NM State Aggies vs Utah Valley Wolverines Women’s Basketball 1-28-17

This was new.  I was standing in line waiting to get a ticket for the game.  There was even a queue to get into the arena.  The parking lot in front of the Pan-Am Center looked fairly full.  Inside, there was a bigger crowd than I had seen the last couple of times.  I’m not sure what official paid attendance was, but there might have been nearly 1,000 people there.  I’m chocking this up to the girls holding a kid’s basketball clinic before the game.  I told a couple people at work about it.  They were interested for their kids, but unable to go.  I admit I would have liked to have seen this clinic from the floor-level and been able to listen to the girls’ instruction.  I’m sure it was 100% adorable. 

The Aggie women are still undefeated in conference play after an OT game on Thursday.  Moriah Mack and Brooke Salas both had career games with 26 points (as per the newspaper coverage).  I missed that game coverage (and the men’s game).  The last game I saw was via the Internet at Grand Canyon University on their Youtube channel.  During a pre-game before a men’s game, Athletic Director Mario Moccia, mentioned being amazed that he could watch the girls play at Bakersfield over the Internet.  I guess this explains why NM State doesn’t offer the same service.  (They may offer it as a pay service.) 

Today’s game was, according to the schedule, being broadcast on ESPN3.  There was a long desk with a shelf on top on the sidelines, which looked new for the game.  The breaks in play certainly ran longer than usual.  I didn’t see anything that said “ESPN” there though, and everything on the monitors I could see said it was WAC network game.  Adam Young wasn’t doing a radio call today, but was across the court, doing TV.  A couple of my co-workers at the men’s game last week, saw me with my earplugs in and taking notes and said I looked, “intense.”  I was probably more so today without the radio helping my scoring and notes.  Another co-worker questioned why I was listening to a radio call of a game I was at.  A good radio call adds to the game experience, and I wasn’t there with a couple of kids like she was.            

(Photo from the Las Cruces Sun-News)

I settled in with my lightly salted pretzel with cheese and a drink and stinging a bit from it all being a bit overpriced.  I saw several of the Aggie girls were now wearing black leggings under their shorts.  The newspaper pictures had warned me.  I assume they help keep their legs warm, because they certainly weren’t a fashion statement.  On that note, assistant coaches Blanche Alverson and Ashley Ford looked cool and elegant.  (I admit they fascinate me.)  I noticed Tamara William on court had undone her braids and looked nice with just her hair tied back.  Jeneva Toilolo I think had some pretty new highlights in.  This is the kind of coverage I don’t do for the men’s team. 

Across the court, I noticed that today’s opponent, the Utah Valley Wolverines, had 14 players on the scorecard.  What a change from Chicago State bringing six players.  Their warm up was interesting as their assistant coaches took part.  There was a young man in jeans, two men in ties with their jackets off, and an attractive woman in heels with a jacket on, out on court passing the ball around to the girls.  It’s a hands-on staff. 

The Roadrunner Review band was sounded good and rev’ed up today.  They were the loudest cheering section for the game.  In addition to the cheerleaders and Pistol Pete, the Sundancers were even present.  As usual, there was little to no interaction between the two spirit squads.  The cheerleaders took the court several times during the game, but the Sundancers only performed by the south basket.  The dancers fell into a couple of good coordinated dancing routines, but mostly shook their pom-poms and looked good, while the cheerleaders did flips and made human pyramids.  (I’m just waiting for a fight to break out.)

                                           

The video board montage was back on for today’s game.  The kids from the clinic were on court for the intros.  The starters ran through a pair of lines of maybe 100 little kids altogether, giving them high-fives along the way.  And with that, we begin.  Last week, I was flipping stations during football and ran into a nationally broadcast college women’s basketball game between Mason and the University of Richmond, both of the A-10 conference.  I was amazed by the score and the time elapsed.  It took nearly five minutes before somebody finally scored.  It wasn’t even the defenses.  Both teams were taking terrible-looking shots.  I was flashing back to that game as this one started badly for both teams.   

They were playing very uptight on offense.  Unlike that other game, it may have been the defenses that were stifling the shooting.  The Wolverines were small, but very quick on defense in the half-court.  The Aggies were using their height advantage and a full-court press.  The Wolverines scored first on a three.  I think I counted five Aggie trips down court before they finally scored.  Moriah Mack (“Mo”) made a steal and a layup for the first Aggie points, four minutes in.  That first quarter score on my scorecard is correct.  It was 7-7 after 10 minutes. 

If ESPN3 was broadcasting this, they couldn’t have been happy.  The quarter also had lots of fits and starts with constant stoppages.  Neither team found a rhythm.  I, on the other hand, had a great quarter.  Pistol Pete came by and liked my custom hat.  Sweet validation!  During the stoppages, I also noticed a much shorter, attractive young woman on the Aggie sidelines with the assistants with very long, pretty hair.  She was dwarfed in the team huddles.  The girl looked familiar and indeed she was.  It was Kaylee Neal from the volleyball team.  A gentleman who spoke to her after the game confirmed it when I asked him.  Craving news of the volleyball team, I would talked to her myself, if I’d had the opportunity.  In any case, I wonder why Kaylee was there working with team.  She didn’t appear to be into being there, so maybe it was class assignment or work experience.

In the second quarter, Brooke made a second bad pass into traffic for a turnover and was then taken out after a bad foul.  She had a brief animated discussion on the sidelines with Coach Trakh.  I bring this up now to preface what will happen later.  After Brooke came out, Brianna Freeman took a beautiful pass under the basket for a bucket.  (Sorry, I didn’t get the player assisting.)  Tamara went coast-to-coast on the next possession, but the run ended quickly.  Utah Valley had picked up their defense and was actively trapping isolated players.  Their tenacious interior defense was stifling any easy passes inside near the basket.  Gia Pack came in off the bench, but didn’t have her shooting touch from the outside. 

Zaire Williams hit a three for a momentary spark late in the quarter, but Mariah Seals of the Wolverines answered it immediately with another three.  Late in the quarter, Mo made a highlight reel, behind-the-back pass to Gia, who hit an open three.  There was a sub-last-second shot by the Aggies that was waved off on review.  22-21 Aggies at the half. 

At halftime, the Aggie equestrian team was announced to have won today versus Texas A&M, the number one team in the nation.  The NMSU equestrian team is the school’s only nationally-ranked sports program.  In other news, they’re also officially being disbanded after this season.  Ah, well.  The halftime show featured a large number of little kids bouncing basketballs.  They are a team called the Pistoleros.  Very cute.  Our halftime stats had the Aggies shooting 35%.  Utah Valley, however, was only shooting 27%.  Both were 25% on threes and in double digits in turnovers.  The Wolverines had the advantage in rebounds, in spite of being generally smaller.      

               

For the third quarter, the Aggies came out motivated.  Tamara beautifully fed Brooke in the lane for points.  Mo made a two so quick, I missed it while scribbling notes.  Tamara got a steal and layup.  The team got three rebounds on one trip, though they came up empty on that possession.  Brianna took great pass down low for a bucket.  I wasn’t sure why, but Brooke got chewed out by the coach after that play. 

The crowd started getting a little unruly as the refs made some unpopular calls.  I had Statler and Waldorf directly behind me, giving a steady stream of commentary.  During a timeout, there was an air guitar contest, and I briefly jammed with Pistol Pete.  He was a one-man cheering section in this quarter, going everywhere, getting the crowd into it.

After two rebounds on a possession, Mo put it away from point blank.  Britta Hall on the Wolverines made the best shot of the game with three from the corner, but the Aggies started pulling away here.  Utah Valley’s Leya Harvey fouled out.  The crowd knew it before the announcement and started serenading her.  She was not happy.  The player was in for much of the game and had accumulated five fouls with zero points.  If this was hockey match, I could tell you why she was out there.  As the quarter ended, the Aggies absolutely shut down the Wolverines on offense, nearly causing a shot clock violation.  48-36 Aggies.

The band played a great version of “I want candy” with a trumpet solo during the break.  The Aggies came back out still focused on defense and forced couple more shot clock violations.  The offense wasn’t lacking either.  Brooke was on fire from outside the arc, hitting threes.  She also got a great assist to Tyler Ellis inside for a basket. 

During a timeout, hats were tossed into the crowd.  I noticed there were a couple of people at the desk who would hold up a finger to let the refs know when they were about to come out of break and when to allow play to resume.  Jeneva picked up her fourth foul and got a quick lecture from the coach.  No doubt he doesn’t want to be like that Wolverine player that fouled out.  Tamara was also in foul trouble and had a quiet game.  She did get a great pass to Moriah Mack for her 1,000 point.  There was a timeout and the crowd gave her a round of applause with the announcement.

    

Even having two more players, the Aggies seemed to have worn out the Wolverines by the fourth.  The Aggies were up by 20 at one point.  Sweetness herself, Brandee Walton came in for the last minute of the game, while across court, Adam Young put on his jacket for the TV post game.  Our final was 63-46 Aggies.  I haven’t named a player of the game in a while for some reason, but today it’s an easy one.  Brooke Salas put in 24 points, including five three-pointers in the second half alone.  She’s only a sophomore.  If Brooke stays healthy, she likely gets even better as she plays more.  Thanks to the Aggie PA announcer for being very diligent today calling the game so that I could keep up.  The girls’ last two weekend games have conflicts with Aggie softball and baseball, but I really hope to at least see the senior day game.