With three Aggie sporting events going on today, I picked
this one. Free tickets from work helped
to make that decision, but I really did want to see these girls live one more
time this season. This was their last
home game and Senior Day and my last opportunity to wear my “Back to Back WAC
Champions” t-shirt. Ron was happy to see
the girls again, and I got an extra ticket for him. After a delicious meal at Aggie sponsor, What-a-Burger,
we were at the Pan-Am Center early for the game. The arena filled in well at probably around
1,200. It was a Pack the Pan-Am event,
but way short of last years’ 5,000+. I’m
not entirely sure they were even offering discounted tickets. In any case, given that the university had already
hit up local businesses last month for a similar event, this was likely
the best that could be expected.
As we came in, I looked over at the band section. The brave trumpet player from the last game was now playing away from the group, up in the rafters, as per the
restraining order. He’s still my
hero. In fact, inspired, I brought in my
own signs for Aggie assistant coaches, Ashley Ford and Blanche Alverson,
diagramming my intentions with words and pictures. (These were immediately confiscated at the
door.) I saw these two and Kaylee Neal
in conference before the game at the benches.
They all looked very glamorous and elegant. I’m still dying to know what volleyball
player Kaylee was doing working for the basketball team.
The court was empty when we got there, but soon there was a
profound howling noise coming from the tunnel to the locker rooms. The lights went out, and a camera view on the
video board showed the team coming in doing a war dance, reminding me a bit of
New Zealand’s All-Blacks rugby team pre-game ritual. Below us, I could see Adam Young getting
ready to do the TV broadcast. He was
doing the baseball season opening game yesterday, and he’d be doing the second
half of a double header tonight. On
Sunday, there’s another baseball game and then a softball game on Monday. If Adam likes calling a bunch of different
sports all at once, he must be enjoying himself this weekend.
In a bit of a surprise for me, the seniors on the team were
honored before the game. (The ceremonies
I’ve seen in other sports were done after the game.) Brandee Walton, Tamera William, Tyler Ellis,
Brianna Freeman, and Moriah “Mo” Mack were all brought out with a video and
friends and family, and presented with a mounted jersey. The anthem started right afterward. The players on both teams stood at attention
on court, interlocking arms with their teammates. I noticed two little boys standing by the
band with their arms around each other, looking up at the flag in a Norman
Rockwell-like moment.
The Aggies introduced their starters. Brooke Salas waved to Pistol Pete as she came
out. By this point, Ron was complaining
about standing up and down for all this.
I reminded him, he should also remain standing until the opposing team
scores, which would turn out to be about three minutes into the quarter. This game was again supposedly on ESPN3,
which I’m still skeptical of. Like last time, there were again problems. This time, the shot clocks weren’t
working. They’d come back on here and
there during the quarter, before they finally gave up on them. Later, I noticed another shot clock on the
floor near the band, which is what the teams had to use for this game. The girls on the benches would start shouting
out a 10 second countdown when it came up.
This was an embarrassing problem for a national broadcast.
Things were a bit confusing to start off the first quarter
with the faulty shot clocks. The
referees weren’t helping, as they were calling plenty of tacky fouls. Both teams pressed up court and played up
tempo when they could. The Vaqueros
managed to spread the scoring around.
The Aggies came out mostly cold.
Tamara had two travelling calls against her, and her and Brooke would
finish the quarter with zero total points.
Mo, on the other hand, was on a mission for her last home game. She scored 10 points in 10 minutes. Brandee Walton was brought into the quarter
late. I was glad to see her
playing. It was 18-18 after one quarter.
There were a couple of disturbing announcements. One, a ticket-holder number was announced for
a $10,000 half court shot. I did not
check my ticket. It wasn’t going to be
worth the embarrassment. Two, the
volleyball team was cryptically announced to be playing at the softball field
this afternoon. I may have made the
wrong choice here. I would have liked to
have seen that. (The Aggie PA voice is
great. These things happen to the best
of them.) And with this, we began
quarter number two.
Mo was still putting on a show. She made a great, leaping steal on an inbound
to start the quarter. She did pick up
two quick fouls four minutes in that tempered her play afterward. For all the fouls in the game, neither team
shot particularly well at the free throw line.
Brooke and Tamara were there to pick the team up with a pair of
three’s. Tamara’s three was likely after
the shot clock buzzer, but it was never reviewed or questioned. There was another travelling call, this one
on Tyler. I don’t know if the Aggies
were playing sloppy or if it was the officiating. Brooke turned it up late with a
coast-to-coast layup. Gia Pack came in
and got a steal. Her shot down court
missed, but Brooke picked up the rebound and the score. Gia finished off the half with a three at the
buzzer. 39-30 Aggies at the half.
The half time show featured a little girl dance troop. I missed it, going to the bathroom. I could hear the crowd cheering for them, so
I assume they did a good job. The $10k
half court challenge was a bad, granny shot miss. Ron suggested that he should have done an
overhand throw at it, but I doubt that would have made any difference. There wasn’t even a consolation prize. I’m glad that wasn’t me out there. I could see Pete across the court, playing
with Brianna’s large graduation doll, while hanging out in the boosters’
section.
I should mention that Vaquero bench was their own cheering
section. They kept it up for most of the
game and were good and loud. I
compliment them on their spirit. They
have a pretty international cast with girls from Turkey, Iceland, and
Australia. One of the girls from Turkey (there
were two) had an actual last name of “Turk.”
The girl from Iceland had a ten-syllable last name that the PA was
clearly straining on. The opposing
coach wore in a black suit with a black turtleneck and white-soled tennis
shoes. He looked like he should be
reading poetry in a beatnik bar. UTRGV
has an interesting team.
The third quarter started off with an early three by Brooke. Unfortunately, she picked up her third foul
right after and came out for the quarter.
The Aggies didn’t miss a beat.
The team got three threes before the Vaqueros even scored, driving up
the score to 48-30. There was an injury
on the Vaquero timeout after that run. I
missed it, but one of the cheerleaders fell out on the court. She stayed out and kept performing, but
looked pretty unsteady for the rest of the game. What a trooper.
Later in the quarter, Tamara got my play of the game. She drove the lane, made a beautiful between
the legs dribble, pulled up and hit a jumper.
There was a foul on the shot away from the ball. The Aggies got the ball back and fed it right
back to her, where Tamara drained a three.
Five points on one trip down court.
During a break, Pistol Pete played air guitar in front of us. With two minutes left, the Aggies had a less
successful trip where they made five shots, got four rebounds, and ended up
with zero points for the effort. Tamara
made a turnover on a bad pass. Later,
Gia was given a foul on defense which had the crowd up in arms over the questionable
call. But at the end of the quarter, it
was 66-48 with the Aggies hitting seven three-pointers.
Brooke came back in to start the fourth. Brandee also came in and frankly had a bad
appearance. The coach called her over
for a talk after a foul. She was almost
certainly trying too hard. Moriah’s day wasn’t
done. She made a great assist to Brianna
under the basket. The girl from Iceland
fouled out to the great relief of the PA.
Tamara, always hustling on defense, got a steal, but missed a contested
layup. The ball immediately went back to
the Vaquero end, and there was Tamera, almost getting another steal under their
basket.
A lady behind us was really into the game. There was no radio call for this game, but it
was almost like having it anyway with her commentary. Zaire Williams, who’d been going nuts with
five three-pointers in the game, also had a great pass down court to Brianna,
again under the basket. Brianna Freeman
went out with a bang in her final home game, with 12 points in the fourth
quarter.
With the game well in hand in the last two minutes, Coach
Trakh put all five seniors out on court together. On the next stoppage, they all came off
together to a standing ovation. I got
choked up at the time. I’m even choked
up now just writing about it. The final
was Aggies 87, Vaqueros 67. The Aggies
are 11-0 in conference play with three games left to play. With five players in double digits, my player
of the game is whole team. Nicely done.
Me and Ron hung around for a while after the game. The senior girls got their picture taken on
court with Pete. Four of them were all
smiles, getting flowers and having pictures taken with fans and family. Brandee, God bless her, was crying her eyes
out. I felt so bad for her. She really seems like a tremendous
person. After Brandee graduates, the
university really needs to hire her to do community relations and PR. She’ll double ticket sales, just on her sweet
personality alone. On that note, I’m
going to miss Tamara’s hard work on court and her adorable, ever-present
smile. And for next season, I hope
Brooke can pick up where Moriah has left off in her steady leadership. These girls have really made it easy to root
for the team this season. I’ve really
enjoyed coming out to see them.
Some kids were out taking shots out on court. Ron’s little Aggie “niece” was out
there. She can dribble well and dropped
in a three. Hey, coach! Lock her up now with a commitment. Meanwhile, the actual players didn’t want to
leave the court. Eventually, Coach Trakh
had to repeatedly call them to get them to come off. He left with Brooke next to him as they went
up the stairs out of the arena. Members
of the band where also leaving across the section from them. I think I saw the coach say something to
them. I couldn’t hear it, but I’ll
guess, “Stay away from my blonde!”
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