Friday, January 25, 2019

Sports Journal January 19-20, 2019

1-19-19
After watching a successful Aggie Women’s Basketball game this afternoon, I listened to the Aggie Men playing Utah Valley on the road in the evening.  Jack Nixon reported that everyone was over the flu.  They’d certainly need everyone tonight, as they were playing a team with the second-longest home winning streak in the country.

First Half
On the Aggies’ first possession, Johnny McCants went for a three.  The shot missed, but he got the rebound and laid it in.  On the second possession, Terrell Brown missed the shot, but again grabbed the rebound and got the bucket.  However, the Wolverines went on a 14-point run for a 10-22 lead.  Timeout Aggies.  I’m not sure I understand what happened next.  Somehow a production equipment wire got caught in one of the goals?  Mohamed Thiam dislodged it.  Jack credited him with an assist.

This clearly sparked the Aggies as they went on an 8-point run.  Trevelin Queen (I love the alliteration on that name) hit a three to get it to 23-26.  With five minutes left, the Aggies got it within one, but then they gave up a three and a layup.  It was 33-39 Utah Valley at the half.

Second Half
The Aggies again got it within one on a couple of three’s.  They’d take the lead on an AJ Harris’ three.  With 10 minutes left in the game, the lead started going back-and-forth on alternating possessions.  Eli Chuha already had a double double with 7 minutes left.  The Aggies got into the double bonus with 5 minutes left.  There were lots of fouls in this game.  The Wolverines had several players with four fouls, though none fouled out.     

The Aggies got out to a 3-point lead and took a timeout with 3 minutes left.  AJ came out and hit a three to make it a 6-point lead.  Jojo Zamora then hit a three to make it 77-70 Aggies with one minute left.  All those fouls would come back and haunt the Wolverines at the end.  AJ and Terrell hit 6-straight free throws at the end to ice the game.  83-78 Aggies win! 

Well, the Wolverines had broken the Aggies’ home winning streak last year, so this was just returning the favor.  Coach Jans was happy in the postgame to give you an idea of what he thought of the team’s performance.  Eli Chuha had 20 points with 14 rebounds.  AJ Harris and Terrell Brown each had 19.  Jojo Zamora had 13.  Here’s your stat of the game: the Aggies were 83% on free throws and +11 over the Wolverines in making them.
  
At this point, I should have started writing up the Women’s game, but I couldn’t quite turn off the TV that I’d left on during the Men’s game.  Groan.  Alright let’s get to it.  Later that night, Manny Pacquaio fought Adrien Broner in a boxing match.  Actually, if they’d played Bridge or something that would have been a tremendous surprise and perhaps more interesting.  I had hoped I’d missed this last week, but apparently the commercial that I’d seen was advertising it for this week.  I couldn’t be less enthusiastic, but since I already had the TV on, I thought I’d watch.  Two undercard matches that went the distance later, I was ready to bail, but the main event finally came on at 11:30pm two hours later.

No, I’m not even doing round-by-round scoring.  I wasn’t even going to take any notes unless something interesting happened.  In the third round, I swear Broner tried to escape the ring by ducking through the ropes.  This was probably the point where he finally fully realized that he was badly overmatched.  In the seventh, I was momentarily thrilled that the fight might end early on a TKO.  Manny had Broner on the ropes twice.  Broner could only clutch to stop the onslaught.  The ref would not stop the fight though, and Broner was saved by the bell.

Broner got his second wind and continued the fight.  He was momentarily knocked off his feet in the ninth, which got the crowd on theirs.  By the eleventh, Broner was running for his life around the ring.  The crowd did not appreciate his sprinting skill and let him hear it.  At the end of the match, Broner jumped up into a corner of the ring and held up his arms in moral victory! 

The judges disregarded his display and unanimously awarded the match to Pacquaio.  Credit to the ref for not stopping the fight prematurely, even though Broner was being used as a punching bag there in the seventh.  I think I had more fun writing this than watching it.  Oh crap, now its 12:30.  Forget writing up the Women’s game tonight.  I’m done.    

1-20-19
I guess there’s a couple of big NFL games on today, so what a great time to talk about hockey.  (Rush Limbaugh has kissed and made up with the NFL.  He’ll regret it.)  Getting back from seeing my parents, I didn’t make it back in time for the beginning of the Washington Capitals versus the Chicago Blackhawks game.  I just missed the first Blackhawk goal by seconds.  They were still showing replays of it when I turned the TV on.  That’s okay, I saw their next goal a few seconds later while changing into more comfortable clothes.  2-0 Blackhawks early in the first period.

I decided to exercise rather than sitting down to watch and take real notes.  I might have been figuring that the game wouldn’t get much more exciting.  Well, the Caps scored a goal.  The Blackhawks got another goal off of an own goal by the Caps, as a player deflected it off his hand trying to knock it away in the air.  (I thought you couldn’t get a goal on a hand pass?)  They nearly scored again, but it was waved off as the puck was actually pushed under the net.  3-1 Blackhawks.

There was a player on one of the teams named “Kookoo,” (I’m sure I’m not spelling that right).  Mike Emrick tried to explain the spelling and entomology, but it was eliciting giggles from me whenever I heard it.  There was a little segment on the horn at the United Center.  It was brought over from the old stadium.  It’s operated like an ICBM; you have to turn a key before hitting the big red button.  And, the operator’s name is Michael Horn.      

Early in the second, the Blackhawks scored again to make it 4-1.  I was calling for a goalie change and the Cap’s coach heard me.  Next up was a mass fist fight.  Then there was another fight between Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Kane.  This resulted in a 4 on 4, but then there was another penalty and another fight.  At one point, I saw four Blackhawks in the penalty box.  The refs had some confusion and everyone else shared in it.  The TV graphics displayed that it was a 4 on 3, then a 4 on 4, and then finally full strength before play actually restarted.  (I think, it was very confusing.) 

The Blackhawk goalie (whose name I didn’t quite get) made three saves in one five-second sequence.  At one point, he was sideways and airborne making a stop.  The crowd was on its feet after the play.  About a minute later, a fluky goal got right past him to make it 4-2.  That’s the way it goes sometimes. 

I had to turn away for a minute to see something at noon.  College Wrestling was on the schedule on Stadium.  There it was.  Navy was taking on Lehigh and they’d be taking on Duke afterward.  I couldn’t believe this was on over-the-air TV.  A decent crowd was there for the event.  I didn’t quite get all the rules, but I got the gist.  What I saw was interesting, but not as interesting as the hockey.

At the start of the third period, the Caps scored to get within 4-3.  Kane answered 30 seconds later on a power play to make it 5-3.  The Blackhawks made it 6-3 with Jonathan Toews scoring on a two on one breakaway.  Emrick told a story about an organist controversy at an All-Star Game in the 70’s, as the ASG is coming next week.  The United Center organist was shown on camera and happily waved to the TV audience. 

The Capitals scored two more goals and then it was 6-5.  By this point, I was actually glad I wasn’t keeping detailed notes on the scoring.  Toews got a hat trick with his third goal to make it 7-5.  Finally, there was an empty-netter to finish the game 8-5 Blackhawks.  The crowd and myself were standing and the applauding the effort by both teams today.

After the game, I flipped back over to the wrestling.  To my surprise, they were showing a couple of little kids out on the mat.  I was confused until the announcer explained that it was halftime.  Yes, they have quarters and halftime in wrestling.  Flipping around, I found on a Mexican station showing bullfighting.  I’ve run into this a couple of times on the weekends.  I think it’s a weekly recap show: This Week in Bullfighting or something like that.  The video was dramatic with the bullfight going on in a downpour.  Okay, I’m not breaking down bullfighting or wrestling today.  That’s enough of that.

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