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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1998)
le Battalion So orts Page 7 • Tuesday, November 10, 1998 exander, Sharpe score 27 A&M defeats Russians for CHEM BY DOUG SHILLING The Battalion As the season approach- I the Texas A&M Women’s JJfsketball Team is looking ■ players to step up and ! jake control. ■if last night was any indi cation, the team may have Ho people to look to this year. HJunioi forwards Prissy Siarpe and Kera Alexander Jth poured in 27 points as fc Aggies defeated Slavyan- ■ Tchelyabinsk of Russia ■t night 67-55 in an exhibi- |n match-up. I’m proud of the ladies flight,” A&M coach Peg- Gillom said, ‘‘they hght back defensively, at was something we fcre a little concerned with last game.” With a starting lineup that averaged 6 feet in height, Slavyanka took early control of the game by taking the ball inside on the Aggies. A layup by Tatiana Lari onova off a Tatiana Simo nenko miss gave the visitors their biggest lead of the game at 22-11. A layup and free throw by Alexander cut the lead to 22-14 going into the second media timeout. During the timeout, Sharpe said the coaches told the team to step up their play defensively. “Basically we went in the huddle and they [the coach es] told us to play better de fense,” Sharpe said. “After that, we just went out and got after it. We played really good defense and that spurred our comeback.” The Aggies then went on a 19-12 run, capped off by a Sharpe three pointer as the first half expired to pull with in one point at 34-33.' A&M wasted no time get ting started in the second half as Kerrie Patterson stepped in front of a pass from Ekaterina Shabynina and took it the length of the floor for the score to give the Aggies their first lead of the game 35-34, a lead they would never relinquish. With the lead in hand, the Aggies tightened up their defense and never al lowed Slavyenka to get back into the game. Slavyenka only managed 21 points in the second half on 20 percent shooting, including a seven-minute, 44-second stretch without a field goal. Runner limits in Regionals could hamper Aggie effort T he Texas A&M Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Teams both had an open date last weekend after placing ninth and 10th, respectively, at the Big 12 Championships on Oct. 31. NOTFROOK :i lp? ■*~'-** ■ 'A * 1 i m* ^ 1 f tom KENNEDY MIKE FUENTES/Tiiu Battalion Junior guard Amy Yates drives to the bucket against Slavyanka Tchelyabinsk Monday in a 67-55 A&M win. atkins: Lineup in doubt, defense needs work BY AL LAZARUS The Battalion He was accel attorneys,Dj ? Seligman. ■nt has prev lall said,“lit After barely finishing on top of i thisinvestir e team from down under, the reedwhenr xas A&M Men’s Basketball 5tec j ” lam will attempt to get things in is not videJttef for Friday night’s season vasnotpyir§' ener against the University of . However, Texas. Ise statenierl A 92-86 victory Sunday night s, whether si I er the Australian All-Stars pro- [ded Aggie coach Melvin Watkins th a chance to evaluate his lam’s strengths and weaknesses. J “That’s why we call them ex it through If ^'hon games,” Watkins said of tepartywasfe Aggies’ narrow victory over ild havevio* 6 All-Stars, a team who before , limits hejs#ming into Reed Arena Sunday ited taxpjtif taign. uses on wl lite Housed nocratic Par had lost to UNT and Lamar Uni versity during its Texas tour. “We’ll get back and break down the tapes and see that we have a lot of things we need to work on. “We looked at some different combinations [Sunday night], and our rotation was probably different from what it might become Friday night [against UNT].” Entering Sunday’s game, Watkins had three players in mind who would start for the Aggies this season. After the contest, Watkins said he was not sure of this anymore. “Now I have two [starters],” he said. “But we’re not so concerned about that. I’m still searching for what is our best five, and what our good combinations are.” Defensively, the Aggies seemed confused at times as they em ployed a man-to-man scheme against the All-Stars. Senior forward Shanne Jones said despite their struggles Sunday night, the Aggies will stick to that type of defense. “We’re going to be a man-to-man team,” he said. “We didn’t trap and press [the All-Stars] that much, but that’s what we’re going to try to fo cus on — trapping people and try ing to keep them off-balance.” Watkins also expressed his desire to stay with a man-to-man scheme. “We’ve put a zone in, but haven’t wdrked enough on it that I have any confidence in trying to use it,” he said. “We are primarily a man-to-man team, but we defi nitely need to be better than we were [against the All-Stars], “I will give them credit be cause they hit some tough shots, but we had too many breakdowns defensively.” One bright spot for the Aggies Sunday night was the play of junior college transfers Clifton Cook and Paul Jacobs. Cook finished with 13 points and a game-high six assists, while Jacobs scored 16 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Also giving the Aggies hope for a turnaround season was the play of junior forward Jerald Brown. see Basketball on Page 8. “X” Factor The disappointing finish at the Big 12 Championships by both teams was partially due to a lack of experience. Both squads’ rosters were filled with freshmen and sopho mores (only three of the 18 run ners were juniors or senicws) who lacked experience in meets against ranked competition. Coach Dave Hartman said he feels the inexperience was a fac tor in his teams’ performances. “We brought a very inexperi enced team up there and we had the potential,” Hartman said. “I think we could have placed a lot higher than we did.” The start proved to be a prob lem for the men’s team, who made the mistake of not settling into a good position before the course narrowed, which made it difficult to pass runners until late in the race. Hartman said this basic mis take cost his team valuable points. “I told them we had to get a good start because it will,be hard to move up,” Hartman said. “And they didn’t do that and it showed. “Some of them came up and passed some people at the end, but when you’re moving up from the very back to the middle [of the pack], it does us no good.” Inexperience tends to fade with time, and that is what the Aggies are hoping will happen. Hartman said he feels his team will improve greatly as this year’s freshmen be come more mature as runners. “We’re going to need a year to develop,” Hartman said. “I think next year, once these freshmen develop for a year and become stronger, we’ll be fine.” Decisions, decisions ... Up next for the Aggies is the Region VI Championships, which will be held in Denton on Eagle Point Golf Course. The meet will feature all Divi sion I teams from Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. The meet is large and will fea ture hundreds of runners. To keep the number of runners at a reason able level, each school can run only seven runners per squad, which is less than the nine allowed at the Big 12 Championship^. This presents a problem for Hartman, whose teams have great depth. Aside from a few standouts, most of the runners on each squad are equal. The order of finishes for the runners also varies from week to week (with about 10 runners on each squad in the mix), which makes the decision even more dif ficult because it is unclear where the cutoff should be. Hartman has not yet finalized who will take the final spots, but he believes a decision will be made after this morning’s workout. Odds and Ends The Aggies will face their high est-ranked competition of the sea son at this weekend’s Region VI Championships. The men will compete against top-ranked Arkansas, and the women will face fourth-ranked Arkansas, along with a slew of other strong teams. see Harriers on Page 8. v ndustry, will iany with ns Deparfflf- ' the comp! 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