November 16, 1998
The Texas A&M men's basketball team will meet the California All-Stars in their final exhibition game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door.
The Aggies (1-0) defeated North Texas, 80-59, in their regular season opener on Friday at Reed Arena, also the Aggies' first game under head coach Melvin Watkins, who celebrated his 44th birthday on Sunday. On Nov. 8, the Aggies defeated the Australia All- Stars, 92-86, in their first exhibition game.
A&M resumes its regular season schedule on Thursday with its first road game against Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. in Nacogdoches.
The California All-Stars (2-11) have won only two games on their 14-game tour, an 80-72 win against Hawaii to open their schedule and a 93-85 win against Fresno State. They have lost close games to Texas-El Paso (90-84), New Mexico (102-101) and Nevada (83-80). The California All-Stars' roster consists of 10 former college players, including former Colorado standout Fred Edmonds, Gonzaga's Lorenzo Rollins and DePaul's Nathan Howard. Rollins has averaged 18.7 points per game in the team's last three outings.
The Aggies were led against North Texas by All-Big 12 Conference candidate Shanne Jones, who scored 25 points with eight rebounds, the most opening-game points by an Aggie since Damon Johnson scored 25 against New Mexico to open the 1992-93 season.
Newcomers Clifton Cook and Paul Jacobs, both junior college transfers, also had impressive openers, each posting a double-double. Cook scored 12 points with 10 assists while Jacobs had 10 points and 10 rebounds. The last Aggie to record a double-double in his debut was Donald Thompson, who scored 17 points with 10 boards against Oklahoma in 1987-88. Cook and Jacobs are the first pair of newcomers to post double-doubles in the same opener in A&M history.
Senior guard Chris Clayton also had a solid opener against North Texas, finishing with 11 points. Sophomore guard Michael Schmidt scored seven points with five assists.
As a team, A&M connected on 49.2 percent from the field to only 30.0 percent by the Eagles, and posted a 51-44 rebounding edge. The one negative statistic was the Aggies' 22 turnovers. A&M also made 76.2 percent from the free throw line, its best since making 78.9 percent against Kansas State in the 1996-97 season.