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'•'Ill att»i Sports The Battalion Page 5 • Wednesday, Janurary 28, 2004 asketball teams push forward after losses r en go to Iowa State in search of first win By Troy Miller THE BATTALION n M ^ 0 °k ,n £ lllc B'E confer- ' " f »ice sumdings, it's easy to see J^^rWexas A&M on the bottom and 1 "Believe the Aggies are destined for Brother disappointing season. But what is not seen just by IjJ COHsF af ruhtj lioking at the seen just standings is that (7-8, 0-4 Big 12) is playing llv n B'me of the best basketball in the V Hr ■ ; ^ague. “1 think we have tremendous tans," said Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan. “Our fans create an atmosphere where it is difficult tor other teams to play. I think we have a great home-court advantage.” Iowa State boasts two promi nent players in senior forward Jackson Vroman and junior cen ter Jared Homan. Vroman is aver aging 13.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game while Homan is averaging 12.1 points and 6.7 - jilipF eral cat I In their four losses in confer- YjfPjBnre play, the Aggies have been in MisiorT reografi tg alorl 12 Kansas, No. 13 lie position to win all of them, three of those games came ■gainst three of the better teams in ,'■"*'■10 nation. No ®^Texas Tech and Missouri. rebounds. A&M senior center Andy Slocum will be charged with defending the low post ; again. something he has done succe rssful- ly thus far. lestoca its u J 1 to ht LyniKiJ OMM Ot to il rue. Sj ig Bad I In past years, the Aggies lould still be winless after that late, but they would never have leen close. I "It could be something as sim ile as one ball bouncing our way, ftr one rebound bouncing our lay," said A&M coach Melvin j watkins. "We sit here and look at Bur tapes, and with a play here or | were we could be 4-0. That’s how j Blose it’s been for us. They're “Boing to get a win in conference, “iBiey're working too hard for it.” The Aggies' schedule doesn't get ny easier as they travel to Ames, wa, to face Iowa State (11-4, 2-2) |Vednesday at 6:30 p.m. The Cyclones are coming off a ard 63-59 loss in Waco to Baylor niversity, but Iowa State's Hilton roliseum is one of the toughest laces to play in the country. “Andy Slocum is having his best year of his career,” Watkins said. “Other coaches are saying he’s a handful to try to handle.” • The 7-foot tall Slocum has had to handle big posts before this sea son. In the Aggies' 65-59 loss to Kansas, Slocum held the Jayhaw k’s Wayne Simien and Jeff Graves well below’ their averages. Graves didn’t get a single rebound against Slocum. But holding big men down and winning small moral victories against prominent teams are not what this Aggie ball club is after. A&M is after wins. “The last four games have been real close,” Slocum said. “1 think we re going to turn il around with a winning streak soon.” The last time A&M met Iowa State was in the first round of last season's Big 12 Tournament in Dallas. Iowa State blew out the John C. Livas • THE BATTALION Student Airfares Aggie center Andy Slocum attempts to shoot under Texas Tech Red Raiders Gevonne Giles (left 21) and Mikey Marshall (rear) during last Saturday's game at Reed Arena. Slocum added 11 points to the Aggies 78 during their defeat 78-80 Aggies in an upset 97-70 win to propel them into the National Invitation Tournament. This year the Aggies are hoping that a w in over Iowa State can pro pel them into the win column and get over the hump. "You start to see where teams are going to find their nitch (niche)," Watkins said. “Our kids feel like we’re going to make a run for this thing. We’re going to be in the middle of it. The fact that we got off to a slow start doesn't mean we’re going to finish up that way." Women Aggies travel to No. 7 Texas Tech By Brad Bennett THE BATTALION The statistics are against the Aggie women’s basketball team when it travels to Lubbock to play No. 7 Texas Tech tonight. The unranked Aggies have yet to win a Big 12 game, while Tech is 3-2. The Aggies shot a meager 31.5 percent last game against University of Texas, while Tech aver ages 45 percent for the season. Worst of all, the Aggies have not won a game against Tech in their last 14 tries. Fortunately for the Aggies, the game won’t be decided by conjecture but by 40 minutes of bas ketball. After Sunday’s loss to No. 5 Texas, Aggie guard Toccara Williams said she was ready for Tech. “We can’t let this get us down,” Williams said. “They lost a key player (top scorer Jia Perkins), and we hope to take advantage of that.” Perkins was injured earlier in the season and will not play on tonight. Aggie Head Coach Gary Blair said Perkins’ injury hurts Tech, but believes the Red Raiders are still a team capable of winning the national cham pionship. “Texas Tech has tremendous depth, where they can lose their best player and it affects them but it doesn’t affect them that much,” Blair said. Tech has dropped five spots in The Associated Press poll from number two to seven since Perkins’ injury. Blair said Tech freshman Alicia Robertson has taken Up the slack for the Raiders in the last two games since Perkins went down. Robertson averages 19.7 points per game for the season with 27 in the overtime loss versus Oklahoma State last weekend. In Aggieland last weekend, Williams had a career highs. 24 points and nine steals. With 405 steals to her credit, she is now No. 13 all time, in See Women on page 7 for g rPAK Sample roundtrip fares from Houston to: d Mexico City r \ ’ Lima $344 m $456 VisitTheBatt.com/travel to find cheap and flexible Student Airfares on world-class airlines across the U.S. and around the globe from StudentUniverse. “ Exclusively for students and faculty. StudentUniverse.com Student Airfares Everywhere Terms: All fares are based on roundtrip travel and include a StudentUniverse service fee of $5. Fares disp to US destinations and to destinations within 250 miles Of the US/Mexico or US/Canada border include 7.5%. — ansportation tax. Other taxes and fees vary, depending on the itinerary, and arenot included. Fares displayed to all other estmations do not include taxes and fees. Visit StudfentUniverse.com for complete rules. 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