November 11, 2005
The Texas A&M men's basketball team will play NCAA Division II power Texas A&M-Commerce in its final exhibition game on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
Admission is free for fans donating a spare coat or blanket to the Athletic Department's annual coat drive. The drive benefits Twin City Missions in Bryan. Aggie Athletes Involved will be accepting the items at the main entrance at Reed Arena.
The Aggies beat Arkansas Tech, 96-49, in their first exhibition game last Saturday. The Lions opened their exhibition season with a 99-93 double-overtime win on Thursday against Stephen F. Austin.
The Lions finished 28-5 last season, winning the Lone Star Conference, finishing the regular season with a No. 5 national ranking and advancing to the regional finals in the NCAA Division II Championship.
The preseason pick to repeat as LSC champions, the Lions are led by senior guard Jermart Miller (5-10), the preseason LSC player of the year, who averaged 16.7 points last season. Miller scored 18 points against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday.
The Lions also return senior forward Chris Fantroy (6-7), who averaged 9.8 points and a team-best 6.2 rebounds as a junior. Fantroy, junior forward P.J. Hatcher (6-4) and junior guard Lamar Searight (6-1) each added 18 points against Stephen F. Austin.
?We are facing a really good opponent,? A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. ?They won 28 games last year and won at Stephen F. Austin on Thursday night. They are hard to guard off the dribble and shoot the ball very well.?
A&M returns two players who earned All-Big 12 honors last season in junior Acie Law and sophomore Joseph Jones. Law scored 21 points while Jones added 27 against Arkansas Tech last week.
A&M freshman Josh Carter also had an impressive debut, scoring 14 points and making 4-of-6 three-pointers. Carter's brother, Kevin, completed his eligibility at A&M-Commerce last season.
?We've got a lot of work to do and want to see improvement every day,? Gillispie said. ?We're still working on combinations as well as what to do and when to do it. We're still learning to play together as a team.?
The Aggies lead the series, 3-1, but the teams have not met since the 1979-80 season, when A&M-Commerce was known as East Texas State. A&M won that game, 85-42, at G. Rollie While Coliseum.
A&M opens the regular season on Nov. 20 against Southern at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.