NM State Aggies vs UNM Lobos Women’s Basketball 11-15-22 Part 2

Part 1.

Halftime

Surrounded in our seats, Ron and I didn’t have much option about staying for the Trojettes’ performance.  The Mayfield Cheerleaders around us were cheering for them.  The girls performed a high-energy dance number to a 50’s Elvis medley played at a very high tempo.  After, the girls did their signature formation walk off, as they huffed and threw back their heads and strutted off.  The Lobo fans were unimpressed or wouldn’t even condescend to applaud a group of high school dancers from Las Cruces.    

 

The Trojettes returned to their seats below us.  Some of the Aggie Soccer team was still here watching.  The Cheerleaders stood in the stands and threw t-shirts into the crowd before the half started. 

Third Quarter

The Lobos started off with a layup and a foul.  Soufia Inoussa answered with a jumper.  Molly Kaiser picked up a foul.  The Lobos lost the ball on a Travelling call and again after a 3-second violation.  The Lobos did start full-court pressing and would do so for basically the rest of regulation.  Soufia picked up a bunny.  Both teams played very sloppy going into the media timeout.  36-16 Aggies, 4 minutes left.

 

There was a near riot as souvenir hats were tossed into the stands.  Glad we came early and were handed ours.  Tayelin Grays got involved in the scoring with a layup and the foul, but missed the free throw.  Sylena Peterson and Sabou Gueye both picked up fouls, but the Lobos got a foul on a charge.  Shania Harper fed the bunny.

 

Sabou made a fast break layup and drew the foul.  It was another missed free throw, but Harper got the rebound.  The ball got loose again.  Tayelin hustled all the way into the backcourt to finally retrieve it.  Molly dished to Harper for a jumper to make it 44-16.  Timeout Lobos, 2:30 left.  The crowd was roaring at this point.

 

Bongo Cam went over very well with the crowd.  The Lobos came back fired up.  Shaiquel McGruder made a layup.  Harper got stripped of the ball.  LaTora Duff hit a 3.  After another quick Aggie turnover, the Lobos got a layup and a foul.  Shaiquel made a steal and made another layup.  Had the Lobos been laying back all this time?  44-27 Aggies at the end of the quarter. 

 

Fourth Quarter

AD Mario Moccia said after the game, that at this point, he’d told someone that the Aggies should be able to handle it from here.  He blamed himself for what happened next.  Lobos put up 30 points and tied the score.  Credit where credit is due, the Lobos made that happen.  I don’t even think I can call it a choke by the Aggies.  They were playing about as well as they were the rest of the game.  The Lobos just finally started making their shots and the Aggies were having to fight their way up court every time with the press.

 

There was an odd fight in the stands going on.  The Mayfield Cheerleader girls on our side of the court were being out-cheered by the Las Cruces High girls (probably their Basketball team and some others) on the other side.  This started with a PA playing of YMCA.  Later, during another song, it got more heated.  A guy with the Mayfield Cheerleaders took off his shirt.  On the other side, one of the girls took off her shirt, revealing her sports bra.  I think they won that one. 

 

“Say, Ron,” I said, “Isn’t that girl your little adopted niece, Emma?”  There’s a whole story behind this.  I can’t find it easily in the blogs.  Several years ago, Ron wanted to adopt this little girl cheering at a Softball game.  In any case, that was her flashing everyone.  Ron kind of growled. 

 

Too many details follow in the game notes.  Basically, Lobos slowly worked their way back into it.  The Aggies were still making shots and playing good defense.  The Lobos’ fouling even put the Aggies in a bonus situation early.  That was a great strategy, because the Aggies were not hitting free throws to save their lives.

 

With three minutes left, the Lobos had hit a 3 to make it 51-50 Aggies.  All of the crowd was really into it by this point.  Both sides were going crazy.  Fama Thiam hit a free throw to make it 52-52.  There was a near fight over a contested ball.  The Lobos tied it on a layup and then fouled immediately.  The Aggies fouled right back.  The Lobos fouled Ashlee Strawbridge, who made both shots, which I think was the first time all game an Aggie had done so.  The Lobos then made an uncontested layup.  55-55, 1:25 left.

 

Sylena was fouled and made both.  (If the foul shooting had been this good earlier, the Lobos would never have gotten back into it.)  The Aggies fouled and the Lobos make both.  57-57, 1:14 left.  Timeout Lobos.  The Aggies got a defensive hold on the next Lobo possession.  The Aggies held for a last shot, but missed.  We went to Overtime. 

      

Overtime

Back to Mario’s postgame comments, he said he heard Coach Adams tell Molly in the huddle that the Lobo player was going to win the tip.  She was going to tip it to a specific spot on the court.  (That’s some advanced scouting.)  Molly needed to be in that spot, catch the ball, and then to run it in for a layup.  When I saw that happen on the first play of OT, here I just thought they were just playing well and being opportunistic.

 

Soufia followed that up with a 3.  The Lobos did not start off pressing during the Overtime.  They had to have been exhausted.  Sylena dropped in a pair of free throws to make it 64-59 with 3 minutes left.  The Lobos came back with a couple of free throws, but Molly answered with a jumper.  The Lobos then had a turnover.  They pressed and caused a messy play with players on both teams falling on the court, grabbing at the ball. 

 

66-61, under 2 minutes.  Timeout Aggies.  Soufia came out with a 3, which essentially sealed it.  Fama dropped in a couple of free throws and Molly made a layup.  The Lobos couldn’t keep up.  “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” proclaimed PA Ed, as the Aggies won 73-64!  The Canes Challenge had been activated by going over 70 points.  It was an added bonus. 

 

If I had to pick a turning point in the game, it was that Lobos came back and tied it, but never led.  I almost wanted to scream at the Aggies on defense, “Don’t let them have a 3!”  In spite of what happened in the fourth, the Aggies never panicked.  Both teams were actually very composed.  There were only a couple of times I saw poor play late and it would be both teams at the same time. 

 

Props to Coach Adams for keeping the team focused.  She got the team to believe in her game plan before the game.  When things got rough, they kept following her plan.  In the fourth, I noticed Tayelin on the sidelines with the coach.  They had their arms around each other looking at the court.  The senior, who’d been with the program for four years, was clearly hanging on every word the new coach was telling her. 

 

One thing the coach had to learn on-the-job was the intensity of the rivalry.  I heard an interview with Men’s Coach Heiar after his loss on the weekend to UTEP.  He blamed the team’s lapse in concentration right before halftime and a Miner 3 at the start of the second half for burying them.  But later, he mentioned Johnny McCants on the staff was out sick.  There were only a couple players who’d played in the rivalry and only once each.  Heiar said he didn’t understand before the game what was needed to win these kind of games here.  He does now, as does Coach Adams.    

 

The team went around the court collecting high-fives.  This is a great tradition to continue for the Aggie sports teams.  I think I got a smile and a wave from Sylena from where we were.  Ron made a beeline to the bathroom afterward.  I followed.  Via the team Twitter, Coach Adams got a Gatorade bath when she entered the locker room later.  All was right with the world.          

 

Here’s the final stats.  Soufia Inoussa led all scorers with 14 points and 7 rebounds.  Molly Kaiser had 12 points, Fama Thiam had 10, Ashlee Strawbridge had 9 points and 8 rebounds, and Sylena Peterson had 9 pts with 6 rebounds.  The Lobos had four players in double-digits in the scoring, led by LaTora Duff with 13. 

 

As for team stats: the Aggies shot 41%, 3-pointers 30%, free throws 50%.  The Lobos were at 35% shooting, 3-point shooting 26%, and free throws 78%.  The Lobos were up 15 of 19 in free throws, while the Aggies were an abysmal 11 for 22, but made them in the clutch.  The Lobos were also up 14 to 8 in steals.  The Aggies out-rebounded the Lobos 44 to 33.  3-pointers weren’t much of a factor for either team. 

Out-of-Town Scores

It has taken me so long to write this that I need to report on some other Aggie games that have occurred since.  (I blame a Planet of the Apes marathon last week.  I regret nothing.)  Aggie Volleyball lost in the first round of the WAC Tournament to GCU.  They were swept in straight sets, but went well into extra points in that first set.  The girls still have a final game against UTEP, who were bounced from their tournament by nationally-ranked Rice. 

 

Aggie Football lost 45-14 to Missouri on a frigid Saturday night in Columbia.  I’d tuned into the radio expecting to listen to the Aggie Men’s Basketball team playing the UNM Lobos, and instead got the football coverage.  That game had been postponed.  AD Moccia couldn’t offer a full explanation in the pregame interview.  Even news reports are really sketchy, but apparently Mike Peake on the team was shot in Albuquerque the night before the game.  The incident involved a UNM student, who was shot to death.  Needless to say, this looks really bad.  We’ll see what further news develops.