UTEP Miners vs LA Tech Lady Techsters Women’s Basketball 2-10-18

Okay, “Lady Techsters?”  Are you kidding me?  As time goes by, that “El Paso Chihuahuas” name just sounds better and better.  Is American society really sure it wants to eliminate Native American names from sports teams?  There doesn’t seem to be anything good to replace them with.

Today was National Girls and Women in Sports Day.  UTEP celebrated by offering free admission to today’s Women’s basketball matchup.  (The Aggies did not for today’s softball matchup, but at least they didn’t raise ticket prices for their game against a big time opponent in Kentucky.)  There were a bunch of local girl’s teams there.  (Sounds like a good idea for NMSU.  Offer free admission to some games for kid’s teams.  Actually, they might already be doing that.  I’ve seen out-of-town teams come to games.)  So, they had a good crowd.  Boxer Jennifer Han was also there, probably signing autographs.

These are not the top teams in C-USA, but they had something to play for.  Both were trying to stay out of the cellar so they could qualify for the postseason tournament.  While they were the home team, the Miners were wearing their colors today with the . . . Lady Techsters (sigh) in white.

Brandon Cohn did the play-by-play today.  He was extremely excited in calling the game.  Color commentator Tracy Miller was only present in the commercials for her business.  As usual, I was listening only because I wished I were watching so I could see more of Katerina Zec (and I was waiting for the softball game).  She’d had a good game last Sunday, which I didn’t hear.  She came out taking some shots early here too.  The first and second quarters were tight.  It was 33-32 UTEP at the half.  Zec had 11 points.  Tamara Seda had 12.

Much like the 2-2-18 game, the Miners gave up a big run as LA Tech ran off 12-straight points.  It was 54-46 Techsters after 30 minutes.  (It could be worse; they could be the Hipsters.)  During the fourth, I was busy getting ready to go to the softball game, which was unfortunate because the game got exciting.  UTEP started off with a run of their own.  LA Tech took a timeout as my scribbling became incomprehensible as it was about time to go.  Crap.  The crowd was really into it at the end as UTEP was only down by three.  However, they missed their last shot.  65-62 Techsters was the final.  And it just hurt worse because of the name.  Zec finished with 15 points.  Tamara finished with a monster 23 points, but was hampered at the end with four fouls.