Tuesday, February 21, 2017

NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Women’s Basketball 2-18-17

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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