The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FOR the second consecutive year, a Bahamian player will appear in the Battle 4 Atlantis final.

Tavario Miller and the No.25 ranked Texas A & M Aggies pulled off a major upset over the No.10 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs, 62-61 yesterday in the Atlantis resort’s Imperial Arena.

Miller finished with two rebounds and an assist in just nine minutes of play. “We love Tavario he’s one of our leaders and hardest workers,” said Aggies head coach Billy Kennedy. “He didn’t play the minutes he would have liked to play or I would have liked to play him, it just happens that way sometimes. But he represents his country big time.”

In the final at 3:30pm today, the Aggies are scheduled to face the winner of the Syracuse/Gonzaga matchup.

Danuel House’s free throw with 1:05 left to play gave Texas A & M the lead for good, and the Aggies would eventually storm the court when Silas Melson’s errant jumper clanked off the front iron as time expired.

House finished with a game high 19 points on 6-9 shooting from the field.

“I’m proud of how our team responded,” the senior guard said. “Anytime we have a close game it teaches us how to be poised, how to play under control and how to execute certain sets so we can give ourselves a chance to win the game and today we did that. It gives us a confidence boost but we know we have a tough opponent next game because it’s a quick turnaround.”

Tonny Trochea-Morelos was the only other Aggie in double figures with 14 while Alex Caruso finished with eight points and five assists.

Kyle Wiltjer led Gonzaga with 18 points, Josh Perkins scored 15 off the bench and Przmek Karnowski added 10.

Kennedy said it was key to limit the scoring of the Gonzaga bigs - Wiltjer, Karnowski and Domantas Sabonis - who finished with just two points after a double double in game one.

“Obviously it’s a really big win. I’m really proud of what our guys did defensively down the stretch. Our goal was to hold their three big guys to 30 points or less and we were able to do that,” he said. “Danuel came in and was really efficient offensively. Tonny continues to get better and do great things for us. I really thought everybody who played for us gave us some good team minutes and it was a really good team win. We have taken two steps to where we need to be, but we need to take one more.”

Gonzaga jumped out to a 9-2 lead before House answered with his first three of the game. Closely contested throughout with neither team leading by more than seven, the game featured 12 ties and seven lead changes.

Caruso’s fastbreak layup gave the Aggies their first lead of the game (14-12) at the 14:08 mark.

Gonzaga responded with an 11-2 run keyed by triples from Kyle Dranginis, Melson and Wiltjer.

A & M quickly erased the deficit with a 9-0 run of their own, capped by a Trocha-Morelos layup.

The Colombian native shot an impressive 5-6 from the field, including a perfect 4-4 from three-point range.

His buzzer-beating three from the top of the key as time expired gave the Aggies a 35-32 lead headed into the half.

That momentum continued in the second half, when he connected on back-to-back three pointers and gave the Aggies a 41-34 advantage.

Perkins’ jumper at 5:32 gave Gonzaga a 60-55 lead, but the Aggies would close the game on a 7-1 run.