Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Islanders fall to Flight

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Saturday, November 11, 2000

Islanders fall to Flight
Turnovers plague A&M-CC team in loss
Matt Young
Caller-Times

Johnson

The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team has a week to solve its turnover ills before they infect the regular season.
   The Islanders suffered through a sloppy final exhibition game, turning the ball over 23 times en route to a 78-67 loss to the Houston Flight on Friday at Memorial Coliseum.
   A&M-Corpus Christi, which won its only other exhibition game despite committing 26 turnovers last week, opens the regular season against Texas-Arlington on Saturday at the coliseum.
   "We've got a lot of work to do," A&M-Corpus Christi coach Sheryl Estes said. "We knew we had some work to do even after we won that last game. We can see on film that there's just a lot of things that we're not doing well right now. Taking care of the ball is just one of the things we have to figure out before the regular season starts."
   Fortunately for the Islanders, they won't have to figure out a way to stop Debra Williams in the regular season. Williams, who played at Louisiana Tech and in the now-defunct ABL, lit up A&M-Corpus Christi for 23 points. Williams, who had been averaging more than 30 points a game in the Flight's previous exhibitions, wasn't shy, putting up 23 shots, including eight 3-point attempts.
   "Her dribble would be dead, so we'd back off and she'd just shoot," Islander point guard Mandie Vinck said. "Every time you'd think she had to pass, she'd shoot anyway."
   Detra Johnson, who was coming off a slight knee injury, led the Islanders with 17 points. Jean Clark added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Islanders.
   A&M-Corpus Christi was the Flight's second straight victim on its exhibition tour. The Flight beat Lamar 77-69 Wednesday.
   "I thought we played a little like we were intimidated by them for some reason," Estes said. "(Flight's) experience showed a lot, while our inexperience showed at times."
   Part of that inexperience showed itself early when the Islanders didn't appear ready to play. The Flight scored the first eight points of the game and never relinquished the lead.
   The Flight opened up its lead to as much as 14 in the second half, before a 12-0 Islander run cut the lead to two. The Islander run was fueled by two 3-pointers from newcomer Jessie Monlux. It took just four minutes before the Flight stretched that lead back to double digits.
   The loss left the Islanders looking forward to a tough week of practice before the start of the regular season.
   "We'll bounce back from this," Vinck said. "We're a tough team. We know we have a whole week of practice to fix our problems. We'll be ready for the first game."



Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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