(And a little UTEP Women’s coverage at the bottom.)
Chicago State has
a nice-looking small arena. The Aggie Women’s team tweeted this picture
out before their game versus the Cougars. Actually, the only game coverage available
was via Twitter. It’s a bit
nerve-wracking trying to follow a game from text messages. Much like these teams’ earlier meeting (1-7-18), Chicago State played very well in the first half and led
33-27. Then in similar fashion, the
Aggies wore them down in the second half and were able to break it open with an
18-4 run in the third. 63-55 Aggies was the final with Brooke Salas leading the way with 17
points and Jasmine Cooper following
with 16.
Back here in Las Cruces, the Aggie Men played the Chicago
State Men’s team. It was a fairly
small 4,400+ crowd at the Pan-Am for
a mid-week matchup against a team that’s winless in the conference. The crowd was also pretty quiet. The team seemed to come out with some low
energy after their two road losses. It
was 11 all five minutes in at the first timeout. Joe
Garza entered the game and hit a three as part of a 7-point run. The rest of the team wasn’t hitting three’s
at all to that point. The Cougars took a
slim lead on good shooting late in the first half. Keyon
Jones made a three to give the Aggies back the lead. It was 39-36 Aggies at the half.
The crowd finally started getting into it for the second
half as the Aggies increased their lead.
Johnny McCants scored 8 in
the half, but three of the baskets were on crowd-pleasing dunks. He also had three blocks. Garza had 7 with another three. Keyon hit a three and a foul shot for a
four-point play. The Aggies had a
20-point lead at one point. The Cougars
cut that in half as the Aggies emptied their bench. 78-67
Aggies was the final.
Fred Sims on the
Cougars led all scorers with 30 points. Unfortunately
for Chicago State, regardless of the quality of their players, they aren’t
competing at the D1 level with their current resources. Coach
Jans talked about how good the opposing coach was afterward. Jans didn’t think he’d be able to get as much
out of their players under the same circumstances. Sidy
N’Dir led the Aggies with 15 points.
11 Aggies scored in the game. Gabe Hadley was out with pink eye. Zach
Lofton played and scored 6, but was also sick. There was encouraging news in the
pregame. NMSU has already sold out their
ticket allotment for the WAC Tourney
in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, I’ve been exhausted going to events and writing
about them for the last two weeks.
Something had to give and it’s been UTEP
Women’s Basketball. My apologies to Katharine Zech. If I was able to watch her and the team, I’d
be making this a priority, but it’s not the same over the radio. I listened to half a game last week, where,
once again, they had a lead going into the fourth and lost. I was too busy to even pretend that I was
really paying attention. Sunday
afternoon, I totally forgot about their game, again due to exhaustion from
Saturday night baseball (I was still trying to warm up). Watching the news later, it was the same
story, another fourth quarter breakdown and loss. Coach
Kevin Baker seems like a really nice guy, but his days may be
numbered.
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