl victory pa rade, with police and educators tak ing extra steps to deter any violence or truancy during the event. The parade is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 7. The down town course will take the Vince Lombardi Trophy winners and their entourage south of Reunion Arena to Young Street and then to the front of City Hall, which has been re named “Cowboys Plaza" for the event. "We graciously accept this invita tion by the city of Dallas/' said Cow boys spokesman Rich Dalrymple. "It's a very special thing for our foot ball team and our entire community." SCORES ROUNDUP NBA Magic 104, Celtics 99 Suns 114, Heat 99 Pacers 107, Hawks 90 Bulls 98, Rockets 87 Nuggets 88, Timberwolves 86 Mavericks 105, Clippers 101 Sonics 97, Nets 88 Lakers 128, Warriors 11 8 Kings 102, Raptors 75 Lady Ags reach .500 in SWC with 92-67 rout Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Texas A&M freshman guard Kerrie Patterson dri ves in against the University of Houston last week. □ The A&M Women's Basketball Team dominated hapless TCU, taking advanatage of 30 turnovers. Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M Women’s Bas ketball Team reached the .500 mark in Southwest Conference for the first time in three weeks with an easy 92-67 defeat against Texas Christian Tuesday night. The Lady Aggies enjoyed a second consecutive strong outing from senior center Kelly Cerny, who led all players with 19 points and added eight re bounds, two assists and three blocks. The 6-foot-5-inch Cerny dominated the smaller Lady Frogs inside, hit ting 9-of-l3 shots from the floor. Cerny was joined in double digit scoring by senior point guard Lisa Branch who went for 17, and junior transfer forward Melissa Rollerson who scored a season-high 11 points. Branch just missed a double-dou ble, coming up with nine assists, and also contributed four steals, a team and season high. Although Branch was just 4-of- 10 from the field, she burned the Lady Frogs at the free-throw line, making 8-of-9 attempts. A crowd of 551 saw the Lady Ag- Branch gies jump out to a 34-17 halftime lead at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum in Fort Worth. Despite shooting just .419 from t he field, the Lady Aggies main tained the 17-point halftime lead with defense. The Lady Frogs made only six shots from the floor in the first half, and ended the first 20 min utes shooting a horrible .214 from the field. The Lady Frogs were even worse from beyond the three-point line, connecting only once in nine at tempts from behind the arc. In the second half, TCU attempt ed to pick up the tempo in order to get back into the game, but A&M countered and began shooting the lights out. The Lady Aggies connected on 2l-of-34 shots in the second half, a .618 percentage and put up 58 points compared to TCU’s 50. The Lady Frogs also picked up their shooting percentage in the second half — to .400 — but it was not nearly enough to keep the 2-16 team in the game. The Lady Frogs were led by sophomore shooting guard Leah Garcia, who finished with 16 points. Unfortunately for TCU, it took Garcia 16 shots to get her to tal, as she connected on just four field goals. Garcia also contributed three steals, but turned the ball over eight times. Surprisingly however, she was not TCU’s turnover leader. That honor fell to forward Jen nifer Hickman who recorded a du bious double-double with 15 points and 11 turnovers, the high by a Lady Aggie opponent this year. Hickman was another Lady Horned Frog who suffered shooting woes during the game. She hit just 5-of-17 shots from the field, includ ing only 2-of-l0 from beyond the three-point line. In all, TCU had 30 turnovers, and the Lady Aggies helped their own cause by blocking four shots and snatching away 15 steals. All of the Lady Aggies played and scored in the game, down to freshman Faye Thomas who hit 1- of-4 free throws to get on the board. A&M returns home Saturday to take on the Southern Methodist Lady Mustangs. ~ A&M 92, TCU 67 A&M 34 58 - 92 TCU 17 50- 67 Lady Aggies fg-fga ft-fta reb ast stl blk »P Rollerson, M. 5-7 1-1 2 1 2 0 11 Spinks, A. 3-6 1-2 2 0 1 0 7 Cerny, K. 9-13 1-2 8 2 0 3 19 Tucker, L. 4-7 1-3 4 1 2 0 9 Branch, L. 4-10 8-9 2 9 4 0 17 Linder, K. 3-5 1-2 4 2 0 0 7 Beard, B. 1-3 0-0 3 0 0 0 2 Ferguson, B. 1-3 4-4 4 3 3 0 6 Sevin, M. 2-6 3-4 5 4 1 1 7 Totals 34-65 2333 46 27 15 4 92 Homed Frogs fg-fga fg-fga reb ast stl blk »P Usher, G. 2-5 0-3 5 0 0 0 5 Hickman, J. 5-17 3-4 ' 10 5 2 0 15 Price, S. 4-7 3-4 6 0 1 0 11 Garcia, L. 4-16 8-10 4 5 3 0 16 Jenkins, J. 3-11 1-2 5 2 2 0 8 Christopher, T. 0-3 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 Courtade, K. 1-2 0-0 1 2 0 0 2 Harps, S. 3-6 2-3 4 0 0 0 8 Holamon, R. 0-1 2-3 4 0 0 1 0 Totals 22-68 19-29 45 15 8 1 67 FG percentage: A&M -.523 TCU 1- .324 3PTpercentage: A&M -.100 TCU .222 Attendance: 551 Aggie point guard Kessel lives double life □ The sophomore guard is also a minor-league pitching prospect for the Mets. By Tom Day The Battalion When most people think of two- sport athletes, names like Bo and Deion pop to mind so quickly, you would think fans were on a first-name basis with them. No, Aggie point guard and New York Met pitching prospect Kyle Kessel is not exactly mentioned in the same breath as Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. But, the sophomore certain ly has made an impression on both the hardwood floor and the baseball diamond. However, at A&M, Kessel is associ ated more for his points and assists than his strikeouts and earned-run average, and his basketball talents are what A&M Head Coach Tony Barone prefers to talk about. “He has the abilities to be the most outstanding point guard this school has ever had,” Barone said. “From an assists standpoint, his freshman and sophomore years have been remarkable.” When it comes to describing Kessel’s game, it all boils down to as sists. As a freshman last season, Kessel averaged 6.4 points per game, but it was his 6.1 assists per contest in Southwest Conference play that drew the most attention. His average was the second-best ever by a league freshman and earned him spots on the SWC All-Freshman and All-Newcomer teams. This season, Kessel leads the con ference with a 7.1 assist-per-game while only turning the ball over 3.6 times per contest. “He has a 2-to-l assists-to- turnovers ratio, and that’s outstand ing,” Barone said. With the departure of three-time All-Southwest guard David Edwards at the end of the 1993-94 season, A&M recruited Kessel out of Mundelein, Ill. to fill some fairly big shoes, a challenge he did not back down from. “There was a little pressure coming in,” Kessel said. “I came into a big role playing a lot of minutes, and I had to produce.” Kessel said his reason to attend A&M was threefold. “I liked the coaches and I liked A&M academically,” Kessel said. “I also thought I could play a lot as a freshman.” Aggie basketball fans may have no ticed a decrease in shots taken this season by Kessel, a problem Barone said must be rectified. “I don’t think that Kyle has been shooting the ball enough,” Barone said. “A lot of that has to do with our demands to slow the ball down a little bit. We have not been a good fast- break team all year, and that means Kyle has less opportunities to shoot the ball.” Another disappointment for Kessel and the team this year has been the injuries suffered by swingman Tracey Anderson and guard Derrick Hart. With their limited playing time, the two transfers have not taken a bulk of the burden off of Kessel’s shoulders like Barone thought they would. “We hoped (they could relieve Kessel), but that hasn’t worked out because both Anderson and Hart have been hurt,” Barone said. “I would See Kessel, Page 8 Evan Zimmerman, The Baitauon Texas A&M sophomore point guard Kyle Kessel drives past UT's Brandy Perryman during A&M's loss to the Runnin' Horns two weeks ago. Magic’s back ... but does he deserve another shot? UPCOMING EVENTS Men's Basketball On Wednesday, the A&M Men's Basketball Team travels to Fort Worth to take on the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at 7:30 p.m. in South west Conference action. Women's Basketball The Women's Basketball Team will take on Southern Methodist Sat urday at 7:00 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum in Southwest Con ference action. Men's Swimming The Aggies will take on the Uni versity of Texas in Austin on Friday. Team Swimming The A&M Swimming and Diving Teams will take on Rice University at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Stu dent Recreational Center. M agic Johnson has once again returned to the NBA after announcing his retirement on November 7, 1991. Yes, this is actually the first time that he has come back to play. We all know that he has been a coach, part- time own er, a lover and a fighter. And now he his a player once again. Frankly, I am getting sick and tired of hearing Magic say that he is going to do this and that. He just needs to make up his mind on what he wants to do. Should the players in the league be concerned about playing with Johnson? Well, I surely would be frightened. It bothers me to think that the players aren’t worried about this situation. The Phoenix Suns forward Charles Barkley said that he isn’t scared to play against the Lakers with Magic. “ It’s not like we are having unprotected sex with Magic” Barkley said.” We are just here to play basketball.” I know that they are only going out to play basketball, but there is always a chance that something could happen and the virus could be passed to another player. The Golden State Warriors guard Tim Hardaway is not in the least bit frightened either. “ I am going to treat Magic like any other person.” Hard away said. Hardaway has been doing research on AIDS. He has at tended AIDS discussions and taken many visits to the chil dren’s hospital with HlV-posi- tive patients. He says that he has learned more about the virus and that is one reason that he doesn’t fear Magic’s return. It is very important for peo ple to learn about the virus, but I don’t think that the players should ignore the fact the Magic is HIV positive. What disturbs me most about the situation is that Mhgic can’t make up his mind on what he wants to do. If Magic would had stuck with coaching that he could had gone down with as one of the best. As a player, Johnson is the best point guard that I have ever seen play the game. I re spect him as a player on the court, but I must say that I do not respect his decision to See Christopher, Page 8 □ Johnson just missed a triple-double in his return to action in the Lakers' win Tuesday. INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — After 4 1/2 seasons of retirement and stints as a coach and owner, Magic Johnson was back in the NBA on Tuesday night with num bers just like the old days. Wearing a uniform so new it still had wrinkles and his new “MVP’ shoes that were flown in specially from Taiwan, Johnson couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for the game he was forced from when he contracted the virus that causes AIDS. “I can’t even talk, oh man,” Johnson said after playing 27 min utes in the Los Angeles Lak ers’! 28-118 victory over the Gold en State Warriors. “Thank God for giving strength and courage. Praise him. Can’t tell you how great I feel. I feel great.” The 36-year-old star shed his warmups and took the court with less than three minutes gone in the Lakers’ game with Golden State. He was on the floor holding the ball as the final buzzer sounded and finished just two rebounds shy of a triple double. Johnson, mobbed by fans sur rounding the TNT inter viewers after the game, said this was the first time he ever remembered not starting. He finished with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, 10 assists and eight rebounds as Los Angeles recorded its highest point total this season. Johnson