I’d been looking forward to seeing the Aggie Basketball girls for awhile. I was really curious to see how the team was
going to be put together with returning players and new players. Once again, I had the night off for the game. Ron, in spite of caretaking and family
concerns (or perhaps because of), was going to be coming this evening as well.
He wanted a close restaurant for dinner, so I picked
next door McAlisters and walked
over. Through the picture window there,
I immediately noticed that the Aggie
Volleyball girls were there. I was
nervous, but after we placed our orders, I went over and wished them “Good
luck” at the tournament this week and beat a hasty retreat. I hope I didn’t disrupt the meal (like I
think I did). This is the second time
this season that I’ve run into them at a restaurant. I didn’t see them at the game later. Maybe they were out practicing.
Ron ordered a sandwich so large, it was brought to the
table on a forklift with trumpet fanfare.
After I finished my own sandwich (the seasonal turkey with cranberry
sauce and apple slices, excellent), I still felt hungry, because it seemed like
an insignificant amount of food by comparison.
A Todd Rundgren song played
in the background, Hello, It’s Me. After listening for a minute, I said, “Ron,
stop me if start singing along,” because the song is kind of irresistible. “Dude, I was about to say the same thing to
you,” he answered. We had frozen yogurt
at Orange Leaf nearby. Ron’s dessert was topped with a mound of
bite-sized chocolate bar bits. A couple
hours later after the game, Ron said, “Ooh, my stomach’s upset.” It’s a mystery.
At the Pan-Am
Center, paper airplanes were handed out along with the programs. These were for the halftime contest. I guess they assumed people couldn’t fold
their own paper airplanes. Probably
correct in my case, and they did a good job.
These things really fly well. The
program listed zero attendance for their first game here, which was the
double-header with the Men playing. I’m
guessing that means that you had to buy a Men’s ticket to get into that game.
Abilene
Christian (let’s go with AC from here out) brought a decent
number of fans with them. The crowd for
the Aggies was a bit light, likely due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday,
though they were actually loud and passionate.
On court, a couple of the AC assistant male coaches in dress shirts and
slacks took a few shots with the team at their insistence.
On the Aggie side, a couple of the girls were on
crutches. One I couldn’t identify. I think the other was Pam Wilmore. She wasn’t
listed on the scorecard. Jeneva Toilolo wasn’t with the team at
all. I thought she was a good down low
presence. Sara Lopez also wasn’t on the team.
I always appreciated her pluck whenever she got into a game. Brooke
Salas was smiling and happy in the warm up, which was good to see.
The Wildcats came out of the tunnel for the game with an
appropriate howl. A couple of minutes
later, PA Ed asked the crowd to get
up for the Aggies. We were still waiting
a minute or so later. “Did they get
lost?” said Ron. They came out
eventually, but it was a bad sign. They
do have a great new video for introductions this year. Nice job on that. Both Mills
sisters were starting for the Aggies.
Dominique had been playing in
the previous games this season and was scoring, like her sister Monique last year. Coach
Atkinson was making a bold fashion statement tonight in tight, black
leather pants, and a sleeveless blouse.
First Quarter
Unsurprisingly, I completely butchered my first
basketball scorecard of the season. I
thought I was paying close attention. I
might have been marking some baskets for the wrong players. I got several of the player totals off the
scoreboard, so those are mostly right, even if they’re not marked off
right. Frankly for a loss, I’m not going
to sweat the details. (Spoilers.)
Oh, my notes were an incomprehensible mess too. Let’s perform the autopsy as best we
can. The Wildcats came out firing a
couple of threes, 0-6 AC. Ron had noticed
that they were good at those in practice. Their bench was good and loud. The Aggie bench would match them in that
though. New transfer Rodrea Echols, who according to the
announcements goes by Didi, got a
couple of steals, but Aggie shooting was cold to start. Brooke missed on three layup attempts. Finally, Dominique hit a jumper to get the
first Aggie points, 2-8. But, AC
followed that with a steal and a layup, 2-10.
Timeout Aggies at 5:30 left.
Aaliyah
Prince came in. She
looks taller than last year somehow. The
Aggies had another turnover which was converted to an AC three. It was becoming apparent by this point that
the Aggies weren’t rebounding well and were giving the Wildcats too many second
chances on shots. Prince got a pass to
Brooke under the basket. Brooke made a
pretty move and finally got a shot to fall in, 6-15. Prince again drove to the basket from the
sideline and scored, 9-15. The crowd
loved it. Late, Kalei Atkinson stood her ground on a one-on-one breakaway in front
of the basket and stopped the easy bucket.
The Aggie defense forced shot clock violation on the rest of the Wildcat
possession. It was 8-17 Wildcats after
10 minutes.
Second Quarter
I wasn’t actually too worried at this point. Some guys from the Aggies Men’s Basketball team came by to watch at the start of this
quarter. The music was still playing
when the Ref’s (all female crew tonight) started play. There were several long breaks in the game
for TV timeouts otherwise. Gia Pack started off with a three. Brooke got a steal, a layup, and a foul to
close the score to 14-19.
The Aggies began a more pressure defense. They got a turnover, but Gia traveled right
after to give it back. (That got called
on several players this evening.) The
Aggies got a pretty play on a Kalei to Monique to Brooke layup, 16-21. Aggie defense really locked it down at this
point in the halfcourt. They got two
blocks on one possession. Brooke came away
with a fast break, but was called for a charge at the other end and had to come
out with two fouls.
Ron was becoming disgruntled. Aggie defense forced another shot clock
violation. Mo hit a three to get it to
19-21. Brooke high-fived everyone on the
bench. Prince got a rebound and went
coast-to-coast for a layup. The crowd
was fully engaged by this point. It was
23-22 Aggies at the half.
Halftime
Fans crowded the sides of the court for the paper
airplane toss. There were several prizes
on court. The closest plane would win
it. Mine flew beautifully, but went
nowhere near a prize. Ron’s nosed-dived
directly into the court, but he won a t-shirt anyway. He gave it to me, since it was wasn’t close
to his size. It was bit big for me too,
so I gave it away later. Coming into the
arena earlier, Ron talked to the souvenir vendor, who he’d apparently talked to
before, and asked for a triple-XL shirt. He told Ron to come by the store. They should bring one with them, just in case
Ron comes back by next time.
[Edit: I took the shirt to work to give to a
co-worker. I had not unfolded it when I
handed it to him. He liked it. He thought it might work for Aggie Fridays
here, when you can wear jeans with an Aggie shirt. But then he turned it around to the back. The shirt giveaway was sponsored by a rival
bank. Oops. So much for that. I hope dad likes the shirt.]
Third Quarter
The Aggies went with a full court press to start. Brooke picked up her third foul with nine
minutes left in the quarter and had to come back out. AC pressed as well and got a turnover and
took the lead 25-26. The Aggies took an
accidental timeout after some confusion with the TV break. #10 Breanna
Wright, who’d hit two three’s in the first half for the Wildcats, put a nice
move on Didi for a bucket. Mo and #3 Dominique Golightly traded three’s
right after. (I like it, but I assumed
Golightly was a made up name from Breakfast
at Tiffany’s, and not a real name.)
The Aggies’ Dominique got a steal and passed to Didi for
a layup, but #11 Sara Williamson
took the charge for a turnover. AC got
another steal and converted on it for a 30-33 lead. Brooke came back in after a timeout with
about five minutes left in the quarter.
I have “Brooke back in” and “Brooke out” written in my notes about ten
times after this. She was being used
basically for offensive possessions and taken out for defense to limit her foul
opportunities. Unfortunately, Brooke is
one of the better defenders on the team, and she’s a streaky shooter, who needs
to be on the court a bunch to get her touch right. In other words, this subbing didn’t work out
well.
With about two minutes left, Didi hit Gia for a layup to
tie it at 33. Kalei had a layup attempt,
but missed and fell into the stands, thankfully unharmed. Brooke got fouled and got a free throw, but
she picked up her fourth foul right after.
I loved her “Who me?” look right after the call. 36-37 Wildcats with 10 minutes to go.
Fourth Quarter
During the last quarter, some regular fans were
discussing other Aggie sports including volleyball. One of them mentioned Coach Jordan telling the fans that they’d been spoiled by the great
players on the team. I hope they agreed
with him.
On court was the best fan competition I’ve seen
yet. It was the Dino Dash. Two guys were in
large inflatable T-Rex costumes. They
waved their stubby arms at the crowd as they were introduced. They had to run across the court, grab a
ball, and dunk it in a kid’s goal. They
performed well, but it was completely hysterical watching the two dinosaurs
running across the court. Do this every
game in every sport! The Cheerleaders would not be outdone. The girls did the Macarena while being held overhead by the guys. It was impressive.
Brooke was not in to start. (Yes, I’m playing favorites here. I do this in every sport. No apologies.
It’s my blog.) I’ve said before
that leadership was the only thing lacking in her game. There she was on the sidelines, standing,
yelling, and pointing at her teammates, full-on coaching them. Wow! This
was the quiet girl a couple of years ago.
Brooke has hit the leadership checkbox.
The Wildcat defense turned up and got a full court trap
and a turnover for points, 38-42. Gia
drew a foul after, but missed both free throws.
Up to this point, I was still reasonably confident that the Aggies were
going to pull it out, but not after this.
That hurt. Brooke found Gia
inside for a bucket to make it 40-43, but that was as close as it got.
From here, it was just frustration. Brooke got two rebounds on a possession, but
still couldn’t get it in. Didi fouled
Sara Williamson on a layup. The ref’s
checked the video to see if it was flagrant.
Thankfully, it wasn’t called.
Some of the crowd and the Men’s team left early at 40-49. Brooke attempted and made her first three
with a minute left. There were a bunch
of fouls for both teams at the end, but the Aggies missed most of their foul
shots. Kalei fouled out. A mass exodus started with under a minute and
the score 46-55. The last Aggie
highlight was a kid gymnast doing a contortionist act on camera during a
break. Your disappointing final was Abilene Christian winning 46-58.
The Wildcats had three players in double figures, Dominique Golightly, Breanna Wright, and Sara Williamson. (I thought Sara was kind of cute. #13 Jazz
Taylor, in addition to a great name, had some nice highlights in her
hair.) For the Aggies, Gia Pack did have very good game with
22 points. In spite of a lot of bench
time and having trouble shooting, Brooke
Salas still had 11 points.
Whew, that sucked.
I think this was scheduled as a walkover game for the Aggies, which
makes it worse. Two immediate concerns
for the team are rebounding and free throws.
AC out-hustled the Aggies in rebounding.
That’s an effort thing. Free
throws are a practice issue. Aggie
defense was actually pretty good, but their shooting was atrocious. It was telling that in the Aggies’ best
defense in the second quarter, they only managed to come away with a one-point
lead as they’d dug themselves in such a hole in the first. Obviously, Brooke needs to stay out of foul
trouble in order to help the team.
Someone also needs to step up as the third main scorer.
Danny came by and him and Ron chatted while I was
writing stats down off the scoreboard.
They were blaming some specific players for the loss and general
sloppiness. They probably did better
analysis than I just did, but I wasn’t entirely listening. I’d likely feel worse if this were a
conference game. I was actually pleased
with seeing the game just for seeing Brooke coaching. I’m still looking forward to Monday’s game,
which I plan on attending. This team was
good in their first three games.
Hopefully, they’ll show up better prepared.
No comments:
Post a Comment