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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 â– 
; ^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
â– gainst three of the better teams in
,'â– "*'â– 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
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