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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2001)
FI Friday, January 19, 2001 Sports Page 5 ^rformances chemistry -icters, witl 3sm andWal. addsne* (Grade: B+ Brooks Cod lax ffer 1m (AP)-.y wdio willev ^'ith mal Hints av ikir.. }'. Miranut its 1999rt erring Sara: -n Rea. fe ners THE BATTALION Aggies prepare for offensive showdown with Baylor By Brian Ruff The Battalion Reed Arena will explode Saturday af ternoon when the top three scorers in the Big 12 conference do battle. Senior forward Jaynetta Saunders and the rest of the Texas A&M women’s bas ketball team will take on the No. 25 Bay lor University Bears and the conference’s top offensive player, Sheila Lambert, at 1 p.m. at Reed Arena. The Aggies (11-4, 1 -3 Big 12) are com ing off a 97-84 defeat at the hands of the University of Oklahoma Sooners on Wednesday night. A&M sent the Sooners to the free-throw line a record 44 times. Saunders led the Aggies with 35 points, her career high. She is second in the Big 12 Conference in scoring, averaging 22.2 points per game. The Aggies have been plagued by not getting crucial offensive rebounds for much of the season. A&M had a much im proved 17 offensive boards on the night against the Sooners, a giant leap from their 12.81 conference average. “Rebounding has been the Achilles’ heel for us, but against Oklahoma, we had more offensive rebounds than they [OU] did,” said A&M women’s basketball Peg gie Gillom. Last year, the Aggies swept the season series with the Bears, a team that won only two games in conference play. This year’s Baylor squad, with new coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, sits at 2-2 in confer ence play with losses to Big 12 frontrun- s Texas Tech and Oklahoma. “They [Baylor] are a totally different team than last year,” Gillom said. “They have a guard on their team that is probably one of the top five guards in’the country in Sheila Lambert.” Ajunior-college transfer for the Bears this season, Lambert is ranked third in the nation in scoring and is just ahead of A&M’s Saunders in the Big 12 scoring charts. Lambert, a 5-7 junior from Seattle, was a two-time winner of NJCAA first-team All-American honors. She heads up a powerful Baylor offense that is seventh in scoring offense in the na tion. The Beafs also possess the Big 12 conference’s third leading scorer in 6-2 forward Danielle Crockrom. The Bears broke into the top 25 for the first time in Baylor women’s basketball history earlier this month. The Baylor matchup will mark the .fourth straight game that the Aggies have faced a nationally ranked opponent. “1 told the kids that if you are going to get down, then you are not on the right team. We are not going to spiral down like we did sometimes last year when we lost games,” Gillom said. The Aggies also suffered another tough loss Wednesday night when Meg Banahan left the game early in the first half with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Banahan saw action in all 16 games for the Aggies this season. “She [Banahan] was our spark off the bench. Meg was also a great offensive rebounder and a defensive player,” Gillom said. BERNARDO GARZA/The Battalion Texas A&M forward Jaynetta Saunders (32) goes up for a shot against Texas Tech University on Saturday at Reed Arena. tes. The 50- -ike about>| 1 over a hi«l; nection ani ours, struggling! I -ast yeai.tk in shutting - file-sharij -xl people 18 orays faildf -ort films aal fe to pi ig bowfl! ■le protfl a unitofTlit igned adei >m last Apti ngth feati The arranjjf er consume!! ided featurl ■asis. tve been er " mand stratf /mo STUART VILLANUEVA/The Battalion [exas A&M freshman forward Jesse King throws down a dunk in the Aggies' 76-58 loss to the University of Texas on Wednesday night. gs continue rough oad against Kansas UNITY vice • :(>me! ctors, >8-9680 60-6395 47-2049 |y Doug Puentes he Battalion The Bataan Death March portion of the Texas A&M men’s basketball Jam’s conference schedule contin ues Saturday as the Aggies travel to Allen Fieldhouse to take on the fifth- ranked Kansas Jayhawks at 3 p.m. I The game against the Jayhawks ■arts a stretch of five games in which A&M plays four ranked teams. I The Aggies (6-10, 0-4 in Big 12) are limping into this rough stretch of games having lost four straight games. 1 Their latest setback was a 76-58 defeat at the hands of the University of Texas Longhorns Wednesday. I A&M controlled the first half of the game against Texas, holding the Horns without a field goal for the fi nal 11 minutes, 54 seconds of the half en route to a 34-28 lead at the half. I In the second half, A&M’s lack of depth and Texas’ inside game proved to be too great an obstacle for the Ag gies to overcome. I The Longhorns shot 59.3 percent in the second half, while holding A&M to 38.1 percent. I “We played one good half and five good minutes in the second,” said A&M men’s basketball coach Melvin Watkins. “I’m not going to lie to you: Fatigue was a factor. They had a good game plan, and it was to run and wear us down.” The Aggies can expect much of the same from Kansas; the Jayhawks have held 14 straight opponents un der 50 percent shooting. They have also out-rebounded 14 of 15 teams this season. Kansas is third in the conference in scoring average, putting up 83.9 points per game. “Obviously when you play Kansas, it’s a big challenge,” Watkins said. “The only thing we can do is work hard and try to come up with a game plan. We will find some posi tives from the Texas game, and we will not quit.” The Jayhawks returned home af ter a four-game road trip with a bang on Wednesday. Kansas (14-1, 3-0) smothered the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 84-62, hold ing Nebraska to 41 percent shooting and forcing 23 turnovers. The victory was the seventh in a row for the Jayhawks, who have not lost since an 84-53 loss to 11th- ranked Wake Forest on Dec. 7. Kansas remains the only unbeaten team in Big 12 play after Missouri’s loss to Kansas State Tuesday. The Aggies will be without Tomas Ress and Andy Slocum, who are both out for the season, along with senior forward Aaron Jack, whose status is in question after suffering a concus sion against Colorado a week ago.. Women’s swimming hosts dual meets By Jeremy Brown The Battalion After losing three straight meets, the Texas A&M women’s swimming team will attempt to regain some momentum when it hosts the Uni versity of Houston and the University of Nebras ka in dual meets this weekend. The women held a 5-0'record in dual meet competition in the fall and finished the semester by winning the Texas A&M Invitational. How ever, the team’s luck took a turn for the worse af ter the holiday break. A number of swimmers returned from the break with ailments ranging from sprained ankles to pneumonia. Others have missed recent meets because of season-ending injuries. Since returning, the team has posted a 0-3 record in dual meets with losses to No. 15 South ern Methodist University, Louisiana State Uni versity and No. 24 University of Kentucky. The last win the women posted was against Ohio State University on Dec. 21. Sharisse Blau, Clara Ho and Michele Riggins all missed the SMU meet, and several others swam despite being sick. Blau and Riggins were able to compete against LSU and Kentucky, but the results were the same. A&M women’s swimming coach Steve Bult- man said it has been a tough year because of the ailments. “Hopefully, we woh’t have another year like this in a long, long while,” Bultman said. Bultman said that the team should be healthier this weekend than it has been the past couple of weeks and that Ho may be able to compete. In the first meet this weekend, the Aggie women will face Houston at 4 p.m. on Friday. Coached by a former A&M swimmer, Ginger Hurley, the unranked Cougars are 1 -4. Bultman called Houston a developing program and said he felt fairly confident that A&M will do well in the meet. Bultman said Nebraska should provide a tougher challenge for A&M. “Hopefully, we will have everybody back healthy,” Bultman said. “We will need them be cause it could go down right to the wire.” Bultman said that the 4-2 Cornhuskers have Some very good swimmers, but the team’s num bers are not great partly because of the recent re tirement of Nebraska’s head swimming coach, Cal Bentz. Bentz coached the men’s swimming team for 24 years, and for the last eight years has also coached the women’s teams before he retired on. Dec. 11. Paul Nelson was hired as Nebraska’s in terim head coach. The Nebraska meet will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday. After the meets this weekend, the women will have a dual meet against Rice University before they travel to Austin for the Big 12 Championships on Feb. 15-17. Bultman said the reason the meets were sched uled back to back this weekend was to help pre pare the team for the three straight days of com petition in the conference championship. Men’s tennis set for spring slate By True Brown The Battalion Following its most successful season, expecta tions are at an all-time high for the Texas A&M men’s tennis team. Just eight months from a Sweet 16 appearance and a Big 12 championship, the Aggies will begin the spring season ranked fifth, their highest pre season ranking ever. That ranking will be tested today when the team begins play at the Rice In door Invitational in Houston. The individual tournament, which drew five of the top 15 teams in the nation last year, will pro vide a good litmus test for the Aggies before team play begins later this month. “The strong field there will give us a good in dication of where we are standing for this spring,” said A&M coach Tim Cass. “The guys are all ready to go. We are very excited about getting started.” The defending Big 12 champions will be get ting some solid conference competition from No. 20 University of Texas and No. 15 Baylor Uni versity, which still have a bitter taste in their mouths after losing to A&M in the Big 12 final. Six starters are returning this spring from last year’s squad. The Aggies are looking forward to play from freshman Tres Davis, one of the top- ranked junior players in the country. Several A&M players competed in the Mil waukee Tennis Classic last week at Marquette University. Davis and junior Jarin Skube reached the quarterfinals of the 128-player draw, while sophomore Ryan Newport advanced as far as the semifinals before losing to the eventual tourna ment runner-up Travis Parrot from the University of Georgia. Senior team leader Shuon Madden will also play for the Aggies. Madden, the only four-time All-American in school history, is currently un ranked in the singles polls after sitting out the fall season to be eligible for the spring team season. A&M will also feature a highly ranked dou bles team. The tandem of Skube and senior Cody Hubbell, currently the lOth-ranked doubles team in the nation, highlighted the fall season with a win in the doubles portion of the ITA Regionals in November. The duo also competed together in the doubles draw of the Milwaukee Classic, advancing to the semifinals before being knocked out by the even tual tournament champions Brandon Currie and Jimmy Borendame from Butler University. FILE PHOTO/The Battalion Texas A&M senior Cody Hubbell will be a part of this season's talented team. Cass said, that while the team is talented, he knows the tournament will be difficult. “Nothing is guaranteed. I’d be lying if I said we ; didn’t have high expectations. We know we still • have to perform,” he said. ! Tracksters begin indoor season with two meets By Thomas Campbell The Battalion The Texas A&M track team is looking for a good start to its season this weekend at the OU Classic in Nor man, Okla. and the Pole Vaulting Sum mit in Reno, Nev. The men’s track team, ranked 11th in the nation, according to the Trackwire 25 Preseason Poll, is looking to improve upon last year’s RAMZY 34th place finish in the indoor track season. Leading the Aggies into the sea son will be All-Americans Bashir Ramzy, Travis Ashton and Brandon Evans. The Aggie men look to capitalize on last year’s success at the OU Classic, when they brought home four gold medals. Evans brought home the gold in the triple jump, edging out Ramzy. Ramzy also struck gold, winning' the long jump, and senior Mike Hummel chipped in with a first-place finish in the 1,000-meter run. The 1,600-meter relay team look’s’ to finish atop of the OU Classic after finishing fourth in the nation last year. The women are not ranked na tionally, but they look to prove them selves in Oklahoma after an injury plagued 2000 season. All-American senior Meshell Trotter looks to have another strong season, and sophomore high jumper Robyn Burkhardt is looking to make a run at the NCAA Championships and All-American honors. Seniors Christina Ohaeri and Chimika Carter hope to continue to place well in the hurdling events. Also on Saturday, the pole vaulters will travel to Reno, Nev. for the annual pole vaulting summit. - * All-American senior Jon Nance and senior NCAA qualifier Richard McDonald are considered one of the top pole-vnulting tandems in the country this year, and they hope to show this early in Reno. McDonald is returning from a shoulder injury that kept him out of the 2000 track season, but he hopes to pick up where he left off in 1999 when he finished 13th at the NCAA championships. A&M women’s record holder Er ica Boren will be traveling to Reno to represent the Aggie women in the Pole Vault Summit.