If the crowd then was a little sparse then at 646 (according
to tonight’s program), there might have been some cause for stage-fright on
Tuesday as over 1,000 showed up. Okay,
many of the fans were little cheerleader girls, who were doing the halftime
show, and their relations. The Pan-Am
parking lot was full when I got there.
At the start of the game, the little girls came down en mass in brightly
colored, neon streams into the goal end seats.
Speaking of relations, I got poked during the first quarter
by a co-worker who was sitting behind me that I hadn’t seen. She was there for her niece. She apologized for interrupting me. Yeah, there I was with my earpieces in,
listening to the game, keeping a scorecard, and writing notes. This reminds me of that Men’s game I went to
last season (1-21-17), where a couple of other co-workers didn’t come by
and say “Hi” because I looked “intense” watching the game. It is a way different level of concentration
than keeping a baseball scorecard.
Anyway, I tried talking to her for a minute, but it was almost
impossible with the crowd and band noise.
I saw another co-worker go by and yelled and waved, but I couldn’t even
hear myself. Still, it’s a good thing to
have a big crowd.
I had Adam Young
and Nolan Fox in my ear for the
game. They did a good job and it was an
enhancement, but again with the crowd noise, I ended up missing some
interesting commentary about the team. It
ended up not helping me keep score when I couldn’t hear. In the concourse, there were posters with Zaire Williams and Tonishia Childress to go with the Jasmine Cooper one released
earlier. Brooke Salas was on the pocket
schedule. Come on guys, you used the
same picture of her from last year. I’m
still waiting for the poster.
The guy cheerleaders had the large team flags to help bring
out the team from the locker room. The
girl cheerleaders were up in the stands when play started. There was a new PA for the game. The voice was familiar though. I think he does commercials for the
university. A lady with an extremely
cute little dog was sitting down in front.
I really wanted to pet that dog. Also
of note, the band did a really good job on the Anthem tonight.
First Quarter
This was the UTPB Falcons only game against a Division I
opponent this season, so it was their big out-of-conference game. Just to say, they’re a pretty nice-looking
team and coach. A couple of the girls
wore their shorts hiked up, showing off their legs, which wasn’t a bad idea
given how they looked. The Aggies have
another game against a DI team later this year.
The referees seemed like they were in a hurry. They started play before anybody other than
the players were ready. The Aggie fight
song was still playing during the tip-off.
They did have to stop play early on as there were shot clock
issues. Pan-Am guys, get your act
together for the games. This is
embarrassing. At an early break, the PA
announced that the cheerleaders were going to be throwing more stress balls
into crowd, but play was once again started early and the promotion was
canceled. It was like the referees had a
plane to catch.
Gia
Pack started the game off well with a three on her first shot
and two more buckets. She’d go on to
have a great game with 18, but I think that was her only three-point
attempt. I don’t know why she’s not
doing the thing she was best known for last season. Coach Atkinson started putting in the
reserves early as the score became lopsided quickly. Freshman Pam
Wilmore came in and got a couple of buckets. I like her hustle.
The Falcons were firing a lot of air balls in the game. The band taunting them about it seemed
unnecessary. Noise prevented me from
really hearing the comment, but the guys mentioned there was a difference
between DI and DII courts, that might have been causing them problems. Nolan mentioned the Aggies weren’t getting a
lot of rebounds with the misses, because it’s really hard to track an air
ball. 28-11 Aggies after 10 minutes.
Second Quarter
This could be a problem for the rest of the season. Coach Atkinson’s preferred spot to stand
during the game is right in front of Adam and Nolan. They did have trouble seeing a couple of
plays and were dodging around her, trying to get a look. Brooke took her first shot in the second
quarter. She made a three. Unfortunately, she had a pretty quiet day and
did not play much. The guys were a bit
disappointed, but fully expect her to be among the conference leaders in the
scoring by the end of the season. She
still does it on defense. On a trap, she
got a steal, passed to Gia, who finished and got the foul.
Zaire
Williams had a downright bad
day. She seems to be being groomed as a
three-point shooter. Zaire made one in
the next quarter, but was 0 for 4 in this one.
UTPB did pick up their defense and shooting, but the Aggies really
turned up their defense. They were
denying shots to the point of near shot clock violations. 47-26 Aggies.
Pistol
Pete came by. He chatted
with a couple of older ladies in front of me.
They were actually there cheering on the other team. They were from El Paso, but I’m not sure who
of the four El Paso players on the Falcons they were there for. The biggest cheer of the game from the crowd
came when the Sundancers and the Aggie Cheerleaders came out on court
during a break. The little cheerleaders
were impressed with them.
Halftime
The Razzle Dazzle
Cheerleaders came out on court.
About half of their performance was just getting the enormous number of
girls lined up and ready to go. It’s a
good thing I didn’t need to go to the bathroom, because I was surrounded by
parents taking cellphone videos of the performance. The little girls were adorable, of course. It occurs to me that these girls’ ages may
have precipitated the time change for this game to an hour earlier.
Third Quarter
We had a scary moment in this quarter. Gia and Brooke both hit the floor, fighting with
the Falcons over a rebound. Brooke came
up rubbing her head. The Coach took her
out immediately. I think she was
okay. The Aggies started clearing their
bench. Aaliyah Prince came in. She
got a finger roll shot in the lane for her first college points. The bench and starters erupted for her. Adam mentioned she was highly recruited. After a good start, she kept losing the
handle on the ball. Adam thought she was
trying too hard. On the Falcons, Jackie Perez, at 5’3”, was one of the
shorter players on court. Adam and Nolan
were amazed by her play. She collected
at least 7 rebounds by the end of the game.
66-33 Aggies.
Fourth Quarter
The Aggie starters were completely out. The Falcons also used their bench. I think everyone played, except for Tonishia Childress, who was injured. Both teams started off playing up tempo,
running up and down the court. The Coach
immediately called a timeout and presumably told the Aggies to knock it off. I’m sure there was good reason, but I think
everyone left (most of the kids and parents were gone by this point) and myself
would have enjoyed it.
Baylee
Robinson from Roswell came in. She was in a knee brace. Kaeli
Atkinson was in. She’s not related
to the Coach, but was related to another one.
(Again, crowd noise. Couldn’t
hear the story.) 6’4” Aissatou Fall from Senegal was a
presence on court. Adam referred to her
as a “project,” as she was just recently introduced to the game. She also scored her first college points. You can’t teach size, but you can teach the
rest of it.
I was pleased to see El Paso walk-on, Sara Lopez, enter the game. She
was so eager, she forgot to check in first, and the referees made her go back
and do it. Nolan also seemed glad to see
her. He reported that she’s “a gym rat,”
and hangs out there playing pick-up games (which apparently she shouldn’t
be). Sara dominates the guys there. She got a steal and a couple of free throws
and was cheered on from the bench.
Brooke was all smiles for a change.
I think they’re friends off court.
Sara ended up at the line three times and converted on all
her attempts. There’s been a rules
change, that they’re not doing one-and-ones anymore. They’re all two shots on fouls. One last good Aggie play before the end. Pam made a steal and passed to Sara. She either made a great behind-the-back pass
or a bad behind-the-back dribble. Pam
got the ball and finished. Aggies win 85-58.
This game was never hugely in doubt. I didn’t take a large amount of notes. Briana
Caro was the high-scorer for the Falcons with 13. Sierra
LaGrande had three three-pointers in the second half. The team actually had more three’s than two’s
for the game. Like I said, Gia Pack had a great game for the
Aggies in only three quarters. The
twins, Monique and Dominique Mills,
also had great games at 15 and 11 points respectively. More praise for Jeneva Toilolo, who had 8 off the bench. Overall, the defense and rebounding looked
good.
Last game, a gentleman leaving saw me scribbling and told me
to make sure I got everything down.
Tonight, I think it was the same guy came by and asked if I wrote for
the paper. No, I’m just writing to
torture myself in case I accidently enjoy the game too much. (And like a guy from the paper would be
wearing Aggie gear at a game?) Amazingly,
even with the distractions, the scorecard added up for me (after a couple of
tries). No idea if it’s right or not,
but it added up. I would have stayed for
the end of the radio post-game and all the stats, but they turned out the house
lights on me. Somebody really wanted
this game over with quick.
I’ve been overeating on vacation, but I had to try Schlotzsky’s new turkey and cranberry
sauce sandwich. It was pretty good
(along with their ice cream of course).
Somebody else came in after me and used the coupon on the back of an
Aggie ticket. I was miffed though. There’s no radio call for the game versus Lobos on Saturday in Albuquerque. What the heck! No competition for Aggie Football that day I guess.
Postscript
So a couple of days later, I was at the mall and ran into a
senior from last season’s team, Tamera
William, at Auntie Anne’s
pretzel shop. Given that I still have
her signed poster up in my kitchen, I had no trouble recognizing her. Let me get this out of the way first:
Yikes! She’s gorgeous! I’d referred to Tamera as a “cutie” before,
but out of uniform and dressed up, she’s a knockout. She couldn’t have been nicer. It probably helped that I knew her name and
told her I’d met her getting her autograph (and I was wearing an Aggie
hat). I also told her the team could
have used her defense on Sunday. 
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