“We’re the fourteenth car in the parking lot, dude!” Ron and I arrived at the Pan-Am Center early and the place looked kind of deserted. I remember going to this game with this
matchup with the Western New Mexico
Mustangs on New Year’s Eve last year with a fear of being the only
person there. Certainly Friday’sgame had me legitimately worried. There
was an electronic sign at the entrance welcoming the Football team Saturday morning and saying “We’re proud of
you.” Given their very late arrival in
Las Cruces from Tucson, this was the best the university could do. Hopefully, there will be a proper ceremony at
some point with the fans involved. Once
inside, Ron started counting individual fans.
Thankfully, at least enough eventually showed up for it to be a kind of
lousy crowd, instead of embarrassing. I
might have thought they’d invite the Football team to the game to be honored,
but this wasn’t the day for that.
One of the fans there was Danny, who I’d met at the soccer
matches this year. I chatted with him
for a minute. He also follows Western NM
sports. “At least they’re consistent:
they never win.” Yeah, they were 0-12
for the season, 1-34 going back to last year.
This was just an exhibition game for them. It didn’t count for their record. They were seriously not expecting to win. Ron was scouting their team while they were
practicing. One of their girls was
shooting the lights out behind the arc.
She didn’t start and just made a couple of appearances in the game
though. He liked their energy, while the
Aggie girls looked listless and lethargic.
The Mustangs were fairly short.
Their tallest player, who reminded me of Megan Hart on our Volleyball
team, was injured and not suited up.
Adam Young was
there doing the radio. He provided some
more stats from the Friday game, namely that the team went 1 of 15 in shooting
three’s. Jasmine Cooper did have a career high in scoring though. His talk with Coach Atkinson focused on praise for Tonishia Childress. (I’d
think Coop would have merited a little love after her performance.) The Coach liked Tonishia’s enthusiasm during
the game and in practice and would be starting her over, usual starter, Monique Mills. Okay, no offense to Tonishia, but this seemed
more like a shot at Mo than someone else earning the spot. I’m sure I’ll never know what the problem is,
but I do know that Mo can play well and I want her starting. Unfortunately, there was no explanation for
the poor team shooting by Adam or the coach.
Pistol Pete and a
full complement of Cheerleaders
arrived on time for this game. One of
the girls was in a cast with a broken leg.
The guy I’ve called the “Aggie commercial voice” was doing the PA. And we were all set for basketball.
First Quarter
Brooke Salas
looked good today. She got a steal and
an assist to Gia Pack. She made a mid-court steal and a no-look,
behind the back pass down court. When
the resulting layup missed, she got the rebound and the basket. She got a block late in the quarter. I also have a have a cryptic, scribbled note
about an assist to Jeneva Toilolo. It must have been good, because there’s a
star by it. This is the kind of
leadership quality I’ve been looking for in Brooke. Not just playing well, but making her
teammates better as well. Unfortunately,
there was one troubling stat for her.
This would be the second game in a row for Brooke without a three, in
spite of several attempts.
Monique did come in eventually, along with her sister Dominique Mills. I hadn’t seen them in a while before
Friday. I think they’d both had their
hair highlighted. At 22-6 Aggies,
freshmen Pam Wilmore and Kaeli Atkinson came in. 26-13 Aggies after ten minutes.
Second Quarter
The Mustangs were actually not playing badly. They were pretty fundamental, but were giving
up height and size at about every position, even with the Aggie bench on
court. One aspect of that size advantage
was that the Aggies’ interior defense was almost impenetrable to the
Mustangs. They were having a hard time
getting a shot off at all whenever the game was in a half-court set. I also noticed that their coach remained
seated during the game instead of working the sidelines.
Baylee Robinson
came in (I think her and Zaire Williams
are competing for best hair), along with Aailyah
Prince. Prince (that’s just easier
to type than Aaliyah) got a three on a bank and then another three on the next
trip down. Brooke, on the bench, ran
down the line high-fiving everyone.
Kaeli got in on the act with her first college three. Brooke was dancing afterward. She loves it when the bench players
score. Zaire also got a couple of
three’s this half, so hopefully she’s got her shooting touch back. 55-25 Aggies at the half.
Halftime
The entertainment was a game of musical chairs with a layup
with some little kids. They didn’t quite
get the rules at first. The littlest
kid, maybe about four years old, had no chance of making a basket. Pete came in to help him (or shoot the ball
for him). A little girl won with some
clutch shooting.
The Aggies were shooting 68% for the half. Both teams were shooting 43% on threes. Like I said elsewhere, the Aggies need to
defend the perimeter better. The Aggies
girls made a surprise entrance from the top of the stands. The PA was momentarily scrambling to announce
them. One of the ball girls big-timed
Prince when she wanted a ball. It takes
more than a couple of threes to get the ball girls’ respect.
Third Quarter
The Mustangs came out firing with four points. Coop got a steal and a layup to break up the
run. Tonishia took a rebound
coast-to-coast through traffic for a layup and took a hard foul. Kaeli came in and got two steals and another
three. Her and Prince were joking with
each other on court afterward. There
were a pair of breaks within 10 game-time seconds of each other. The Aggie Cheerleaders had to run out to
perform during both. They were gassed
afterward.
Kaeli racked up an assist to Coop right after the timeout,
but then the game took a dark turn.
Kaeli nearly got a steal, but ended up with a jump ball. During the scuffle, Adam reported that the
Mustang player said something. It wasn’t
much, but it set Kaeli off and almost started a fight. Not that I doubt her toughness, but she looks
like a sweet girl, so this development was a bit shocking. Both girls got a technical.
Next up, Jeneva got a foul and was called for a technical on
top of it. The referees had some rules
confusion. The Mustangs ended up with
four free throws, since the Aggies were now over the foul limit. Brooke then got tripped on a fast break. It was probably incidental contact, but
didn’t occur at a good time. Prince had
words with the Mustang player. Jade Botelho on the Mustangs went over
to talk to the other girl to make sure it didn’t escalate. Jade was having a great game offensively, but
really having to work for it as Aissatou
Fall, six inches taller and bigger, was put on her defensively. The Mustang bench gave out a big cheer for Jenika Padilla when she put in a three,
rooting for a freshman.
Sara Lopez came
on as the last Aggie to play. She got
some applause. I was glad to see her
in. I’m just kind of pulling for her. Strangely on the other team, there was
another walk-on from El Paso, Takiyah
Lopez. She was a former Aggie from a
couple of years ago. It’s probably an
interesting story how she ended up at Western New Mexico.
Fourth Quarter
Pete came by. I got a
handshake. Back at the game, Aissatou
picked up a foul that she disagreed with.
She put the ball on the floor, instead of handing it to the ref and
picked up a technical too. She did come
back into the game and got a field goal, which caused the bench to erupt for
her. Prince was still out playing. She blocked an inbounds pass right into the
ref. He laughed it off. Unfortunately after playing so well, Prince
reverted back to playing in an out-of-control fashion, which resulted in a
bunch of misses.
Sara was back out.
She fearlessly drove into the lane and picked up a foul. Sara converted on the free throws. She took a couple more shots, but they didn’t
go in. The bench was pulling for
her. Brooke was smiling while watching. I think they’re friends. The Aggie bench finished with a four-minute
scoring drought, but the reserves did score 50 in the game. Our final: Aggies 89, Mustangs 60.
Well, it was a graceless 29-point win over a winless
Division II team. (They were up by 40 at
one point.) I guess we’ll take it. Frankly this win makes the Friday game all
the more befuddling. Granted they were
shooting against a shorter, less talented team, but shots were there
today. I feel like this game exposed the
team more than enhanced it. Those
technicals by the bench players revealed a real lack of discipline. Aaliyah
Prince showed some promise finally, but then she fell right back into being
pickup game showboater. Finally, Monique Mills and the Coach need to
kiss and make up. I don’t know what
happened between them, but you two need each other to have any success this
year. Get on the same page ladies.
My player of the game is Jade Botelho on the Mustangs.
This career two-point average player put in 21 points today. She didn’t seem to be enjoying it
though. The Aggies were putting the big
bodies on her down low and she was giving up significant height and weight on
them. It was a battle in the lane for
her all game. Everyone I’m tempted to
single out on the Aggies for a good game, had some significant issues with
their play. No prizes this time. I’m also a bit bent about the ticket
price. I remember they announced at an
earlier game that this was going to be a discounted ticket game, but it wasn’t.
Coach Atkinson called a meeting out on the middle of the
court after the game, which I haven’t seen before. It didn’t seem like an especially angry talk,
but I was too far away to know. She was
definitely unhappy with the three technicals in the post-game interview. (Meanwhile, Adam just about ran out of breath
reading off all of the individual player stats.) Afterward, the girls dispersed. Several went into the crowd to talk to
friends. The Mills sisters walked off
chatting with each other. Ron and I went
off to face our pizza destiny at Papa Johns.
It was pricey, but oh so good.
The Garlic Knots were to die for.
Ron pronounced new Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie the most
sweetest thing ever. He reacted like I
do to chili in my food. I thought cookie
was just okay sweet, but his display made me too embarrassed to get seconds. Happy New Years everyone!
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