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Monday, February 12, 2001
Islanders seeking revenge
A&M-CC men want to pay back Belmont
By Matt Young
Caller-Times
It's been more than 30 years since Ronnie Arrow laced up his shoes and played in a college basketball game, but he wishes he still had at least one game of college eligibility left.
If the NCAA were to grant the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi coach one game of eligibility, Arrow would likely use it when his team plays Belmont at 7 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum.
The Islanders are looking for revenge against Belmont after the Bruins got a controversial 117-116 overtime win over A&M-Corpus Christi on Jan. 20 in Nashville.
"There's no doubt, this is a game I wish I could come off the bench and play in," Arrow said. "This is an easy one to get fired up for."
It would be hard to imagine anyone more fired up than Arrow was shortly after the Islanders' loss at Belmont. A&M-Corpus Christi appeared to have earned a 116-115 win over Belmont after Islander center Pathe Diene blocked a Belmont shot out of bounds at the buzzer. As the Islanders celebrated, the officials huddled and decided to put three-tenths of a second back on the clock. With a second chance, Belmont threw an inbounds alley-oop pass to Wes Burtner. As Burtner jumped for the ball, Islander forward Brian Hamilton was whistled for a foul with no time left on the clock. Burtner made both free throws for the win. After the game-winning free throw went down, Arrow sprinted after the officials and chased them out of the gym.
Now, Arrow and the Islanders look at this game as payback time.
"I don't like to hold grudges, I prefer to get even," Arrow said.
In order to get even, A&M-Corpus Christi will have to find an answer to Burtner, the Bruins' leading scorer at 19.8 points per game. Burtner torched the Islanders for 27 points, including four 3-pointers, in Belmont's win earlier this season.
Of course, A&M-Corpus Christi's answer for Burtner will be Michael Hicks, who is second in the nation in scoring at 25.9 points per game.
A win against Belmont would be sweet revenge, but it would also move the Islanders' record back to .500. A&M-Corpus Christi had dropped two games below .500 after two straight losses at Texas-Pan American and Cleveland State. The Islanders got back on track with an easy 89-66 win over Texas College on Saturday.
"Our confidence wasn't down after those two losses, we're just aware of how crucial these last few games are," A&M-Corpus Christi guard Lee Denmon said. "We're under .500 right now, so we have to win the rest of these games to make it a winning season. If we win out, we'll finish two games above .500 and we'll be happy."
Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com
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