(You have get a Men's program to get this roster picture.)
Welcome to early Groundhog Day. A lot of this post is going to mirror last
years’ matchup between the Aggies
and the Chicago State Cougars (1-7-17). Starting off, the crowd
was about the same. Ron was with me, and
I showed him the program that had official attendance for last week’s game (12-31-17) at over 700. He found
that very unlikely. I also questioned
the similar number for the previous Friday game (12-29-17). Whatever.
I’d guess this crowd was about 800 then, which was the same as last
year. The students are still gone and
the NFL playoffs were on.
I picked up a very cool Arizona
Bowl poster in the concourse, so I was glad I came. We got there way too early. Nobody was even warming up on court. Adam
Young looked rather forlorn over at the broadcaster’s table. I was rather forlorn after he announced that
there wouldn’t be any more Women’s Basketball radio broadcasts until
March. The Band wasn’t there. There wasn’t even the usual complement of
ball girls. The Old Man wasn’t in
attendance. I hope he’s okay. However, there was a full group of Cheerleaders and Pistol Pete. Old Pete was
chatting up one of the lady refs before the game. Oh, Pete.
You charmer.
Last year’s game had the Aggies scoring
100 and winning by 37. Chicago State had
only brought six players and one of them got hurt in the first quarter. This time at least, there were 10 listed on
the program, but Ron only counted eight warming up. During the game, Adam mentioned one of
the Cougars also played on their volleyball team. I missed the name then, but at home I was
able to check my volleyball programs and saw it was Alexandria Cliff. Hmm. Funny thing, I didn’t go to that game, so I
don’t know how I got a program. I wonder
if she’s always played both sports, or was pressed into duty from one sport to
the other.
I once again noticed the very tall and
beautiful assistant coach with the team.
Last year, I’d hoped her and likewise gorgeous Aggie assistant coach, Blanche Alverson (whom Coach Trakh took with him to USC),
might suit up and come into the game.
(The game was out-of-hand anyway.
Why not?) Also like last year,
the Aggie Men were playing Chicago
State in Chicago at the same time. It
was 42-34 Aggies at halftime. Jack Nixon interviewed former Aggie, Shawn Herrington. He’s gone back to work after getting shot and
paralyzed last year.
Adam made no effort to build up the opposition. The Cougars’ were winless this season and had
a 51-game losing streak. I didn’t hear
anything in the Women’s pre-game show about Chicago State’s financial problems,
but I’m assuming it’s still an issue. Coach Atkinson said they were going to
being sensitive and respectful to Chicago State in her interview. Coach Trakh was similarly gracious in his
comments about them. I’m not sure how
that actually influenced any decision-making in the game though. Their players and coaches have to hate
opponents saying things like that and even more hate not being able to really
compete.
First Quarter
Tonishia Childress
was again starting instead of Monique
Mills. Actually after introductions,
the house lights didn’t come until right before the tipoff. Adam was having flashbacks to that volleyball
game last year (9-8-17) where they were out for 20 minutes. I wasn’t there, but was listening over the
radio and I almost felt like I was.
(Nice job broadcasting, Adam.) If
that had happened again, I doubt both teams would have been out on the floor
doing the Electric Slide like the volleyball girls did.
The Aggie Men were pouring it on in Chicago. In Las Cruces, Chicago State was more than
holding its own. Freshman Tyeshia Bowers, the Cougars’ best
scorer went down early with an apparent twisted ankle, just like last year when
one of their players was injured early.
The Aggies looked disorganized at times.
The worst example came when Monique came in and a set pass flew right
behind her as she was running to another spot.
Later back at the bench, Mo looked like a player that had lost her
confidence. This seems like a coaching
issue.
Early on, the Aggies seemed to be making an effort to feed Brooke Salas the ball. She was 22 points away from 1,000. She scored six in the first. Gia
Pack gave her a great pass on a fast break for one of those baskets. The biggest cheer from crowd came from Zaire Williams making a flying
block. Adam pointed out she was the
shortest player on the court at the time.
It was a tight affair after 10 minutes, 17-15 Aggies.
Second Quarter
The Men were up by 25 in their game. Bowers was back out for the Cougars. She was running hard down court on her first
play, so she was okay or had a very high tolerance for pain. Baylee
Robinson came in for the Aggies. I
get the impression that the coach really wants to get her more playing time. She’s a big presence in the lane and is
already a junior, being a transfer player.
The Cougars were making shots and the Aggies were again not
getting theirs to fall in, much like the UC-
Santa Barbara game.
At 25-18 Cougars, their bench went crazy. Timeout Aggies. The Cougars managed to increase their lead to
10. Monique came back in and hit a
three. That was good to see. The Aggie defense stayed tough and forced a
shot clock violation on one possession.
Brooke got a steal, but tripped and hit the floor hard. We all got worried. She was okay, but that probably left a
mark. She came out before the end of the
quarter and looked gassed. It was 32-17
Chicago State at the half. It was good
the Aggies had closed the gap, but the Cougars had to be feeling this could be
the day their losing streak might end.
Halftime
Just after this game reached halftime, PA Kevin (the new guy that was a former co-worker of mine) announced
that the Men had won in Chicago, 97-60. I really hadn’t been following the game, but
the outcome didn’t surprise me as I’d gotten updates. I only caught that Joe Garza had scored six in the postgame. Coach
Jans sounded a lot more relaxed in the interview than I’d heard him in
previous interviews.
The halftime entertainment was a game of
“bungie-basketball.” They’d picked a
couple for the event. The guy basically dragged
his girl down the court to score. She
had remarkably good humor about it, since she was likely getting the prize
cooler either way.
Third Quarter
Oddly given what happened next, it was almost two minutes
before either team scored. Brooke put up
an airball from ten feet. Adam was quite
shocked and sure that the ball was actually partly blocked, but unacknowledged
by the ref. Then the flood gates
opened.
It started with Zaire getting a great assist to Brooke in
transition. Timeout. The Cheerleaders got abused again on
back-to-back timeouts, as a media timeout came up right after. Then Brooke popped a three. Monique got a block and a three. She was looking more energetic later on the
sidelines. Brooke dropped another
three. She was all smiles with her
teammates. It was great to see her
happy. The crowd was loving it as the
Aggies had erased the deficit.
After back-to-back changes of possession at midcourt, Brooke
put up another bucket. She was up to
20. At the last second of the quarter, she
dropped another. That was #1,000 for
her. They made an announcement going
into the break, which got the crowd into it.
Oddly last year, Brianna Freeman also scored her
one-thousandth point for the program in this matchup. That was in her senior year. Brooke is a junior. Her two points also gave the Aggies a
one-point lead, 50-49.
Fourth Quarter
There was no stopping her now. Brooke opened up with a steal and two more
points. Then a rebound and a foul and
two more points. Gia made a no-look pass
to a wide-open Brooke under the basket.
There were two more. The crowd
roared. Ron was smiling in satisfaction. The Aggies started pulling away.
The Cougars were making little mistakes on court. I’m going to say it was likely because they
were tired, since they couldn’t properly substitute. I can’t fault their effort or skill or even
their mindset. Like I wrote last year,
this is a good team, but in bad circumstances.
With the lead, the Aggies turned up the defense. They went to a full-court press, which confused
the Cougars. They called a time out to
escape it once. They couldn’t make it
across the timeline the next time for a turnover. Finally, they broke the trap next time and
managed to get it to Bowers for an uncontested layup.
Meanwhile, Brooke got another rebound and two more
points. She followed that with a steal
and an assist to Tonishia. Bowers fouled
out after an heroic effort today. I
think I heard her getting a round of applause from the crowd. (I was applauding her.) Ines
Mata Boix for the Cougars also came out before the end. She may have been injured on the arm, rather
than fouling out. She was definitely
looked in pain on the bench. She put in
a good effort too. The last minute got
sloppy and up tempo, but it didn’t affect the outcome. 74-59
Aggies was our final. Unlike last
year, this was a much tighter game. The
Aggies subs weren’t in playing out the fourth quarter this time.
I realize this post sounded like a homily praising the
greatness of Brooke Salas. Well today, she was the team, doing it all
over the court. She scored more than
twice as many points as anyone else (33 points). She was getting rebounds, steals, and
assists. Brooke, you played well and had
fun out there. You can do both. I was
encouraged to see her passing the ball.
If we look back on this game after the season, perhaps we’ll say this is
when Brooke became the leader for the team and made her teammates better in the
process. Maybe. Not that Brooke was going to sneak up on
anybody in the conference, but after this game, she’ll have a bull’s-eye on
her. If I was in charge of any of those opponents,
I’d double-team the blonde for the whole game and dare the other girls to beat
me. This is why Brooke needs to look for
every opportunity to help them score.
I felt genuinely bad for Chicago State. Their 52-game losing streak is undeserved
based on the players they have. If I’d
seen them win, I would have felt good for them.
(And really worried about the rest of the Aggies’ season. Coach Atkinson should be mentally thanking
Brooke for pulling their rears and her job out of the fire today.) I have to praise Tyeshia Bowers’ 27-point effort today. I thought she was done in the first quarter,
but you could feel her determination out on court for the rest of the game. The key stat for the day seemed to 25
turnovers for Chicago State. They can
work on that, but I don’t know what they can do about their lack of players.
Athletic Director Mario
Moccia and his famous little daughter, Twitterless
Gemma, came in late and sat behind the Chicago State bench (?). That Twitterless Gemma nickname gets a chuckle
out of me every time. Ah, daddy-daughter
time at the ball game. I’m guessing he
wanted to talk to the Cougars’ long-time coach, Angela Jackson, after the game.
I’m sure he congratulated Brooke too.
After the game, Ron and I went to Subway to use a gift card I’d gotten for Christmas. I bit into my meatball and was shocked. The bread was fresh! I hadn’t had fresh bread at Subway since the
90’s. This is a potential game-changer
for my fast-food consumption. Was this a
fluke or a franchise mandate? Well, good
game, Aggie victory, and a good meal. It
was a good Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment