Sports
The Battalion
Page 7 • Wednesday, November 20,
asketball team toppled by EA Sports, 98-94
All-Stars use strong second half to overcome Aggies
J.P. BEATO III • THE BATTALION
;ie junior Tomas Ress fights through the EA Sports defense for a shot.
By Michael Crow
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M men’s bas
ketball team surrendered a 12-
point lead in a 98-94 loss to the
EA Sports Southwest All-Stars
on Tuesday night at Reed
Arena. The Aggies’ most signif
icant struggles came defensive
ly, as they allowed a 64-point
second half.
With the loss, the Aggies split
a two-game exhibition series and
completed preseason play.
Despite a poor percentage
from the field, A&M continued
to put plenty of points on the
board offensively. The majority
of the offense came from senior
guard Bernard King and junior
guard Leandro Garcia-Morales.
The two combined for 53 of the
Aggies’ 94 points.
Garcia-Morales was one of
the few bright spots for the
home team, picking up the slack
for his struggling teammates.
“Leandro, he came out
tonight and he definitely stepped
his game up,” King said.
Freshman standout Antoine
Wright had trouble from the
field, putting up only 8 points in
the contest. He shot four of 14
from the field and zero for five
from behind the three-point line
for the night.
“(Antoine) got a little frus
trated tonight,” King said.
“He’ll be all right, though. You
have games like that some
nights. He can do a lot of things
for this team.”
Wright was finally beginning
to find his shot before fouling
out late in the second half. The
Aggies fought to get back in the
game late, but they hurt them
selves along the way.
A late offensive run from the
Aggies was stopped short, with
poor defense and many fouls
making for an uphill battle. Head
coach Melvin Watkins was visi
bly frustrated by his team’s sub-
par defensive performance.
“What defense? We never
played any,” Watkins said. “We
didn’t shoot the ball well, still
scored a bunch of points, but we
guarded absolutely no one.”
Still, Watkins described the
defensive woes as repairable.
“Our emphasis will be on
defending the basketball now,”
Watkins said. “These things are
correctable, and we will correct
them.”
Defensive improvement is a
must, as the Aggies’ regular sea
son schedule will only get
tougher. Watkins is most con
cerned with the team being pre
pared for a difficult series of Big
12 matchups later in the season.
“We’ve got to be ready to
play,” Watkins said. “We’re not
going to face any bad teams this
year, and all the stuff that we’re
doing right now is just trying to
get ready for the Big 12.”
Watkins and the Aggies will
look to rebound from a tough
night on Sunday, Nov. 26 when
they face Texas Southern
University in the team’s season
opener.
Vomen’s basketball team hosts NWBL Elite
By Gary Livingston
THE BATTALION
The Texas A&M women's bas-
hall team will play its second exhi-
lon game of the season against the
ffitional Women’s Basketball
Hague’s (NWBL) Elite Team
dnesday at Reed Arena at 7 p.m.
A&M is coming off an impres
sive 86-66 victory over RTU
Klondaika, a Latvian team, that it
played last week. In that game, five
gies scored in double digits with
mior forward Janee Derrick leading
the way with 17 points.
The NWBL Elite Team is made
up of players who have been associ-
atecl with professional leagues,
fcording to A&M head coach
ggie Gillom. Current Aggies may
recognize one of the players, because
she was an Aggie not too long ago.
“One of their players. Brandy
Jones, is a former player of ours,”
Gillom said. “She was a student
assistant last year, and she graduated
the year before that.”
Gillom said practices have been
going well since the last game, and
things are looking better. As far as a
game plan for the Elite squad,
Gillom said it is going to depend on
some things.
“We are going to go out there
and work on the things we need to
work on,” Gillom said. “A large
part of it is going to depend on what
they give us.”
After last week’s game, Gillom
said she was happy with the victory,
saying it is always good to start the
season off with a victory. She thinks
the team did some very good things,
but also thinks it needs to pick it up
on defense.
“We let a 19-point lead slip
away,” Gillom said. “But that’s
because I wanted to see everyone
play. I wanted to give them a shot
early instead of in critical situations.”
Another major concern for the
A&M squad is its lack of a true cen
ter. The tallest players on the team are
the Classen sisters, Lara and Lynn,
who are listed at 6’3” and 6’4”.
Without a big shot blocker or
rebounder in the paint, the Aggies
could be looking at a long season.
Against RTU Klondaika, the Latvian
team exposed the A&M weakness
with a 6’6” center who scored 25
points, grabbed 1 1 rebounds, and
had 8 blocked shots.
“It is an area we’re concerned
about,” Gillom said. “But were just
going to have to get better at
defending it.”
In addition to being reunited with
a former player, Gillom will be
reunited with her former boss’ son.
Coaching the NWBL Elite team will
be Johnny Chancellor, son of Van
Chancellor, head coach of the
WNBA’s Houston Comets. Gillom
was an assistant coach for two years
for the Comets from 1997 through
1998. In those two years, the Comets
won two out of their four WNBA
Championships.
The Aggies are currently 1 -0, and
after tonight’s game will begin regu
lar season play on Nov. 25 against
Northwestern State.
J.P. BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Aggie forward Janae Derrick shoots over the RTU
Klondaika defense on Wednesday at Reed Arena.
in tie Hii aana u
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When?
Thursday, November 21
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