I missed the ladies’ Monday home game win
against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. I was really busy coming back to work from
vacation and didn’t expect a Monday game.
I still feel bad about it. It was
a good, close win. I was able to catch
their next two games, which were part of the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic invitational in El Paso. The Aggies
would not be playing UTEP in either
of these games, however. I listened to
these games over the radio.
I was busy in the morning on Black Friday
after Thanksgiving. While I was back in
time to start watching a morning hockey game before the basketball, I was so
busy with housekeeping duties, I basically wasn’t able to watch. This was too bad, since it was a great game
between the Bruins and Penguins. The Bruins took it 4-3 with a third period goal.
I saw one of the players give his stick away to the crowd at the end of
the match. Meanwhile on another station,
unranked Pitt, having a losing
season, beat #2 and undefeated Miami
24-14 in college football. Crap!
I just lost $10,000 on that “sure thing.” Just kidding, but that was interesting to
watch the end of.
The Aggies’ game was against the Texas Southern Tigers. I don’t know anything about them. Whenever I think I’ve heard of every college
team, a new one to me pops up to play the Aggies. In the first quarter, the Aggies came out hot
and getting turnovers. They went up by 9
at one point, but the Tigers came back and ended up equal in turnovers. 17-14 Aggies after 10 minutes. For the second, both teams came out cold with
lots more turnovers and misses. 25-24
Aggies.
Gia Pack came out firing in
the third, and the Aggies went up by 7. Brooke Salas put in three three-pointers
and the team went to a pressure defense.
It was actually quiet enough there that you could clearly hear Aggie Coach Atkinson on the sidelines. (Thankfully, she didn’t say anything
off-color.) By the end of the quarter,
the Aggies were up by 12, 46-34. It was
all looking good.
Our final score was 66-50 . . . Texas Southern! I
don’t think Adam Young even gave the
final score after the buzzer. What the
hell happened? How do you lose by 16,
when you’re up by 12 at the end of the third quarter? I was listening and I can’t even tell
you. Well, Gia Pack and Monique Mills were hurt during the
game, but I don’t think that was it. The
Coach was terse afterward, so there wasn’t much of an explanation there. The Aggies won the turnover battle, but were
-10 in rebounding. Brooke Salas had 25 points to lead the Aggies. Only four Aggies scored. On the other side, two players were
responsible for 53 of the Tigers’ points.
Let’s forget about this one and reset for tomorrow.
Okay, it’s tomorrow (Saturday). The Aggies were facing the Arkansas Razorbacks. They lost to UTEP on Friday. The Razorbacks were down by 20 at one point,
but came back in the fourth and only lost by 3.
In the first quarter, Brooke
Salas came out shooting well, but picked up two fouls early and sat out the
second quarter. Jeneva Toilolo contributed well off the
bench. 17-11 Aggies. The Razorbacks made a bunch of
uncharacteristic turnovers. They were
leading the nation in not making turnovers. Both teams came out pretty cold in the
second, but the Aggies held the lead, 25-23.
In the third, the Razorbacks found their
shot and went up by 11. It was 47-40
Arkansas after 30 minutes. The fourth
was hard-fought. Jeneva got a big basket
to cut the lead to 2. Zaire Williams made a near half-court
shot in the last minute to cut it to 6, but the final was 69-60 Razorbacks. Gia Pack was the Aggie
high-scorer. Brooke was second with a
double-double. For these two games, the
Aggies just didn’t have a closeout defense to finish off their opponents. They’re going to have to work on that.
Right after the game, I turned over to KROD out of El Paso to see if the Miners
were playing right afterward. They were,
but a half-hour later, which conflicted with Aggie Football. I didn’t
find out it was on until late in the third quarter. While I had a rooting interest in the
football, the basketball game was probably better. If only one could know ahead of time when a
sporting event was going to be interesting.
UTEP and Texas Southern were
tied halfway through the fourth, but the Miners pulled ahead and won 65-55.
It sounded like there was a good, enthusiastic crowd there for the
game. The Lady Miners are 4-0 on the
season so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment