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!
Safety, fl
Texas A&M vs. University of Texas
November 27th in Austin
i nee
>E.
vebsite
Remember Aggie Fans-
Victories are meant to be celebrated!
After the Q|Cime... enjoy our manager’s
reception featuring your favorite beverages'.
/
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