“Uh, oh,” both Ron and I said as we pulled into the Pan-Am Center parking lot. There were a bunch of cars there. Normally, this would be a good thing. This time though we were concerned that that
meant there was going to be a lot of fans for the other team, the New Mexico Lobos. I’d told Ron about the teams’ meeting last
year (12-2-17), where Lobo fans may have outnumbered Aggie fans. Indeed, we could see Lobo fans exiting their
vehicles as we rolled in. While they did
fill the Visitor’s section, thankfully, there were more Aggie fans present
today, though (honestly) the Lobo fans may have been louder.
We stopped by the Toys
for Tots donation box inside. Ron
came prepared with two sacks of toys. He
already looks like Santa Claus to begin with.
I brought a sleeve of Hot Wheels cars to go with the Barbie I’d brought
for the last game (12-11-18). Inside the box, well, donations were a bit slow. They’re doing a Teddy Bear Toss and taking more donations for the Men’s game next
week, so I’ll expect things to pick up then.
The souvenir table was set up on the concourse today, as
I expected. I went ahead and bought an
Aggie shirt to give to a co-worker for Christmas to make up for the giveaway
shirt debacle (11-20-18). (I ended
up keeping the shirt, because no one else wanted it.) The young woman there very happily completed
my transaction. I felt like I’d made her
day. I also felt $32 lighter for a
frickin’ t-shirt, and Mike had better f-ing wear this thing for every Aggie
Friday at work from now on. I also
picked up a raspberry tea at the concession to wash that bitter taste out of my
mouth.
The Roadrunner
Review Band was back playing (I admit they sounded a bit flat). The Cheerleaders
and the basketball team were dressed in throwback uniforms. The team was in powder blue trim jerseys and
shorts that just said “State” on them.
Also there were, not one, but two mascots. Pistol
Pete was there with the original Women’s team mascot, a big crimson Roadrunner. (The team used to be called the
“Roadrunners.”) I think AD Mario Moccia had said they’d found
the costume somewhere and, after a thorough cleaning, decided to use it for
this Pan-Am fiftieth anniversary season.
The bird looked good and the suit occupant seemed enthusiastic and was
having a good time. Pete and Roadie (I
have no idea what his name is) met with the Kid’s Club to everyone’s
satisfaction. The two mascots interacted
well, without any mascot rivalry.
Mario was there, of course, and met with the Lobos’ coaching
staff before the game. One of their guy
assistant coaches looked very sharp in a black suit and red socks. The Lobos also brought a couple of radio
broadcasters seated nearby for the game.
(Ours were doing the TV broadcast.)
Their team came out to a big cheer from their fans. The team had all sorts of different colored
shoes. It was hard not to notice. I saw red, black, white, grey, bright pink,
and . . . crimson? As long as we’re
doing fashion, Aggie Coach Atkinson
was in a sleeveless cream blouse, black slacks, and short crimson boots. During introductions, I noticed that the
Lobos watched the Aggie intro video. You
can’t guess in advance which teams will watch the other teams’ video.
First Quarter
Hey, hey! I got
all the scoring right on the first try (well, second, but I had it right). Too bad, this was not a game to
celebrate. The game at least started
well for the Aggies. Right off, they hit
a couple of quick three’s. Monique Mills got a steal, which led to
a layup by Brooke Salas. Gia
Pack got a steal, which led to Mo getting a free throw. The Lobos were having trouble getting their
shots to fall in. The north end goal
force field seemed to be in effect. Tom
was in his usual seat, now surrounded by Lobo fans, and cheering up a storm.
Still, the Aggies were playing nervous and were giving
up turnovers. Play itself could have
been best described as rough and physical.
Gia made a great pass to Baylee
Robinson underneath the basket for a bucket and an 11-5 Aggie lead and the
first timeout for the media. The Aggies then
got victimized on a couple of bad calls.
At least the refs resisted calling fouls on all contact, which would
have dragged out this game forever, as both teams were playing ferocious
defense. #4 Jayla Everett got a steal on Brooke. Kalei
Atkinson chased her down-court and Jayla rushed the layup and missed
it. Good hustle, Kalei.
It was 15-10 Aggies after ten minutes, nearly. There was an awkward end to the first
quarter. There was an inconclusive play
with less than a second left on the clock.
.3 seconds were still left after that.
The refs reviewed the play, while both teams prepared for the next
quarter. The Lobos brought little
fold-up seats out on to the court to listen to their coach. That seemed unnecessary, since there were
already seats at the bench, but how better to prove your superiority than to
not use the visitor’s seats and bring your own.
Second Quarter
Dino Dash! One of
Dinos had all sorts of problems dribbling and actually collapsed at the media
table in exhaustion. As usual, the other
contestant declined to dribble and won.
They should try to get the rules straight before the next contest.
The Aggies offense was stymied to start this
quarter. Dominique Mills, giving up 5” and about 25 lbs to #21 Nike McLure, fought her for a rebound
and nearly ended up in a fight.
Meanwhile, Aissatou Fall
cycled in to the game for the Aggies.
While she was a bit larger, #44 Jaisa
Nunn, another big body, started schooling her down low a couple of times,
before Aissatou came out.
A steal off Brooke and a layup gave the Lobos’ their
first lead at 17-18. Timeout
Aggies. I noticed Mario was at the media
table and Men’s Coach Chris Jans was
with him. They were chatting, but Coach
Jans was watching the game pretty intently.
I wonder if he has any advice for Coach Atkinson from what he saw, or
would that be considered rude?
An errant Lobo pass down-court nearly took out a
cameraman by the basket. Gia went over
to him and asked if he was okay. The guy
barely wavered from getting the shot with the camera though, even with the ball
coming at him. The Aggies made a
comeback. Brooke got two steals and a
free throw and a layup of them to make it 22-19. But, more Aggie turnovers allowed the Lobos
to retake the lead, 22-28. Timeout
Aggies with three minutes left. Jaisa
made a tremendous block on Baylee down low, but Kaeli hit a three with under a
minute to close the gap to 27-31 Lobos at the half.
Halftime
A little kid’s hip hop dance troop performed at the
half. Danny came over and chatted. He didn’t like the Aggies’ prospects
today. He mentioned that he saw the Softball team out practicing, but I’m
guessing that wasn’t open to the public.
Ron got an emergency call from his caretaking job and
had to leave, but swore he’d be back. I
sure hoped so, since he was my ride. The
Aggie Men’s Basketball team came in
to watch. I definitely recognized Ivan Aurrecoechea. He spent most of his time on his phone. I didn’t see Johnny McCants. If he’d been
there, me and some other fans probably would have gone over for an autograph.
Third Quarter
The Aggies kept it close to start the second half. #21 Nike
McLure came out of the game after a collision in the lane with Aggie Nike, Adenike Aderinto. It was two big bodies crashing. Brooke was everywhere pulling down
rebounds. #23 Jaedyn de la Cerda hit the first Lobo three of the game with seven
minutes left in the quarter. Prince
answered with a couple of baskets to make it 38-37 Aggies. On one, Brooke out-rebounded and tore the
ball away from Jaisa (giving up about four inches in height and maybe 30 lbs in
weight) and tossed it to Prince for a layup.
Stabresa
McDaniel came in during the quarter. From the Aggie Coach’s Show, I found out she
hadn’t played in two years when she came in for her first game here last
week. Very impressive comeback. Nike McLure came back in. About the first thing she did was knock
Brooke down flat in the lane. She even
hit the back of her head on the floor.
She got up apparently feeling okay; I don’t know how. Lobo fans boo’d the foul call on the play.
That probably wasn’t the pivotal play in the game, but
what happened next was. Jaedyn dropped
in another three and followed that up with a layup. Suddenly, it was 40-48 Lobos. Timeout Aggies. Out of the timeout, Jaedyn got a steal and
another layup. Even worse, Didi Echols was injured trying to break
up the play. She let out a couple of
sharp cries, as the Aggies’ pretty little blonde trainer ran over to her. Didi couldn’t even make it across the court
and had to go to the Lobos’ table to get worked on. By the time the horn sounded for the quarter,
the Lobos were in control at 40-51.
Fourth Quarter
Roadie the Roadrunner came back out, but this would not
help the Aggies. Ron returned, which
made me feel a lot better. He told me
that Volleyball Coach Mike Jordan
was sitting up above. This was a big
game. Ron declined to talk to him, and
unfortunately he’d left before I got a chance to congratulate him on a great
season. Across the court, Didi was now
on crutches. That was definitely not a good
sign.
Since switching to the south goal, the Lobo shots were
now falling in, while the force field was reactivated on the north end and the
Aggies couldn’t buy a bucket. The worst
of it was that they were getting lots of offensive rebounds and second chances,
but the ball still wouldn’t go in. Some
fan in the crowd kept yelling, “Shoot it!” like we were watching an Aggie
soccer match. (Read any of my soccer
entries for an explanation.) Turnovers
were still an Aggie problem as well.
Meanwhile, it had gotten quiet enough in the arena with fans leaving
early, that you could really hear Lobo
Coach Mike Bradbury screaming at his girls like they were losing by double
digits.
Brooke finally picked up her first foul for slapping
down Nike McLure in the lane, probably some payback. Brooke picked up her second knocking down
Jaedyn driving the lane. Jaedyn did come
up smiling. Lastly, Brooke picked up her
third, stuffing Nike on a shot and knocking her down. Nike is taller and bigger, but not necessarily
tougher. Coach Bradbury started taking
his stars out, one-by-one, and they all got a round of applause from their
fans. Our disappointing final: Aggies 50, Lobos 75.
The Aggies played 11 of 12 players on their roster and
10 scored. However, only Brooke Salas scored in double digits
(24). Meanwhile, four of the seven Lobos
who scored, did so in double digits. Jaedyn de la Cerda led them with
21. Late in the game when the outcome
wasn’t really in doubt, I’m pretty sure her and Brooke were fighting to be top
scorer in the game. Compared to last
year, I was impressed that the Aggies held the Lobos to four three-pointers,
none in the first half, though the Aggies didn’t do any better shooting
them.
From the paper the next day, I learned how bad the Aggie
turnovers were: 28, which led to 27 points and 17 fast break points. The coach attributed it partly to the Lobos’
defense and partly to the Aggies not taking care of the ball. The article also said that Gia Pack had been nursing a tweaked
knee for the last two games. This
explains why she wasn’t shooting a lot.
She had over 20 in the last game against the Lobos. This might have been a different game with
her at 100%.
Autographs
I shamefully admit, I was a bit gun-shy about going down
to get autographs. I didn’t want to
embarrass myself standing in line with a bunch of 10-year old girls, like I did
with Volleyball (9-29-18) and Soccer (9-9-18) this semester. Even worse, I was afraid of getting attached
to anymore student-athletes. I’m still
hurting over my dear Aileen Galicia’s last
game (10-27-18). Ron talked me
into it and pushed me down there anyway.
At least I wasn’t the only adult in line. Assistant
Coach McAdams was in line with his family as his girls were getting
autographs. (There were still plenty of
little girls in line.) I do see them out
at other Aggie sports events. I said,
“Hi, Coach,” and he thanked me for coming out to the game. That was nice of him.
First up was Brooke
Salas herself. It didn’t go well
last time I got her autograph (1-7-17). This time Brooke was as pleasant and charming as she looks like she
should be. I congratulated her on a
great a game, which was a bit awkward, as she did have a great game, but the
rest of the team didn’t.
Brooke was the one person I really wanted to say
something to. I more-or-less fumbled it,
but told her that Coach Trakh would
be proud of her showing so much leadership this year, especially at the Abilene Christian game (11-20-18) where she was coaching from the bench. (During
this game, she was also directing plays from the court.) I think she understood what I was trying to
say. She said was just trying to help
the team however she could. Brooke also
thanked me for coming out to game. Aww.
I did not get to tell Kalei Atkinson that she’s probably my favorite on the team, apart
from Brooke, but I did get a smile from her.
Dominique and Monique Mills
are very pretty. One of them has
highlights in her hair, so maybe you can tell them apart when they’re not
wearing their numbers (but I forgot which one).
I asked Aaliyah Prince if
she’d gotten taller since last year, because I was pretty sure she was. She laughed and said, “No.” (I also meant to tell her how impressed I’d
been with her this year. Oops.) Missing from our autographs is Didi (Rodrea) Echols. She must have been doing pretty badly with
her injury. Given that there’s three or
four girls out already, that’s troubling for the team.
Lastly, I said, “Hi,” to Adam Young who was last in line at the media table, not for
autographs, just packing up after the TV broadcast. I asked him if he called all of the WAC Volleyball Tournament games. He did.
That’s great for him. I had
another question and I was kicking myself that I couldn’t remember what it was. He told me to e-mail it to him if remembered
(which I did in the bathroom five minutes later).
Ron and I might have been the last fans to leave the
building. A charter bus left the parking
lot as we came out. Ron said, that was
how most of those Lobo fans came here.
No wonder there were so many. We
had an excellent pizza at Zefferio’s
and frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf,
because ice cream is for winners . . . times when you’re smarting from a
bad defeat. Then we made a trip to the
mall for some Christmas shopping. Why
not? #Retail therapy. Actually, we felt much better after a good
meal and hanging out with a Christmas shopping crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment