Saturday, December 22, 2018

Sports Journal December 20-21, 2018

12-20-18
The Aggie Women’s Basketball team was in Miami to play the 9-0 South Alabama Jaguars for the FIU tourney.  Adam Young sounded happy to be there.  He said it was nice in south Florida today.  They’re playing in the Ocean Bay Convocation Center.  (I just like saying that.  Nobody uses “Convocation” to name arenas.)  Adam said there were palm trees and an ocean design on the court. 

Adam referred to the opposition as “USA,” University of South Alabama.  Obviously from their record, they’re a good team.  They beat Alabama earlier this season.  For the Aggies, point guard Didi Echols was wearing a boot and didn’t play earlier this week.  They’re hopeful she’ll be okay soon.  I was listening to the game at home over the radio, so it pretty much had my full attention (as opposed to watching games at work).

First Quarter
Aggies went up 7-0 to start.  USA was playing a bit nervous, but Aggies were racking up some fouls.  The Jaguars came back with a couple of three’s.  One girl got her first three all year.  Adenike Aderinto picked up two early fouls and went out.  USA went on an eight-point run, but Monique Mills hit a three to make it 10-8 Aggies at the first media timeout.
 
Kennedy Centers came in for the Jaguars.  She’s the daughter of NFL player, Larry CentersAntoinette Lewis, also on the Jags, was a huge force inside.  She was getting fouled a lot since she’s bad at shooting free throws, along with the rest of the team.  USA did took the late lead on a steal, a basket, and a foul shot to make it 15-17 Jaguars.

Second Quarter
The Aggies went to a zone defense to start, which stymied the Jags.  Brooke made a move for a layup to tie.  Then she got a steal and an assist to Aaliyah Prince for a 19-17 Aggie lead.  Later, Brooke was fouled and made one of two.  She’s still having problems with free throws.  The lead went back and forth for much of the quarter.  Gia Pack took a hard fall.  She wasn’t able to get back down on defense, but was in position after a quick turnover to attempt a shot.  She was fouled and made one of two.  Lewis was rebounding very well for the Jags with eight.  However, she was 1-6 on free throws.  

Brooke was fouled and made one of two again.  Prince was fouled and did the same.  Harsh mandatory free throw practice for everyone.  1,000 made free throws over Christmas.  Brooke picked up her second foul late and had to come out, but Lewis did the same to keep it even.   

There had been a minor clock issue earlier.  Mo was fouled and hit the first throw, but the second made shot was waved off for clock issues.  (I’m confused too.)  The ref’s made her reshoot it, which she did, which tied the game at 27.  There were more clock issues on the inbounds that forced another do-over.  Gia hit a pair of free throws and Mo made two more to make it 31-27 Aggies at the half.  Some good defense by the Aggies at the end stopped the Jags on their final possession.

Third Quarter
Adam tallied up a bunch of fouls on both teams in the first half.  It seemed like all of the starters had two.  USA went 2-9 on foul shots.  Nike got an early layup to make it 33-27.  The Mills sisters kept it in family with an assist for a layup to make it 35-29.  Dominique Mills made a pair of free throws for a 37-29 lead.  Kalei Atkinson got a block on Lewis. 
   
USA made a comeback on a couple of three’s by Savannah Jones.  Mo was called for an intentional foul, which cut the lead to one.  Jones made her other third three to give the Jags the lead, 37-39, on a 10-0 run.  Brooke got a layup to tie it.  Gia made a pair of free throws.  Nike picked up her third foul and came out.  Gia made two more free throws.  Gia is excused from harsh mandatory free throw practice.  It was 45-45 after three quarters.

Fourth Quarter
USA blew a wide open layup at the start of the quarter.  That was the second time in the game that that happened.  Kaeli fouled Lewis, who actually made three of her last four free throws.  Kaeli came down and hit a three to keep the Aggies in front, 50-48.  Nike picked up her fourth foul and had to come out again.  

52-54 USA had the lead with under five minutes to play.  Brooke missed a wide-open three, as her defender had lost her shoe.  (I keep seeing this happen. Are kids not being taught how to tie their shoes anymore?)  Gia hit a three to tie it 55-55.  Kaeli took a charge from Lewis.  I took a look at Lewis online later.  They’re close in height, but nowhere near close in bulk.  Kalei was pretty brave there.

Adam started losing his voice a bit from making excited calls.  Brooke got a layup and then a pair of free throws after foul.  Lewis picked up her fourth foul after hitting Brooke on a rebound.  This put the Aggies in the bonus.  The Aggies got two more free throws to go up by four.  Brooke got a steal.  She tried to get an assist to Dominique under the basket, but D (she needs a nickname) tried to pass it back.  The ball was stolen and USA hit a three.  The Aggies were up by one with 50 seconds left.

Mo got a layup on an assist by Brooke up to go up three with 29 seconds left.  Brooke got a steal and was fouled.  I think Lewis fouled out at that point.  The drama was taking over the play calling on the radio.  Brooke made both free throws.  Okay, blondie, you’re excused from harsh mandatory free throw practice too.  It was 65-60 Aggies with 19 seconds left.

USA scored, 65-62.  USA stole the inbounds pass by Dominique.  The Jags got fouled and made both free throws, 65-64 with five seconds left.  Props to Coach Atkinson, she had Dominique make the inbounds pass again.  Gia was fouled and made both shots, 67-64.  Oh, boy.  This is hard.  With four seconds left, Jones made an off balance three, 67-67 . . . and was fouled by Mo.  As bad as the Jags were on free throws as a team, Jones was actually good at it.  She made it for a 67-68 Jaguars win.  The Aggies had two seconds, but couldn’t get a shot off. 

Well.  That was disappointing.  Exciting, but disappointing.  I’m glad I wasn’t watching.  Adam described the team as being in shock after that three.  In the postgame interview, Coach Atkinson was nearly speechless.  What can you say?  The team played its heart out.  I’m sure if there was a strategy issue, the coach would have taken the blame to keep the girls from being demoralized. 

There were maybe three bad plays at the end that may have turned it, but really the Jags hung in there and made a great/lucky shot.  In my personal opinion, the refs were favoring the Jags ever so slightly throughout the game.  The Aggies got a couple of breaks, but the Jags seemed to be favored from what I was hearing. 

Brooke Salas and Gia Pack had double-doubles to lead the Aggies.  Their lines were similar, but, as Adam said, Brooke put the team on her back at the end.  I don’t blame them, but I felt like giving the Mills sisters a hug after the game.  I hope their teammates and the coach will pick them up.  Your unfair stat of the game: Aggies 27-31 on free throws, 12-23 for USA and they won it on a free throw.

An hour later, the UTEP Miner women were taking on the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks.  I missed the story about their name, but they do have the permission of the Marines to use it.  Steve Kaplowitz was in Las Vegas with the team calling the game.  I was busy during this game and a bit depressed from the last game, not to mention I wasn’t going to be able to listen to whole game before going to work.  So, I wasn’t paying as close of attention.  I also wasn’t as familiar with the players either to keep up with the action.

Katarina Zec got the first points of the game with a three.  I was pleased with that.  UTEP was up for most of the quarter, but WI went on a late run to close it up and take the lead.  Jordan Alexander hit a three to tie it at 19-19 at the end of the quarter.  UTEP was shooting well in the second quarter, but kept turning the ball over, which was keeping WI in it.  Kappy caught a loose ball at the media table.  He was glad a WI player didn’t dive over the table for it, as that might have knocked them off the air.  There were three turnovers on the last play.  It was 39-36 UTEP at the half.  While it was their highest-scoring half of the season, the Miners also had 15 turnovers.

I missed all of the third quarter getting to work.  When I got settled in, I found a video feed of the game on the Internet.  I almost wished I hadn’t.  The venue wasn’t exactly glamorous for being in Las Vegas.  It looked like they were playing in a vacant lot behind a building.  UTEP had had as much as a 20-point lead, but it got whittled down to 8 after a 12-point run by WI.  When I started watching, I saw Kat get hit on the head trying to get a rebound.  Her knee was also pretty wrapped up.  The Miners would hold on for an 84-72 win to break their eight-game losing streak.  Zuzanna Puc led the team with 24 points.  I’d seen her picture before, but I didn’t realize how tall she is.  I thought she was a little guard.

12-21-18
Unlike the Men’s team after their hard-to-take loss to Kansas (12-8-18), the Aggie Women’s Basketball team would be right back out to play within 24 hours after their heartbreaking loss yesterday.  I’m not sure it really affects team play either way, but certainly it has to be better for the players’ psyches.  For the consolation game, the Aggies would be playing the Alcorn State Lady Braves.  They are not a good team, to the tune of only having one win this season (versus a DII team) and having 11-straight losing seasons. 

First Quarter
As this was a morning game, I was able to listen to it at home.  There was a small crowd there in Miami for the game, but the girls for both teams were making a lot of noise by themselves.  Brooke Salas started off the game energetically with three blocks.  I noticed Monique and Dominique Mills getting fed the ball a lot early.  Maybe it was intentional by the other players or maybe it was just coincidence.  The Aggies got a couple more blocks, but they were shooting poorly, which kept the game close.  They would get warmed up and go out to an 11-6 lead, but it would be 15-12 Aggies after ten minutes. 

Brooke already had four points, five blocks and rebounds.  The Braves were up 10 to 3 in offensive rebounds.  The Aggies seemed sluggish according to that stat.  Also, the refs were calling a loose game and letting little things go.  This was likely to just move the game along so that the championship game next started on time. 

Second Quarter
The game continued to be close in the second.  Gia Pack got a behind-the-back assist to Brooke on a fast break for a layup.  She also made a hip shot three.  She’s a future Globetrotter.  Brooke was up to seven blocks.  But the Braves kept steady.  Troublingly, the Aggies allowed an uncontested coast-to-coast layup.  The Braves tied it at 29 with under two minutes.  Alcorn St then took a 29-31 lead.  Their bench was going crazy. 

Brooke made a three to get the Aggies back in the lead.  The Braves tied it on a free throw at 32, which was the score at the half.  The Aggies had 10 blocks total.  Brooke had seven of them.  She also had 12 points and 7 rebounds.  The team was shooting 40%.  However, Alcorn St was up 28-16 in rebounds.

Third Quarter
Both teams came out fouling.  There were clock issues again halting the action.  Finally, the Aggies started scoring and went up nine, 44-36, with six minutes left.  Timeout Braves.  The Aggies kept it up and stretched it out to a 15-point lead.  A Braves player hit the shot clock on top of the goal.  Adam Young, calling the game, was amazed.  He’d never seen that before.  The Braves took another timeout to admire it.  Brooke got a steal and a layup for her 20-th point.  56-45 Aggies after three quarters.     

Fourth Quarter
Alcorn St made a comeback to get the deficit down to single digits, 58-50, with seven minutes left.  Brooke passed down to Adenike Aderinto on a fast break that led to free throws.  She was looking for Nike on those plays about three times in this game.  Brooke was taking over on taking shots and getting her own rebounds.  Gia got a steal and breakaway layup.  The Aggies went up 16 after a Brooke free throw.  Alcorn St was still getting offensive rebounds and fighting it out to the last second, even intentionally fouling.  Brooke got a block on next to last play.  Aggies win 82-64.
How about this stat line for Brooke Salas: 32 points, 22 rebounds, 11 blocks.  She tied a school record for blocks.  It was the first triple-double since the 90’s for the team.  On the team Twitter feed later, a Lobo journalist and the Oregon Ducks gave Brooke a shout out.  See, this is what happens when you stayed out of foul trouble, like you have the last two games.  Gia Pack had 16 and Dominique Mills had 13.  That was good to see.  The Aggies need multiple double-digit scorers. 

The team also went 21-23 on free throws.  Mandatory harsh free throw training over Christmas is canceled.  The Braves did have 33 offensive rebounds and were +12 overall in rebounds, so Aggies need to work on that.  I feel like a broken record, but I have praise Brooke again.  The team came out flat.  Brooke hustled and willed them into the game.  She’s really showing some great leadership.  She just needs to get everyone motivated and involved out on the court.

Later in the evening in Las Vegas, the UTEP Miner ladies played the Akron Zips.  Wait.  I thought the Aggies just played Akron?  No, that was Alcorn State.  My bad.  (It’s all running together.)  Work was a bit frustrating, even more so because I couldn’t really watch or listen to this game (not to mention the KROD radio call was way out of sync with the video, but I wanted the Miner game call).  The Zips had a slim lead for most of the game.  The Miners would tie or briefly go ahead at times, but the Zips had it in hand by the very end and won 64-57.


Of note from what I saw, a player crashed in to Steve Kaplowitz’s broadcast table.  You could hear the crash, but Kappy stayed on the air.  Katarina Zec now has both knees wrapped up.  I saw her score the last points of the first half that got the Miners within one.  A few Miner fans were there; they follow the team around.  One player, Ariona Gill, is from Vegas.  Her family there was finally able to watch her play.  Coach Baker said that was one of the reasons why he put this tourney on the schedule.  That is super nice of him.

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