Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1997)
The Battalion tesday • December 9, 1997 PORTS \&M whips Sam Houston State 91-68 By Jeff Schmidt StaffWriter The Texas Aggie Men’s Basketball im continued its recent tradition leing more offensive than wear- ; wh ite after Labor Day with a 91 - thrashing of the Sam Houston te Bearkats. The Aggies have tyed at cheeseburger pace (the iwd gets a free cheeseburger from Donald’s when the Aggies score least 80 points) all year long. So ^His season, i Aggies are av- iging around m^Boints per me At the me time last ar, the Aggies ly averaged >seto73 points. Leading scor- > for the Aggies Davis ire forward ilvin Davis, io had 19 points, and guard Jer- i Brown, who finished with 16 lints. Davis also had eight re- mnds to tie for the team lead th center Larry Thompson, yis did most of his damage in e second half after leaving the me in the first half with a cut iove his right eye. Other stand its were point guard Steve Hous- n. Houston finished the night ith nine assists, eight of which me in the first half. Points off turnovers killed Sam luston. The Aggies scored 32 lints off 29 Bearkat turnovers. The ;g|ps also scored 15 points on sec- d chance baskets, compared to ily four for Sam Houston. The main Jandout for Sam Houston was fresh- an guard Jeremy Burkhalter. He ad the team with 18 points while aying most of the game, ij. The Bearkats stayed with the Ag es for approximately 12 minutes sfore the Aggies went on an 18 oint run started by a Chris 'ichards free throw and ending with a Jerald Brown three-pointer. Dur ing the run, the Aggies forced five turnovers to break the will of the Bearkats. Forward Shanne Jones, the team’s leading scorer, gave cred it to the guard play for the victory. “Coach (Barone) told us they were going to be physical, but our guards came up big,” Jones said. Sophomore Jerald Brown agrees with Jones’ assessment. “By knocking down our (the guards’) shots in the first half, it opened up die posts in the second half.” This offensive balance helped open up the inside for Jones and Davis. Brown had his best shooting day of the year, knocking down three of his six three pointers. “When you knock the first shot down your confidence builds after that,” Brown said. Brown credits old friend, SHSU’s Josh Pastner, a walk-on at Arizona, for improving his shot. The two played on the Houston Hoops AAU team together. “He told me to spread my fingers out more,” Brown said. Despite the comfortable win, Barone learned something from the game. “We took the press off and we lost our intensity,” Barone said. “You can’t lose your intensity. I don’t think (leaving the press on) gives the players more confidence. Sam Houston is well-coached. I thought our quickness took them out of their stuff.” Barone’s new high-octane offense looks to get a comfortable margin to work with and then clamp down with the press. “We looked to see if we could get a spurt. I thought we really did a good job of pushing the inbound re ceiver up the court. I thought we played pretty good on the front line of the press,” Barone said. The Aggies will have a much more difficult time Wednesday night as they take on the Colorado State Rams. Injuries play major role for Aggies, Bearkats m IllgiP m RONY ANGKRIWAN/The Battalion Junior John Reeves goes to the basket for two points last night during the Ag gies 91-68 victory over Sam Houston. By Jeff Webb Staff writer An injury in basketball can be a funny thing. Sometimes they can motivate a team to maximize their potential when a fallen teammate is helped off the court. Other times they can simply take a team out of its game plan and serve as a handicap. A little of each was demonstrated last night as Texas A&M rolled over Sam Hous ton State University 91-68. SHSU was without the ser vices of its most experienced player, guard Mike Dillard. Dillard was a scratch from the night’s starting lineup due to a foot problem that might re quire surgery. Already short- handed, the Bearkats found themselves without guard Boney Watson as well. Watson was X-rayed before the game and it was thought that he might have a broken foot. He was pen ciled into the starting lineup anyway, but played a mere two minutes before succumbing to the injury. His backup, Anwar Abdus-Sallaam, was forced into much of the ball-handling duty and wound up with as many turnovers (seven) as points. The fortunes of the Aggies looked bleak in the first half as well. Starting forward Calvin Davis came down awkwardly on the hardwood midway through the first half. After being helped up, he was escorted to the lock er room where he would stay for the remainder of the half. “I tried to strip the ball and slipped on the floor,” Davis said. “I hit my head on the court on the way down. The same thing happened to me last year, but I played through it.” Despite the nasty gash, coach Barone did not have any doubt that Davis would return in the second half, where he would score 12 of his game high 19 points. “He’s a big boy,” Barone said. “It took five stitches. He’s mad “It took five stiches. He’s mad because it was in the same place as last year.” TONY BARONE BASKETBALL COACH because it was in the same place as last year.” Davis seemed dazed enough not to remember the 18-point run the Aggies would go on in his absence. With the score at 29-27, the Aggies reeled off 19 straight points by blowing up from beyond the arc. Jerald Brown contributed two of the three treys during the run on his way to a 16- point outing. Brian Barone was a man possessed coming onto the court after Davis went down. The full-court intensity was up and Barone gathered two of his four steals during the decisive run. “I came in and Jerald had a couple of three’s,” junior forward Shanne Jones said. “The three- pointers really helped us out [in the run].” Davis will be able to play in the Aggies’ next home game on Wednesday against Col orado State. bit /flW BMKS tw mu t/w *fd »r(i ivifrtfSt HI# W/5 flVL/ M tyt ftam (M#S10#J WL/ VHIJ W Mm AM AASWH/M*® p MStfittAM® Hi Mm ASH fl*r Bmks av9 otyW MOL Slltf AV0 ?0M PM'lfASt i$ $1 A*rG PAfHtVl toft ton 99 0A/S! ftS lint io m ton tm Books, tt$ prapiipall/ \\*t Ifl SH.L HfH BACK! Wvl tm mu?? ww w* m me AM 8M«SH#f Dare t o Dream "A spine-bendinq, mifuNiitgling spectacle! I * <j e * i e « )< "Amazing performance artistry and limitless imagination all in one!" * Neil Goldberg Perfect for the entire family a December 10,11 and 12 at 8 PM Rudder Auditorium Call 845-1234 for tickets. Tickets on sale now! (SC )PAS Opera & Performing Arts Society