Texas A&M
vs Louisiana-Monroe
Weary Aggies Fall to Louisiana-Monroe, 76-61
Dec 22, 2001 | Men's Basketball
December 22, 2001
After an impressive win against Purdue on Friday in the third round of the Las Vegas Classic, Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins hoped his team had turned a corner.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Louisiana-Monroe Indians were waiting around that corner in Saturday?™s final round. The Indians (4-5) held off the Aggies (6-6) for a 76-61 victory in to capture seventh place in the round-robin tournament at Valley High School.
"I didn?™t feel good about this game coming in," Watkins said. "We just didn?™t have enough energy today. We were leg weary after playing the late game Friday night and that surely affected our shooting. We have a bunch of guys who are nursing injuries and mentally we just were not ready to handle the challenge."
The Aggies played without sophomore Jesse King, who suffered a bruised knee on Friday, and senior Andy Leatherman, who did not make the trip after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery last week. Nick Anderson played with a sprained ankle and Bernard King was nursing a strained groin and a thigh bruise.
"We had a bunch of distractions that you don?™t like to have and we are just not mature enough to handle stuff like that," Watkins said.
The Indians took a 31-25 lead at halftime, then extended the lead to 42-30 just four minutes into the second half. But the weary Aggies, playing in the early game on the tournament?™s final day after beating Purdue in the late game on Friday, charged back to tie the game at 46-46 with 10:49 left, thanks largely to a trio of three-point field goals by Anderson.
Louisiana-Monroe regained control behind a flurry of points by forward Brian Lubeck, who finished with a game-high 28 points and 12 rebounds, and assumed a 63-54 lead with 5:20 left. A&M?™s Michael Gardener and Bernard King scored consecutive baskets to trim the margin to 63-58 with 3:35 left.
The Aggies fouled the Indians?™ 7-foot-2 center Wojciech Myrda on the next possession, and Myrda missed the front end of the one-and-one, but A&M?™s Andy Slocum and Anderson battled each other for the rebound, causing Anderson to travel and commit one of the Aggies?™ 18 costly turnovers.
From there, the Indians scored seven unanswered points for a 70-58 lead with just 2:53 left. The Aggies closed to within 70-61 at the 2:00 mark, but the Indians finished the game with a 6-0 run for the final margin. The win was Louisiana-Monroe?™s first against a Big 12 Conference team.
Anderson finished with 19 points to lead the Aggies, while Bernard King, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored 12. Slocum added 10 points and 10 rebounds, his first career double-double. The Aggies posted a 42-36 rebounding edge, but made just 35.5 percent from the field to 47.5 percent by the Indians.
After a short break for Christmas, the Aggies play North Carolina on Dec. 30 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
"We need to step away a few days and see if we can mend ourselves and get our spirit back," Watkins said. "We were making strides, but we are just not tough enough to play three straight tournament games like this."
