Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2004)
i Page IB • Monday, January 26, 2004 ne| •a lj| o. 18 Texas Tech escapes Reed Arena 80-78 Sports The Battalion ontroversial no-call in final seconds leave Aggies winless in Big 12 conference By Troy Miller THE BATTALION No. 18 Texas Tech escaped Reed Arena urday night with an 80-78 victory over Texas M, but not without a little bit of controversy. With just more than 10 seconds remaining and scored tied at 78. Red Raider senior guard/for- rd Andre Emmett spun on three Aggie defend- eri. hopped into the lane and laid up a 10-foot shot th it banked in off the glass to give Texas Tech (16- 4-0 Big 12) the win. Emmett did all that after picking up his dribble, (the traveling violation was never called. “I can't say what 1 want to say” said A&M ad coach Melvin Watkins. "Yes (1 thought imett traveled). I'm not going to let that one pi . get us down.” After A&M senior forward Jesse King put back shot by senior guanl Leandro Garcia- rales to tie the game with 20.4 seconds remain- jink, ail 12.124 fans in attendance knew Red |R ider head coach Bobby Knight u anted the ball Emmett’s hands. But even with three defenders on Emmett, the xas Tech star was able to score. did see an opening towards the end.” nmett said. “I dribbled into (A&M senior center idy) Slocum and then went towards the middle, law a little crease so I took the shot.” Emmett led all scorers with 23 points, hitting mi cof 13 in the game. bel3 With 6.6 seconds remaining, the Aggies had lUjle chance left. ■fe JSophomore guard/forward Antoine Wright ini aunded the ball to Garcia-Morales, who drib- bk I the length of the court and put up a three- ’ ^Bint shot from the top of the key that bounced off tlw front of the rim as time expired. ■ Watkins said the play was drawn up to go to freshman point guard Acie Law IV. but he was bl; nketed by the Red Raider defense. The second opltion was Garcia-Morales. anjJ ''They denied me the ball," Law said. “We got it ^Bto Leandro. Unfortunately it fell a little bit short.” ’raj jBoth teams shot more than 50 percent in the game, but Texas Tech shot a season-high 61.5 per cent from the door. artffll " H:kI we i° st '' W(,u * c i have been a really tough n loss for us,” Knight said. "No doubt it's a really )Llt | le fough loss for A&M. It was obviously a real battle j is iw 111 t0 en( T’ lent J After A&M took the early lead. Texas Tech NAS# 11 lia i° u( i n fr° nt by as many as 12 points with :r andN? left in the first half. At times it looked as team Pugh the Red Raiders were ready to blow out , 0 n the Aggies, but A&M fought back to within three of sMints by halftime. are.B<P The second half was a much closer battle. menH‘« er y time one team seemed to gain momentum, jtrotaJbe other would answer right back with neither e shui-P" 1 gening a lead of more than five, ear as With 3:04 left to play, the Raiders began to manaj in control, leading 73-68 after a pair of free ows from senior guard Mikey Marshall, but iy, thfw answered with a three-pointer 34 seconds aceciii d Mai ^ salt mi John C. Livas • 1HI BATTALION TOP: A&M freshman point guard Acie Law IV drives to the basket on Texas Tech junior guard Devonne Giles during the Aggies loss to the Red Raiders on Saturday. Law scored 14 points in 20 minutes of play. LEFT: A&M sophomore guard/forward Antoine Wright buries his head in his jersey fol lowing the Aggies 80-78 loss to No. 18 Texas Tech. Wright had 10 points.and three rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Sharon Aesmbacm • THE BATTALION later to pull the Aggies within two. After Marshall converted on a three-point play to put the Raiders up 76-73 with 1:30 left, it was Law again who answered back by driving the length of the court to hit a basket while draw ing a foul. He converted the free throw to tie the game at 76. Law led the Aggies with 14 points in 20 min utes of playing time. “That was a huge basket,” Knight said of Law's three-pointer. “1 thought that was the biggest basket of the game next to the bucket Emmett got at the end.” After four Big 12 conference games, the Aggies are still winless, but they have had a chance to win all of them. Just like Garcia- Morales' last second shot Saturday, the Aggies have fallen a little bit short. A&M will travel to Ames, Iowa, Wednesday night to face Iowa State. "I'm not down,” Watkins said. “I'm disappoint ed. but not down. 1 can feel good about what we are doing in practice and the fact that we are being competitive. We are not down.” Aggie women fall short, lose to No. 3 Texas, 64-62 Senior Toccara Williams moves to second in steals in Big 12 conference all-time er Tfe vhybli iration By Brad Bennett THE BATTALION Texas A&M head coach Gary lair came close to leading a stu- •ofess^dent parade to the Dixie Chicken :nts inpn Sunday, a reward he promised to at! 1 his women's basketball team i the’ll eat No. 3 University of Texas. I The lead changed hands six livingl mes during a game that was hotly ‘It walontested into the final minute. In I le end though, it was the I onghorns (17-2, 5-1 Big 12) who revailed, 64-62. I “Sometimes you just survive,” I lid Longhorn coach Jody I 'onradt. I The Aggies (7-10, 0-6) led as Di late as 4:15 in the second, but ■^lauld never recover after Texas I uard Heather Schrieber hit a I iree-point shot to put Texas up by JJ^pnir with 2:08 to play. I “(Schrieber) hit some key shots I'hen she was open,” said A&M sen- I ir point guard Toccara Williams. L I Williams, whose 40 minutes of flaying time dominated the Aggie 111 ffense, set career highs in scoring l^liid steals with 24 points and nine J teals. Williams moved past the jj'jpl 00 career steal mark (403), mak- i ig her No. 12 all-time in steals in jjiil lie NCAA and No. 2 all-time in lie Big 12. She is only the fourth CAA player to accumulate 1,000 pints, 500 rebounds, 600 assists d 400 steals in her career. The Aggies had 13 points off 22 Longhorn turnovers while Texas only had three. “We stayed in the game because of our turnovers,” Blair said. “We only had six in the whole ball game, two or three at the half. That says a lot for one of the best point guards in the country (Texas junior Jamie Carey).” Even though the Aggies took 26 more shots than the Longhorns, Texas scoring percentage was 48.9 percent compared with the Aggies 31.5 percent. It was Texas freshman forward Tiffany Jackson, who came off the bench to play 32 minutes, that led Texas to victory. Jackson had her second dou ble-double of the year, ending the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks - the team high in each category. Jackson’s block of A&M sen ior forward Janae Derrick with 19 seconds left took away hope of the Aggies making up the four point margin. Jackson said she was able to maximize on A&M covering Schrieber outside opening up the paint. “(A&M was) making it really hard for our guards to get the ball in the wings,” Jackson said. “It opened up a lot of things down low.” Schrieber also had a double double on Sunday with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Texas out-rebounded A&M 46 to 32, including a pivotal 34-to- 15 margin on the Aggie half of the court. Aggie sophomore guard Erica Roy fouled out at the 4:38 mark, ending her successful coverage of Schrieber, who leads Texas in scor ing with 12.7 points a game, but was held to only two in the first half. Williams’ 31 attempted shots, 29 field goals and two three-point ers, was almost one-half on the teams 73 total. Blair said that he would like to see other players tak ing more shots, but supports Williams taking so many because the situation. “She is having to put up more shots because we can rebound off her shots,” Blair said. “She knows she shouldn’t be shooting that many times, but right now that is all we have.” The Aggies have only won a single game in their last nine tries, dropping six straight con ference games. Blair said a win is coming, and Williams said the team will be in good spirits as it travels to Lubbock to play No. 3 Texas Tech( 16-2, 3-2) next Wednesday. “We aren’t going to let this game get us down, we played extremely well from start to finish ” Williams said. A&M senior guard Toccara Williams shoots over two Texas defenders during the Aggies' 64-62 loss. Williams became the fourth player in NCAA history to have 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 600 assists and 400 steals in her career.