1-11-18
UTEP Women’s Basketball
Okay, I’ve written about enough UTEP Miner Women’s games that I’m going to have to start tagging
them. I keep running into their games on
the radio on KROD. I don’t have a
schedule for them. I don’t even know
what station the Miner Men play on. Today,
I caught the girls playing a matinee in El Paso. It was another Basket and Education Day, like
the one the Aggies played against Arizona (12-14-17). Ouch! I didn’t want to remember that game
again. When I tuned in, it was
halftime. I could tell there was a big
crowd of kids there without even being told.
A basketball/acrobatic troop was performing and the kids were going
crazy. I’m kind of sorry I wasn’t
watching.
The Miners were playing the Charlotte 49’ers. That
doesn’t sound right. I don’t think I’ve
heard of them before. Why would an east
coast basketball team be called the “49’ers?”
The Miners went down by 15 early, but made a comeback in the
second. They took the lead in the
third. It got close in the fourth, but
the Miners pulled away 67-58 in the
end. Tamara Seda had a good game in the process.
Interviewing the coach afterward, he thanked the kids, who
had to leave before the end, for helping them in their comeback. Steve
Kaplowitz did the game and Sportstalk
an hour later on remote, so he was a busy fellow. His co-host, Tracy Miller, had an interesting comment that she’d done some
officiating. The experience had given
her a respect for them that she didn’t have as a player (especially ref’ing
men’s games).
NM State Women’s Basketball
Later at work, the good news was that the Aggie Women were playing on TV on Aggievision. The bad news was that I was busy and could
barely watch. Also, the Aggie Men were
playing an hour after the Women started.
Both teams were playing Grand
Canyon University. This was a tight
game. It was 31-30 Aggies at the
half. Brooke Salas had 10 at that point.
Jasmine Cooper had 8. Gia
Pack had gotten a technical foul, but I didn’t see the incident. The first year coach of GCU was a really
good-looking woman. The camera kept
focusing on her, so the director agreed with me. She was a former WNBA player.
Honestly, I only got to really sit down and watch the
end. With under a minute, Brooke sank a
bucket to give the Aggies a three-point lead, 61-58. As Zaire
Williams was reported to have said later before the possession, “Get Brooke
the ball.” On the defensive end, the
Aggies had fouls to give and disrupted the Lopes
(smart play), who ended up losing the ball out-of-bounds. Brooke was fouled and got a free throw. GCU got a quick basket on their end. On the inbound, Zaire took a poke in the eye,
but made two free throws to ice the game.
64-60 Aggies final.
Brooke finished with 16 points. She high-fived that kid that’s always around
Aggie sports as she left the court. Coop
finished with 11, which is super-encouraging.
Tonishia Childress had a pair
of three’s. Monique Mills had 0 points.
That’s not a good thing. I’m
really concerned about her psyche now.
And Tamara William was there
supporting the team.
I picked up the Aggie
Men playing at GCU at the half. It
was 37-37. The Lopes are considered to
be the Aggies main competition for the WAC
this season. Again, I was busy and not
able to pay close attention. With under
10 minutes, the Aggies went on a 9-point run.
Later, the Aggies’ had a possession where they had six seconds on the
shot clock, but had to go the entire length of the court. I’m not sure how that happened, but the
result was AJ Harris going
coast-to-coast for a layup. Johnny McCants snagged an offensive
rebound and a jam to put the Aggies up by 11 with under two minutes.
With under a minute left, I finally remembered that GCU puts
all of their sports games up live on Youtube.
So, I did watch the very end as the Aggies won 70-59. The Aggies had 18
costly turnovers, but were +25 in rebounds.
This was a big win in a hostile environment. The Lopes really stuff the place for their home
games.
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