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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2002)
Sports The Battalion Page 1B • Thursday, November 21, 2002 ggies end exhibition season with 87-59 win COUHBIO ipamsti hen spill from Not n banned to By Gary Livingston THE BATTALION The Texas A&M women’s basket- team, led by junior Janae ■rrick, won its second straight ^ exhibition game over Houston Flight the NWBL Elite 87-59 on lidnesday night. ^Derrick led the Aggies in scoring for the second consecutive game 1th 21 points. She also came within Jo assists and two rebounds of a irfcle double. ‘Janae has really matured and en over for us,” said head coach gie Gillom. “She has really irked on her game and has taken lead.” I “in addition to Derrick, three other gies scored in double digits, hiding Toccara Williams, with 12, llm Moore with 14, and Sabrina Btchell with 13. “It’s always good to have lots of pltuers in double figures,” Gillom said, “It’s good for upcoming games. and we’ve got to have that.” For the game, the Aggies shot 45.5 percent, which includes Derrick's 8-12 performance. Mitchell also had the shooters touch, going six for seven. The Aggies looked better on defense, limiting Houston Flight to a 40.3 percent shooting night, and out rebounding their opponent 56-31. A&M held Houston Flight scoreless for nearly eight minutes late in the second half. “Rebounds are something we’ve been trying to work on,” Gillom said. “We were first in offensive rebounds last year, and we’ve been working on boxing out so far this season.” The Aggies began the game trail ing 4-2, but after that they controlled the game sprinting out to a 9-4 lead, then going on an 1 1-point run, the largest run of the first half, to increase their lead to 20-6. By the 10-minute mark, the Aggies had built a 28-14 point lead, their largest lead of the first half. Flight got within 10 points before the Aggies built a 40- 27 halftime lead. In the second half. Flight came out of the locker room strong getting within nine points of A&M on two separate occasions. The Aggies stayed sharp and built their lead back up to 66-54 before going on their best scoring run of the night. With just less than 10 minutes to play, the Aggies went on a 13-point scoring run to increase their lead to 79-54. A&M held Flight scoreless from 9:28 until just 1:36 remained on the clock, and had a 29-point lead during that span, their largest of the night. “Exhibition is over with, it’s always good to win,” Gillom said. “It’s a good confidence builder, and prepares us for more games.” After winning both of their exhi bition contests, the Aggies will set their sights on the regular season which will begin Monday night against Northwestern State at Reed Arena at 7 p.m. JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION Aggie senior forward Kim Moore makes a move towards the basket in Wednesday’s game. :nt from Fia - out of !k i lay, istal areas mi oil, seafood harvest ms xkles aki ’s fishine lillionayeai of Ria de ie of the« ounds, l»a| on which ds isels gro all. fW re left beta! ig 12 deserves more representation in NCAA tourney HIKING Trov Miller With Aggie fans preoccupied with the weird and icky season at Kyle Field, they are missing the cial season being put together by the Texas A&M men’s soccer team across Wellborn Road at the ;gie Soccer Complex. After dropping three games early in the season, the Aggies went on a tear by going unbeaten in the next 16 games, a school record, and winning the nt has hill'-■>ular season Big 12 Championship. nciscoteflNow, in the NCAA tournament, the Aggies are emiauiiilltf still hot as they are in the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth consecutive season after beating Southern Methodist University and Northwestern State. The only problem is the Aggies are not hosting their third round game despite being ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation in two polls. Instead, they will travel to Los Angeles, Calif, to face the seventh- seeded UCLA Lady Bruins on Saturday. The Big 12 Conference gets no respect when it comes to NCAA bids in soccer. Despite the University of Texas and A&M being in the top 10 in the country, most of the season in the top five, nei ther team secured a seed in the tournament bracket. The NCAA seeds the top eight teams, which host the first three rounds as long as they win. The top four remaining seeds host quarterfinal matches to detennine who goes to the Final Four in Austin. Only three teams out of the Big 12 made the NCAA tournament; A&M, Texas, and Nebraska ,after upsetting Texas and A&M to win the Big 12 Tournament and earn an automatic bid. “For there only to be three teams from the Big 12 doesn’t make any sense,” said Aggie senior defend er Jessica Martin. “We have one of the best confer ences in the nation.” Not only did none of the three teams out of the Big 12 get seeds, but Texas and A&M were placed in the same regional. That means one of the top ten teams in the nation is going to get knocked out in the first two rounds. The NCAA did this because in non-revenue sports, such as soccer, it brackets based on region. Therefore A&M, Texas, SMU and Northwestern State all were bracketed together because of their close proximity. “You take the WAC champion (SMU), you take the Big 12 champion, you take their biggest rival, then throw in the Southland Conference champion (Northwestern State),” said Aggie head coach G. Guerrieri. “Then you move on from there and the survivor of this bracket goes on to play a great PAC- 10 team, probably.” Now, after surviving a region with the No. 8 team in the nation, A&M must move on to face No. 3 UCLA. The winner will most likely have to travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to face No. 2 North Carolina in the Elite Eight. These three teams should not face one another until the Final Four, based on the seasons they had. “It was a tough bracket,” said SMU head coach George Van Linder. “All the coaches were kind of joking among each other that if any of us were to get to the Final Four, that was going to be the easiest of the games.” With only 16 teams out of the original 64 left, two are from the Big 12. Nebraska beat Hartford 2- 0 and Yale 1 -0 to earn the right to face sixth-seeded, and defending national champion, Santa Clara. If A&M and Nebraska can knock off their seed ed counterparts, maybe the Big 12 will finally get the respect it deserves. ed nt\ i CLASS OF 2004 JR. E-WALK 2002 NOVEMBER 26 Law-Puryear Field Schedule of Events: 10:30 - 2:00 Pictures with elephants, games, and music 11:30 -1:00 Lunch catered by Chicken Express ($5 in advance) Class of 2003 1:00 Speaker at Kyle Field 2:03 Elephant Walk Step-off from Kyle Field Keynote Address Speakers: Elephant Walk - Bobby Tucker Jr. E-Walk - Frank Cox Merchandise on sale now at the MSC Class of 2004 2:04 Jr. E-Walk Step-off from Law-Puryear Field (followed by speaker in Kyle Field) Tee Shirts: $10, Long-sleeved Tees and Sweatshirts: $15, Lunch Tickets: $5 I <<v ets Texas ACM University Fait Activities Councii presents Fight F esf V ' ^ A FRCC event fo event for aft Aggies, former Students C Aggie Supporters Mommy, NovtmtR 25 Cory &.R. S/mpson Prill Fhlb Morrow 0:00 ,,. m . Free Food, Games G Local Bands 8:00 p.m. Yell Practice featuring the Texas Aggie Footbati Team, Veit leaders & Aggie Band STROKE 9 & CORY MORROW FOLLOWING mi PRACVCt In the event of inclement weather, Yell Practice & Concert will be held in Rudder Auditorium.