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Sunday, January 14, 2001
A&M-CC nabs 90-85 home win
By Mark Zuckerman
Caller-Times
Ronnie McCollum can have the scoring title. Michael Hicks will take a win anyday.
Saturday night's matchup of the top two Division I scorers in the nation lived up to its billing, with Centenary's McCollum pouring in 39 points and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Hicks rebounding from a slow start to finish with 29.
But as most players, and most certainly Hicks, will tell you, all the individual glory means nothing if you don't win the game. And in this case, Hicks emerged the real victor thanks to the Islanders' 90-85 win over the Gents at Memorial Coliseum.
"McCollum's a good player, but Michael Hicks is the man," said A&M-Corpus Christi guard Sennai Atsbeha, who had 15 points and four key 3-pointers. "Mike's doing things no one else can do."
Though the Islanders' senior forward, who came into the evening averaging 26.4 points per game, was outscored by his counterpart in the red uniform, Hicks played a vital role in leading A&M-Corpus Christi (8-9) to its second straight win. Held to just four first-half points, he came out and scored the Islanders' first six points (and 11 of the first 15) in the second half as they opened up a 12-point lead.
"Mike, early in the game, didn't get into it," head coach Ronnie Arrow said. "He did a better job coming and getting to the ball in the second half. And the other guys did a better job getting the ball to him."
As has been the case in several games this year, A&M-Corpus Christi had trouble putting the dagger through its opponents' hearts down the stretch. Behind McCollum's 13-of-25 shooting, the Gents (4-11) cut the lead to 84-83 with 1:09 left.
But the Islanders made enough free throws (28 of 43) in the waning moments to seal the win, and McCollum, looking to tie the game with a 3-pointer, picked up a controversial fifth foul when officials said he elbowed Hicks trying to make a move.
"I didn't think it was a foul, but my opinion doesn't count," Centenary coach Kevin Johnson said. "But it's amazing how they shot 43 free throws and we only shot 25. They were more aggressive than we were."
Behind a barrage of 3-pointers, the Islanders jumped out to an early lead. With the Gents pounding on Hicks with two or three defenders, A&M-Corpus Christi turned to its other shooters for scoring. Atsbeha wowed the Coliseum crowd by drilling three straight 3-pointers to start the game, including a rare 4-point play when he was fouled in the act of shooting.
"That took a lot of pressure off me, because they were doubling Mike," Atsbeha said. "That left me open to shoot the 3's, and that's what I do."
After the initial flurry of shots, Hicks and McCollum took over, turning the game into a back-and-forth show of two of the country's best.
"We should just let those two guys go one-on-one," Arrow said. "I would love to see Mike and him go at it."
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© 2001,
a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
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