NM State Aggies vs NNMC Eagles Women’s Basketball 11-26-18

 

In spite of all the Black Friday commercials, I’d spent the last three days cooped up at home and had contracted Cabin Fever.  Not bad enough to where I wanted to get back to work, of course.  I was happy for the day off to go and see Aggie Women’s Basketball.  Ron’s mom had died on Friday.  He seemed to be taking it pretty well as it had been expected.  Though he had forgotten about the game when I called him, he was probably glad to get away from things for a couple of hours.  We repeated our meal and dessert from last week (11-20-18).  Mine had diminishing returns, as the seasonal turkey cranberry sandwich from McAlisters tasted a bit off. 

At the Pan-Am Center, Kayla Green, senior pitcher for the Aggie Softball team, was working at the courtesy table.  This was an unexpected opportunity.  I said, “Hi, Kayla,” and asked if she was working for a Sports Marketing degree.  I’d seen her working at at least three different sports.  She was and was hoping to get some work experience for her resume.  She’d be working one of the hand-held cameras during the game.  Kayla was nice.  As soon as she figured out that I wasn’t going to bite, I think she was okay with talking to me.  Kayla is also taller and better built up close up than she looks in the circle from the stands. 

Inside, there was a light crowd to start.  Actually, the Band, the Cheerleaders, and the Sundancers may have outnumbered the fans.  Thankfully, it filled in a bit by the start of the game.  Danny was sitting in his usual spot and I chatted with him for a minute.  I’d listened to a couple of Miner Women’s Basketball games as they were playing Abilene Christian and another team from AC’s conference.  They’re a pretty good team as it turns out.  He’d actually been at the games and confirmed my observation.  (I’ll cover those games elsewhere.) 

Northern New Mexico College was warming up.  They looked like a high school team.  Ron observed that the Sundancers were probably taller.  (And they weren’t that tall.  Actually this group of Cheerleaders was taller than them.  Usually the dancers are fairly tall, since nobody is lifting them overhead.)  The college is in Espanola, close to Santa Fe, with about 1,100 students, according to Adam Young’s radio call scouting report.  (Ron was so pissed that he had again forgotten his radio.)

Four Aggies weren’t suited up to play.  The team is a bit undermanned (as it were).  That probably didn’t help against Abilene Christian.  The plan was to use everyone tonight.  (This would cause me problems in scorekeeping.)  Adenike Aderinto (call her “Nike”) was going to be playing in her first Aggie game.  She is a transfer student and had to sit out a couple of games until she was eligible. 

And just to do what I usually do, here’s my girl-watching report.  One of the referees was tall, pretty, and trim.  I think I was comparing her to Naomi Campbell (in black and white stripes).  There was an exotic girl in a little black dress with tats running up one of her arms in the booster section.  (She should have been wearing heels though and not slippers.)  Below us was pretty blonde girl working another hand-held camera.  Pretty, but she looked very serious or unhappy at her job.  In our Coach’s Fashion segment, Coach Atkinson was wearing skinny black pants with a loose purple blouse.      

First Quarter

I’m still not in mid-season form in basketball scorekeeping, but as you can see, there was a whole lot of scoring.  I only missed 9 points (or more) adding it up the first time.  (Okay, that does still sound kind of bad.)  I’ll put in some corrections before I post this.  For the first half, the scoreboard wasn’t showing player scoring.  When it came on in the second half, a bunch of players cycled out early on, so I didn’t get their official scoring.  There’s also a misprint on the program.  They forgot to list that loss to Abilene Christian.

The Eagles matched the Aggies over the first two possessions.  That was as close as this game got.  Early on, Nike got her first Aggie points on a pair of free throws.  Brooke Salas stole a ball in mid-air and went coast-to-coast for a layup.  I think I have about 30 variations of that sentence in my game notes.  Bear with me.  I have to say something about this game, which there wasn’t much drama to it.

Aailyah Prince got a steal and a layup.  It was 15-4 Aggies at about the five-minute mark for the first media timeout.  I’m not bothering to give a running score for the rest of this recap.  Just assume the Aggies were leading by a bunch.  I’ll just hit the highlight reel plays.  Monique Mills found Nike underneath the basket for a layup.  Mo got a steal and basket.  Prince made a steal in the backcourt and converted it to a layup.  27-8 Aggies after 10 minutes. 

Second Quarter

The Dino Dash was back between quarters!  They increased the challenge this time, by having the contestants make two dunks on the kids’ goal.  It was also harder because the guy’s T-Rex suits started deflating immediately, so they were fighting their costumes trying to get up and down the court.  The NNMC bench players couldn’t help watching the spectacle, instead of listening to their coach.

Gia Pack didn’t start, but came in for most of the game.  She got a steal and passed it to Prince for a layup.  Didi Echols stole a pass got it to Mo for a layup.  The Sun-News did an article on her (though under her actual name, Rodrea).  She came here with a pretty impressive pedigree.  She grabbed another steal, part of NNMC’s 15 turnovers to this point. 

An Aggie pass after another turnover flew into the press table.  “I had a better chance of catching that one,” said Adam.  Gia fed Kalei Atkinson, entering the game, for a layup.  #1 Leah Deaguero popped a deep three for the Eagles, one of her three in the half.  Gia got another steal, a layup, and drew a foul.  52-17 Aggies at the half.

          

Halftime

I noticed Lia Mosher and Megan Hart from our champion volleyball team sitting in the crowd in the first quarter.  I wanted to figure out a way to tell PA Ed Carnathan (I finally reacquainted myself with Ed’s last name) that they were there.  No problem.  He saw them across the court and singled them out as he promoted the girls’ upcoming NCAA Tournament match, and congratulated them on winning the WAC Championship.  Apparently, they were too shy to stand up without the rest of the team with them.  After the announcement, Ed gave them a fist pump. 

Meg was wearing hair down and loose.  She looked . . . okay.  Nah, she was beautiful as always, of course.  I wasn’t kidding that she should be doing runway modeling in the offseason (as long as she promises not to get injured doing it).  I was hoping she’d walk by after the game, so I could yell, “MVP” at her, but she left a different way.  Sigh. 

Also during halftime, some members of the Roadrunner Review Band did a pretty credible Macarena.  And there was a bicycle giveaway.  Ron and I did not win.  If I’d won, I might have given it away, since I wouldn’t have had anywhere to put it in my apartment. 

Third Quarter

Like I said, they started putting the player stats up on the scoreboard here, but this was probably where my scorekeeping went downhill.  Between a couple of unfamiliar players with similar looks and numbers, I kept marking baskets for the wrong players, and even writing it down wrong in my notes.  This was with Adam in my ear, telling me who was making the baskets.  I was convinced he was wrong half the time, which, of course, he wasn’t. 

Didi found Nike under the basket for another nice layup right off the bat.  Unfortunately, on the next possession, Didi tripped on an opposing player and fell to the floor.  She got up and came off limping.  Adam said it was diagnosed as a rolled ankle and probably not serious. 

Tayelin Grays picked up where Didi left off as guard and found Nike under basket for another layup.  During one possession, Brooke missed three layups.  She got two rebounds, but Dominique Mills finally got it in.  Brooke would miss another layup.  She got fouled again, but was only making about half of her attempts.  She’s usually close to 90%.  Brooke came out for the game around this time. 

Gia kept the roll going with another steal and layup.  She got an assist to Aissatou Fall, who also drew a foul.  During a timeout, Pistol Pete posed for Flex Cam with a little girl beside him.  Too cute.  Back to the action, Gia dished it to Grays for a basket.  AD Mario Moccia came in.  He had a couple of animated conversations in the booster section.  If we’d run into him before the game on the concourse again, we’d planned on congratulating him on another volleyball championship.  Kalei got two steals in the backcourt and got a layup off one of them.  Gia had another steal and layup before the end of the quarter.  77-29 Aggies.    

Fourth Quarter

The game suddenly started after a short break.  It actually caught me off guard.  I wonder if they actually did begin early.  #13 Jazlynn Muniz began the quarter with a three for NNMC.  Kalei answered immediately with a three on a bank.  That was the first made three for the Aggies in the game.  Amazing, given that they’d already scored over 77 points.  She then made a steal and got another layup and hit another three.  Muniz banked in a three.  Kalei came back with another three.  (See, it’s like there’s actually two teams playing here.)

Gia fired it to Nike under the basket, who drew the foul and got the free throw.  Muniz put in her third three of the quarter.  Grays got a block, Gia got the ball, and passed to Prince for a layup.  Kalei hit another a three.  Prince then put in the only other Aggie three for the game, which got the Aggie score to 101.  Muniz drained a long three for her fourth of the quarter.  At this point, even the Aggie fans were applauding her.  Our final was 101-51 Aggies.

Gia Pack nearly had a triple-double in the game.  She was only short two assists.  Coach Atkinson took her out a couple minutes before the end of the game.  I’m not sure she knew about it until Adam mentioned it to the coach in the postgame interview.  Oops.   

Brooke Salas played mostly just in the first half, as was the plan.  She finished with 11 points, but she’s still missing most of her shots like in the last game, which was not part of the plan.  Aaliyah Prince showed a lot of hustle and energy during the game.  She probably needs to distribute the ball a bit more, but otherwise, she’s fun to watch.  Kalei Atkinson, with her near constant smile, seemed to be in mostly for her good defensive work, but then suddenly lit it up from downtown in the second half.  Other teams should probably not go to sleep on defending against her.

Adenike Adrinto looked good in her first game.  Hopefully, Didi Echols will be okay for the next game.  At the moment, the Aggies’ bench is a bit short, so we also hope that since everyone played, this will be good experience for them.  The team was using a full court press for much of the game.  Ron came to the conclusion that they came in with a game plan to score 100 points tonight.  

As for NNMC, they never seemed to get down during the game.  They were loose, but professional.  At 1-11, I admire their attitude.  They also hit 11 three-pointers, 7 by Leah Deaguero and Jazlynn Muniz combined, and scored 51 points.  If they could defend better, which would probably require them to be taller, they might be a pretty good team. 

The game took about an hour-and-a-half.  That was very quick.  There weren’t many timeouts during the game and there weren’t lengthy TV timeouts or breaks.  It’s hard to get a real read on this team yet.  They feel short-handed.  They really need Brooke to find her shot.  Her and Gia going off would be a potent combination, especially if Prince, Nike, Kalei, and the Mills sisters chip in.  Next up is another team I don’t know anything about and will be my last day off for the year to see an Aggie team play.