The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 17, 1995 Page: 12 of 16
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12 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1995 THE RICE THRESHER
SPORTS
Men's basketball jumps back in SWC race with two wins
by John Fredland
Shaun Igo's career-high 23 points
and 10 rebounds led the Rice men's
basketball team to a 75-69 victory
over Texas A&M University
Wednesday night at College Station.
The victory was a crucial one for
the Owls in the Southwest Confer-
ence race.
Improving their overall record to
11-10 and their SWC mark to 6-4, the
win allowed Rice to maintain a slim
chance of catching SWC co-leaders
the University of Texas and Texas
Tech University.
It also puts Rice into a tie for third
place with Texas Christian Univer-
sity.
The deadlock will last until Sun-
day, when the Owls travel to Fort
Worth to take on the Horned Frogs
at 3:35 p.m. The game will be tele-
vised by ESPN-2.
Rice will have to contend with
TCU center Kurt-Thomas, who
scorched the Owls for 43 points in a
102-93 victory at Autry Court Jan. 22.
Thomas scored 36 points and
added 25 rebounds in a 111-104
home-court loss to Baylor Univer-
sity Tuesday.
'TCU did a good job of dictating
the tempo last time," Rice Head
Coach Willis Wilson said. "This
game, we have to go up there and
dictate the tempo."
Against the Aggies, the Owls
jumped out to a 10-point lead in the
first half.
After increasing the lead to 14 in
the second half, they held off a late
Texas A&M charge to gain a sweep
of the season series for the first time
since 1991-92.
"Road games mean big games,"
Wilson said. "At this time of the sea-'
son, all of the games are big. I was
proud of our team effort."
Annihilating his previous career
best of 16 points, Igo hit 10 of 16
shots from the field.
"He did a fabulous job," Wilson
said.
"We can't ask for a guy to step up
any more than he did. His play to-
night is an example of what has been
missing for us all season. Slowly, he
is regaining his form."
Rice held a nine-point lead at half-
time 34-25 and held A&M to 38-per-
cent shooting for the game, includ-
ing a 2-15 effort from three-point
land.
The Owls shot a blistering 54-
percent as well as 82-percent from
the free-throw line.
Forward Adam Peakes, who had
been hampered with a bruised
knuckle on his right hand in games
against Texas Tech, Texas and the
University of Houston — all losses
— and had sat out the Owls' previ-
ous game, a win over Southern Meth-
odist University, returned to the
lineup and contributed eight points..
Peakes took only four shots.
"Peakes stayed within himself,"
Wilson said.
"He's doing his part — he scored
eight points, pulled down eight re-
bounds and added five assists. He
made a lot of good decisions tonight."
Jesse Cravens added 20 points
while J.J. Polk handed out seven
assists for Rice, which was only the
second team this season to defeat
A&M in G. Rollie White Coliseum.
Tony McGinnis led Texas A&M
with 20 points. The Owls held Joe
Wilbert to seven of 20 shooting.
Rice snapped a three-game SWC
losing streak with a 63-55 victory
over Southern Methodist Feb. 12 at
Autry Court.
After twice looking as though
they were going to take control of
the game — but then losing the lead
—the Owls finally put the Mustangs
away with a 10-0 spurt in the last six
minutes.
With SMU leading 50-49 and 5:26
to play, Cravens put Rice ahead to
stay by hitting both ends of a one-
and-one.
Cravens, who led the Owls with
16 points, followed that with a layup
on the next possession to trigger the
game-clinching run.
Wilson was pleased with the team
effort.
"From the onset, 1 felt we had a
team attitude of playing together,"
Wilson said.
"We did a lot of little things to-
gether. Even when the shots didn't
go, I saw the light in their eyes.
When we missed a shot tonight, we
got more determined. That's some-
thing we haven't been doing."
The Owls won despite the ab-
sence of Peakes.
"It was just an opportunity to get
him some rest," Wilson said.
"His hand has not gotten consid-
erably better'even with his rest dur-
ing the week. We made the decision
that with seven games to go in the
league, we would let him take a rest
s#%-
.
Jesse Cravens and Kevin Nanney go for the rebound against Southern Methodist on Saturday night as Rice won 63-55.
and see if it improves."
The team's effort made up for
Peakes' absence, according to Wil-
son.
"I have to give the guys credit,"
Wilson said. 'They knew they would
have to step up their games and they
did that. They elevated their games
and that was encouraging."
Led by eight points from Kevin
Nanney, who chipped in 11 points
total off the bench, the Owls rolled
to a 22-13 lead in the first half.
The Mustangs rallied, however,
and gained a 28-28 tie with a Jabari
Hearn three-pointer on their first
possession of the second half.
McGhee hit a 15-foot jump shot
to put the Owls back in the lead.
McGhee, who finished with 14
points, then added a pair of three-
pointers to spark a 14-2 run that gave •
Rice a 42-30 lead with 14:29 to play.
Once again, SMU fought back.
Matt Timme's field goal started an
18-4 Mustang charge.
A Hearn three-pointer at 7:50
capped the rally and gave SMU a 48-
46 lead.
That lasted until the Owls an-
swered with their final charge, one
the Mustangs were not able to
counter.
"I felt like we played well and we
executed well," McGhee said.
"We knew we were going to have
to make a big effort to play as a team
tonight without Adam and we did
that. We had a little lapse with about
ten minutes to go in the first half and
another one in the second half, but
overall we played well."
Women split pair on road in Carolinas
by Grant Flowers
The women's basketball team
found solace at the end of their East
Coast road trip Wednesday night.
Playing in a state renowned for
its basketball, the Owls defeated host
IJniveristy of North Carolina at
Asheville 90-67.
The win raised Rice's record to 8-
13, and, perhaps more importantly,
broke a five-game losing streak.
Rice was led by center Brenda
Conway's 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Conway's 19th point made her the
seventh player in Rice history to
score 1,000 points in a career.
Tammy McCallum scored 16
points, I^cey Guinn's two three-
pointers helped her to 15 and sopho-
more Stephanie Mundschau contrib-
uted 11.
UNC Asheville fell to 7-14, led by
Christy McNeill's 18 points.
Rice Head Coach Cristy
McKinney couldn't have been hap-
pier about the performances turned
in by her team, especially the record-
breaking Conway.
"We played with a great deal of
defensive intensity tonight and that
was a goal for us," said McKinney.
"Brenda Conway had been strug-
gling and she needed a game like
this. She really played well, but she's
capable of playing like this all the
time."
Perhaps the most telling statistic
of the game was the number of re-
bounds. Rice out-rebounded the
Bulldogs 52-22.
"Rebounding just killed us," said
UNC-Asheville Head Coach Ray
Ingram. "We got clobbered on the
boards and got an inconsistent ef-
fort, and that killed us."
On Monday, the team played the
first of its two games on the road
trip.
The first stop was in Columbia,
S.C., to face the Lady Gamecocks of
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the University of South Carolina.
Despite some sharp shooting
from a number of players, the Owls
could not overcome even more ac-
curate shooting by USC, as Rice fell
87-71. The win raised South
Carolina's record to 11-11.
McCallum made seven of 11 field
goals and eight of nine free throws
to lead the team with 22 points. She
also grabbed six rebounds, tied for
the team-high with three others.
Mundschau was six-for-nine from
the field for 15 points and also gath-
ered six rebounds.
Senior Guinn was four-for-nine
from the field, including three three-
pointers, for 12 points.
Point guard Kimberly Lalonde
added ten points, six rebounds and a
team-high seven assists.
Unfortunately, these offensive
performances couldn't counteract
the damage inflicted on the Rice
defense at the other end of the court.
The I>ady Gamecocks spent much
of the game shooting bullets' from
behind the three-point line.
South Carolina made 14 of 29
three-point tries and 30 of 62 field
goal attempts overall.
Rice will return home to play
Texas Christian University on Sat-
urday.
TCU looks to be the surest win
on the Owls schedule, with a 1-20
record and without a Southwest
Conference win.
Peter Stokes and the Houston Post
contributed to this story.
Baseball team hits
way to early victories
by Grant Flowers
The hitting prowess displayed by the Rice baseball team so far this
season would make Roy Hobbs proud.
Hobbs, the main character of the 1980's baseball movie 'The
Natural," once knocked the cover off the ball. No covers have been
torn off yet, but the Owls' hitting has led the way to a 4-1 start.
Playing at Cameron Field on Wednesday afternoon against Texas
Southern University, Rice pounded out 20 hits and scored 15 runs in
a shut out victory.
In addition to not allowing a run, the Rice pitching staff didn't give
up a hit until the eighth inning. The Owls also struck out 15 Tigers.
Starter Dana Davis (2-0 on the year) pitched two innings and
struck out four to gain the win.
At the plate, Jose Cruz, Jr. continued his tear, going 2-for-2 with his
sixth home-run of the year. This happened despite the Tigers' policy
of pitching around the Rice star, who walked four times and scored
four runs.
Freshman left fielder Lance Berkman went 4-for-4 on the day and
contribute^ two RBI's to the Rice total. Also doing well were desig-
nated hitter Mark Quinn (3-5with3RBI's) and senior shortstop David
Brooks (3-3, 1 RBI).
Rice hopes that the near-perfect pitching performance, albeit
against winless Texas Southern, will be the first step in attaining
consistently strong outings.
"We'v£ probably had one bad inning a game," said junior Dana
Davis.
"During the fall and the spring, our pitching always looked real
solid and the walks are down a lot. We're looking to have the best staff
we've ever had."
"We've got some young pitchers coming along," said Head Coach
Wayne Graham. "Right now, the main thing is that we need to get
more pitching. We've been up and down but we've had a couple of
good games."
SEE BASEBALL PAGE 15
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Hale, David. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 82, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 17, 1995, newspaper, February 17, 1995; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246504/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.