Friday, January 11, 2019

Sports Journal January 5-10, 2019

1-5-19
I thought I’d get the weekend off from sports writing.  The UTEP Women’s Basketball game was preempted for the FCS Football Championship game on the radio.  Unexpectedly later in the afternoon, another Women’s Basketball game came on Stadium.  It was the New Mexico Lobos versus the Nevada Wolfpack.  I’d seen the Lobos in person this season (12-15-18) and I’d also seen the Wolfpack on TV (11-25-18).  This was their first meeting in Mountain West conference for the year. 

The Lobos were on a ten-game winning streak, mostly winning by 20 or more each game.  They are number one in the nation in blocked shots and attendance.  (I’m not surprised at all about leading in attendance they way they travel.)  Out on court, size-wise, the Lobos seemed to have a definite advantage over the Wolfpack. 

However, Nevada does have an advantage in coaching.  Coach Amanda Levens, who I’d noticed last time, is a real cutie.  Certainly she looks very serious and intense out there, but she is cute.  She’s a highlight blonde and today Amanda was in a pair of blue jeans and a light blouse.  (Here I am doing a coach’s wardrobe segment for another team.)  There was another attractive referee on court too with pretty long, dark hair. 

First Quarter
The Wolfpack starters were introduced coming out through a curtain.  Kinda classy.  Both teams came out playing nervous with several turnovers.  At 6-2 Lobos, nearly five minutes in, Nevada scored their first points.  The Wolfpack Cheerleaders were finally able to leave the stands and come back down to the court.  (Aggie Cheerleaders are there until the opposing team scores.  Everybody has different traditions.) 

9-8 Nevada took the lead off of some continuing sloppy play by the Lobos.  You could hear their Coach Mike Bradbury screaming on court over the announcer’s microphones.  The team kept dribbling off their feet for some reason on the way to ten turnovers in the quarter.  It was 11-9 Nevada after ten minutes.

Second Quarter
Lobo #23 Jaedyn de la Cerda hit three early.  I remembered her from the Aggie game.  She’s kinda cute and absolutely torched the Aggies.  The game was getting rough with girls hitting the floor.  It was 17-17 after the Lobos took an ill-advised shot.  “Coach Bradbury isn’t going to have a voice by the end of this,” said the play-by-play guy listening to the coach’s reaction. 

That got the team’s attention and they went on a 10-0 run.  24-19 Lobos on a steal and a layup.  One Lobo got hit in face under the basket and went down.  The coach went over to check on her, but she stayed in.  30-22 NM at the half.

Third Quarter
Early, there was another Lobo steal and an attempted layup.  It was three-on-one and the one defender had three fouls.  The Lobos passed the ball twice and ended up coming away with nothing.  The only stat the Wolfpack were leading in for the first half was rebounding, and they were doing it well in the second half too.  It was keeping them in it.

Nevada was also doing it down under the basket offensively.  A Wolfpack player under the rim made a fake and got a Lobo player to jump on her back.  The girl hung there for a moment before they both collapsed.  They both came up smiling.  A little later, it was about the same play, but two Lobo defenders were standing over the Nevada player.  She pump faked and hesitated twice, got the basket, and the foul.  The Lobos finished with the lead, 48-44.

Fourth Quarter  
The Wolfpack had gotten within two late in the third, but the Lobos went on an 11-0 run.  It was 55-44 early and NM’s biggest lead.  A loose ball was caught by a fan by the side of the court.  The announcer identified him, by name, as a Nevada professor, who’s a big fan of the university’s basketball programs. 

60-57 Lobos, Nevada’s Terae Briggs suddenly couldn’t miss and got the Wolfpack right back in it.  Timeout Lobos.  More rough play, a Nevada girl went down hard after making a block.  After a review, a Lobo player got an “Unsportsman-like conduct” foul.  From what I saw, it looked like she kicked the other girl on the way down.  Needless to say, the Lobo girl got booed every time she touched the ball thereafter.

64-62 Lobos, an NM player fouled out on the next play.  She was one of their main defensive players.  It was tied at 64 with about 90 seconds left.  The Lobos got a steal and layup again to take the lead.  Nevada had the ball with six seconds left, but missed a last second three to win it.  66-64 Lobos win.  Now it’s an 11-game winning streak.  Hey, that was a great game.  I’m glad Stadium showed this instead of what was scheduled and that I was able to watch.

1-10-19
Two Aggie Basketball games were on tap tonight.  I had a bunch of work and some distractions later that kept me from really watching and taking notes, so this is going to be a bit spotty.  First up, the Aggie Women were in Phoenix to play GCU.  They didn’t have a good game there last year and got drummed.  (Checking back, apparently I didn’t cover that game.)  I had the GCU video feed up while I was working.  They have two professional announcers working for them.  They were good and fair in calling the game (unlike their student broadcasters).   

I did find myself looking at the Lopes’ Coach Nicole Powell.  I’d noticed her when she brought her team here.  She’s a very athletic and attractive woman.  I didn’t note Coach Atkinson’s wardrobe again.  I’m failing in fashion reporting.  Also, I’m still fascinated with the Mills sisters’ hair color choices.  Dominique was still red, but  Monique seemed to be going with a golden hue. 

And now, how to write a recap without any notes.  Brooke Salas had no field goals in the first quarter.  She wasn’t cold; seemingly the whole GCU team was keyed on collapsing on her whenever she had the ball.  Still, the Aggies stayed close, trailing 12-16 after ten minutes.  Brooke got her first basket in the second.  She’d already accumulated nine rebounds to that point, so she was playing hard.  The Aggies went down by as many as seven, but got within one on an Aaliyah Prince layup and free throw.  The Aggies were still down 24-28 at the half.

I missed the third quarter.  Brooke was finally able to get going on offense.  The announcers were impressed with her.  In the fourth, the Aggies got within two in final seconds.  Brooke got a steal, but then turned it right over.  The Aggie pressure defense got a turnover and time for a final shot.  Kalei Atkinson was fouled and missed both free throws (the second may or may not have been on purpose).  On the last Aggie play, needing a three, the inbounds went off Brooke’s fingers and out-of-bounds. 

51-54 Lopes win.  They led all the way.  The Aggies at least did better than last year, when they only scored like 39 and lost by about 20.  Brooke Salas had 16 points and 16 rebounds.  Gia Pack was next with 10 points.  Your stat of the match was zero, the number Aggie three-pointers made.

The Men’s Basketball game against GCU here in Las Cruces started at about halftime of the Women’s game.  I started off listening on the radio, as I was away from my desk.  Even on a rainy night without any special promotion, there was nearly a full house at the Pan-Am Center for this conference rivalry matchup.  They were into it too.  Watch out though, three bus loads of GCU fans and students also came to game.  They’d be cheering too. 

When I got back to my desk, I found the game on Twitch again and started watching near the end of the half.  There wasn’t a lot of chat going on with the game and it was only GCU fans talking.  The halftime score was 38-41 Lopes in a very tight game.  (Like I said, I was busy.)

By the time the Women’s game came to its disappointing end, the Men’s second half started.  Here, however, was my distraction.  I was watching DizzyKitten, also on Twitch, interacting with her chatroom.  She’d made an offhanded comment that she had a printer in the bathroom and Chat started teasing her.  It was her mom’s master bathroom and printer.  Finally, Dizzy left her room for a moment to ask, “Mom, Chat wants to know why there’s a printer in the bathroom.”  Also, there was a coffee maker and gun supplies in the bathroom.  It’s a large bathroom.  Obviously, I couldn’t tune away from this exchange.

On some level, I missed most of a super-intense second half.  I definitely missed a couple of great Johnny McCants’ jams.  On the other, the score remained close and nothing really changed.  The Aggies may have gotten the biggest lead of the game, up five, with under two minutes.  The Lopes came right back with a three. 

With under 30 seconds left, disaster struck.  Up by three, all the Aggies had to do was dribble out as much as possible.  Excellent ball-handler, AJ Harris, suddenly got his pocket picked for a layup.  Moments later, AJ turned it over again on the inbounds for another easy layup for GCU.  With 13 seconds left, the Aggies were suddenly losing by one.

Terrell Brown was fouled shooting when the Aggies got the ball back.  He’s the team’s best free throw shooter at 80%.  He missed both.  On the rebound, the Aggies intentionally fouled immediately with only a couple of seconds left on the clock.  The GCU player missed the front end of the one-and-one. 

And then a legend was made.  Local boy Johnny McCants got the rebound and dribbled to halfcourt.  Johnny is not known for his long distance shooting, in fact people were questioning why he was in this late in the game, since he doesn’t even shoot free throws well.  Well behind the halfcourt line, he calmly heaved the ball as only tenths of a second remained.  The ball went right through the net, barely touching the rim.   

76-75 Aggies win!  Johnny was instantly mobbed and dogpiled on court by the team.  My dad reported that Jack Nixon on the radio was out of breath for the rest of the broadcast.  Adam Young, doing the video, was in a bit of shock.  He’d seen endings like this on replay, but never live, much less calling the game. 

As the team partied in the student section, Coach Chris Jans admitted in the postgame interview he was already walking over to congratulate GCU Coach Dan Majerle before Johnny shot the ball.  He’d said he was actually not mad about the impending loss, since the team had played hard and well.  In any case, Coach Jans was euphoric, along with the rest of the Aggie fans.  Did we just steal one?  Maybe. 


The star of the game was Ivan Aurrecoechea with 20 points and 11 rebounds, a tremendous comeback from being blanked against CBU last week (1-3-19).  Terrell Brown had 15, Johnny McCants had 17 (a definite breakout game for him offensively), and Keyon Jones had 12.  It’s still hard to get a read on this team.  Hopefully, this last second win turns the corner for them on losing close games.  We’ll see who steps up for the next game on Saturday.

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