NM State Men’s and Women’s Basketball and UTEP Women’s Basketball 1-18-18

It’s another basketball triple-header tonight!  Or me having three games on over the Internet and being unable to follow any of them well.  We’ll take these one at a time.

I’d heard this afternoon on KROD’s Sportstalk that there’d be a UTEP Women’s game tonight.  I wanted to watch the video for the game to get a glimpse of Katarina Zec.  Doesn’t she look cute with the glasses there?  Unfortunately, the stream was premium content to watch.  Fudge.  I just checked out Statcast periodically.  Behind a great second half comeback, the Miners prevailed over Florida-Atlantic, 75-70.

The Aggie Men were finally back at home.  They were loving it to start off.  After nine minutes, they were leading 12-2 over Seattle U, who were held scoreless for six minutes.  The Redhawks got it going later and it was 37-22 Aggies at the half.  “Here’s Johnny!” exclaimed Jack Nixon over the radio call, as Johnny McCants put in a one-hand jam.  Unfortunately, Aggie shooting cooled in the second half.  It was 49-43 Aggies after about 10 minutes.  No problem, a couple of three’s and a layup got it back to an 11-point lead.  75-62 Aggies was the final.  Zach Lofton led with 15 points, Eli Chuha had 14, and Jemerrio Jones put up 10 (a good comeback for him).  Coach Jans was pleased with the attendance and the student section’s enthusiasm.  I’m looking forward to seeing them this weekend.

Thank you WAC Digital Network for the video of the Aggie Women playing Seattle U on the road.  The game was in a small gym with a likewise crowd.  The first thing I saw in the game was Gia Pack going down with an apparent ankle injury in the second quarter.  Luckily, she came back in later.  I was also encouraged to see Jeneva Toilolo back playing after her injury last week.  Discouragingly, Brooke Salas was not shooting well.  Still, the Aggies were hanging with the Redhawks, 29-22 Seattle U at the half.  Hey, they’re having a toothbrush giveaway for their next game.  (I’m not making that up.)

The second half did not go well for the Aggies.  By the fourth quarter, they were down 16.  Aaliyah Prince and Baylee Robinson were in the game as Coach Atkinson may have thrown in the towel.  (Prince did get 7 points.)  69-59 Redhawks was the final.  Brooke led the Aggies with 18 points, but was 5 of 18 shooting.  She also got a double-double with 11 rebounds.  Gia had 15 and Monique Mills had 9.  Jacinta Beckley for Seattle U had 25 points to lead everyone.  In the postgame, the Redhawks’ coach did say that they’d focused on stifling Brooke’s shots.  It worked.  The other Aggies girls have to pick it up when Brooke isn’t getting the shots because everyone else is going to be doing this for the rest of the season.