THE BATTALION
5
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
y, January 16,
Sports
Road calls again for A&M
Mush, Gilbert lead
Way for No. 21 Tigers
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
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After a week to recuperate from a tough two-point loss to
exasTech University last week, the Texas A&M men's bas-
etball team hits the road tonight for a Big 12 game against
o.21 Missouri.
The stumbling Aggies have lost five straight and have
:ored more than 65 points in just three of their last 11
ames. In that same stretch, A&M has allowed almost 77
oints per game.
Eight of the Aggies’ last nine games were away from
eed Arena.
We’re very concerned (about the road),” said A&M
lead coach Melvin Watkins. “When you look around the
|mdscape of college basketball — seeing Kansas get beat
UCLA — it’s difficult for any teams to go on the road
id get a win.”
Now the Aggies are faced with containing the duo of
Missouri’s Kareem Rush and Clarence Gilbert.
I Rush, a forward, is the Big 12's third leading scorer,
while Gilbert, a guard, contributes more than 16 points per
■ame to give the Tigers one of the toughest one-two
punches in the league.
I "You've got to know where they are at all times,"
^'atkins said. “Our challenge will be to make sure we
(oak them and not give them any easy looks. The negative
irt to that is that they have shown the ability to hit tough
ots, especially in their building.”
While the Aggies struggled through a long road stretch,
Bissouri saw its ranking go from No. 2 down to No. 21 after
a string of three losses in late December.
I Iowa and Illinois, both top 20 teams, and DuPaul claimed
Bins over the Tigers.
I Missouri coach Quin Snyder has earned a 50-30 record as
Be Tigers' third-year head coach but has not finished a sea-
7’ son higher than sixth in conference play, prompting some
k Andy Rid j(niblings around Columbia.
le of the idifl “ji 10 expectations that were placed on this team were
he decidec high (at the beginning of the season),” Snyder said. “Those
id get invo expectations are gone now, but what we are doing here
■quires patience. We’re ranked in the top 20, and people are
times, an icBalking around like someone got shot. It’s just going to get
r. harder, because our conference is so unbelievably good.”
ny idea. You'fi B Last Wednesday, Watkins’ team showed signs of life it
years was a !hM not shown in a long time during A&M’s 72-70 loss
ihow. the Bobby Knight-led Red Raiders. The Aggies held
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GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M center Andy Slocum suffered a broken hand dur
ing last Wednesday's game and will not play against Missouri.
the lead nine times during the contest.
A&M committed only 10 turnovers and was helped by 36
points off the bench.
Watkins said Wednesday’s good play has carried over
into practice.
“A good indication (of A&M's improved play) is that
we had more assists than turnovers, and that is something
we haven’t done in a while,” Watkins said. “It was nice to
see us get back into that frame of mind of sharing the ball
and sharing the wealth. For us to have any success, we’ve
got to do that."
By Kevin Espenlaub
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M women's basket
ball team will attempt to knock off
its second consecutive top-10 oppo
nent Wednesday when it squares off
with the No. 9 Kansas State Wildcats
at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
The Aggies (10-5, 2-1) last played
Saturday when they defeated the
then-ranked No. 5 Iowa State
Cyclones by the score of 88-71
behind the hot shooting of senior
guard LaToya Rose, who drained a
school record-tying eight 3-pointers
on her way to a career-high 28 points.
Junior forward Kim Moore added
15 points and sophomore guard
Toccara Williams nearly reached a
quadruple-double with her 12
points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds and 8
steals against the Cyclones.
Rose and her teammates will need
another solid performance to knock
off the Wildcats (16-1, 4-0) who are
currently on a 13-game winning
streak and will travel into College
Station tied for the Big 12 lead.
"There's no rest for us," said A&M
women's head basketball coach
Peggie Gillom following Saturday's
game. "We have to think about Kansas
State. In this league, there is not much
time until your next game."
The Wildcats made the top 25
poll for the first time in nearly 18
years last week after upset victories
over Iowa State and Baylor.
Kansas State continued their
streak this season with an 85-71 vic
tory over visiting Nebraska on
Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of
13,466 in Bramlage Coliseum. The
record setting crowd saw the team’s
leading scorer, freshman Laurie
Koehn, hit six three-pointers on her
way to a game-high 26 points that
included a perfect 6-of-6 from the
free-throw line. On Monday, Koehn
was rewarded by being named the
Big 12’s Rookie of the Week.
"We're gonna be seeing some of
the same looks we saw against Iowa
State when we play Kansas State,"
Gillom said. "We're gonna be seeing
the 2-3 zone defense again. LaToya
shot it to bring them outside against
Iowa State and then we got it down
inside and had a lot of people scor
ing. We're going to have to do a lot
of the same things against K-State.”
Kansas State has already sur
passed their total number of wins
from last season when they finished
with a 12-16 overall record and were
2-14 in conference games.
The Wildcats will be the second
of seven-straight ranked opponents
the Aggies will face in the coming
weeks. A win over Kansas State
would be the first time the Aggie
women's team has accomplished
back-to-back conference wins since
they joined the Big 12 in the 1996-
1997 season.
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Mavericks win, 116-107
ATLANTA (AP) — Dirk Nowitzki
scored 40 points and the Dallas
Mavericks tied a franchise record with
18 3-pointers in a 116-107 victory over
the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night.
Nowitzki eclipsed his regular-season
high of 38 points, though he fell short
of a 42-point effort in a playoff game at
San Antonio last season. Nowitzki was
6-of-15 from 3-point range.
Steve Nash added 29 points, making
five 3s, and Tim Hardaway scored 18.
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Andy Richter
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