NM State Aggies at the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament and Season Recap 2019

3-23-19 vs Iowa St Cyclones

I’d like to give a detailed recap of this game and the coverage.  However, I was at Aggie Baseball and Softball games at the time and keeping notes and a scorecard already.  Further, the basketball game started about 45 minutes late because of the length of the preceding game.  Lastly, well, the game wasn’t real competitive. 

Though the game didn’t come on on time, I kept checking back on my radio.  Eventually, when it came on, I didn’t recognize the voice doing the call.  I was curious who would be doing it, since Adam Young would be doing the softball game later for TV.  Jack Nixon, of course, was put back in cryogenic suspension after the end of the Men’s Basketball season. 

Our guest announcer was Russ Eisenstein, sports broadcaster for Ohio University.  There’s an Ohio University?  In any case, AD Mario Moccia knew him and had asked him to step in.  Russ not only knew the Aggie Women’s stats very well, he seemed to know all about Aggie Sports in general.  He even mentioned he’d listened to the ladies’ WAC Championship game live and the Baseball Championship last year.  I was impressed. 

The #14 seed Aggies would be playing the #3 seed Iowa St Cyclones on their home floor.  This was going to be an uphill battle.  From looking them over, I noticed a couple of pretty girls on their team, including Bridget Carleton, their nationally recognized star player.  8000 were there watching the game, including some nice, but very outnumbered, Aggie representation.  Since the Iowa State’s Men’s team had been bounced from their tournament the night before, it was speculated that attendance was goosed for this game.  In the pregame interview, Coach Atkinson said that playing in front of a big hostile crowd at The Pit prepared them for this (except they had lost bad there twice).

The Aggies were in their crimson uniforms since they were the road team.  They probably wanted to keep wearing their powder blue and whites.  Brooke Salas at least was wearing the new black and gold Underarmor shoes the team got for winning their conference tournament.  The girls had left on a charter plane for this game during the Men’s game Thursday.  They took off with 20 seconds left in the game.  The pilot was the one to tell them who won it.  (I wouldn’t have wanted that job.) 

And for the first quarter, here’s all my notes: Brooke collected two fouls, 23-16 Cyclones after 10 minutes.  Like I said, I was busy.  During the second quarter, the Cyclones built up a 17-point lead and it was 50-26 at the half.  The massive crowd there was roaring.  The Aggies were missing shots and going on some bad scoring droughts. 

Mario came on at halftime.  He chatted about his general goal for Aggie sports.  Since he can’t control winning and losing, Mario wants to create a party atmosphere at Aggie sports, like the Diamond Club here at the baseball game.  It’s a good idea, but I’d try to also create that party atmosphere for the students and not just the boosters.  I know they don’t pay directly to get in, but you can’t have a great college sports program without student involvement.  Mario thanked the fans for supporting Terrell Brown and the Men’s team.  I’m glad to hear Aggie Nation isn’t personally blaming the players after the loss. 

Back to my exhaustive game coverage.  In the third quarter, Brooke got her third foul but stayed in.  The quarter finished at 80-44 with a 10-0 Cyclone run.  For the fourth quarter, Russ perhaps reached into his bag of blowout material.  He complimented the Aggie band and mentioned he had his picture taken with Pistol Pete before the game.  The iconic mascot asked him, “Who are you?” 

With the game out-of-reach, Russ issued an editorial statement.  He wondered why the media in general keeps confusing NMSU with UNM.  “They’re completely distinct programs.”  As Russ works for Ohio, and not Ohio State, so this is a touchy subject for him.  (There’s an Ohio University?)  Up by 39 points, the Cyclone fans roared in disapproval over a bad call by the refs.  Russ verbally rolled his eyes.

Brooke came out of the game during the last minute.  I was hoping she’d foul out in the last minute, you know, go down swinging.  97-61 Cyclones was the final.  Russ interviewed Assistant Coach McAdams afterward.  He said the Cyclones were very physical.  They couldn’t quite practice for that and hadn’t seen anything like it during the season. 

It wasn’t a great showing, but some of the Aggies still had a good game.  Brooke Salas finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, her usual double-double.  Gia Pack had 16 and a double-double as well.  Kalei Atkinson had 10 points.  The good news is that Gia and Kalei will be back next year.  Overall, the girls were way overmatched by their competition and their environment.   

Season Recap

How to put a bow on this?  With the Men’s recap, I could be a bit dispassionate, since I didn’t get to go to any of their games.  With the girls, I’d gone to and listened to more of their games.  I had a more personal investment.  Let’s go through the schedule and then try to sum it up.  The regular season games with the “vs” next to the date are the games I attended.

11-6-18 Season opener in a double header with the Men’s team.  Brooke came out firing with 22 points.

11-17-18 The Aggies went up big to start against UTEP, but ended up winning in a squeaker.

11-20-18 vs Abilene Christian.  My first in-person game of the season.  It was a hard loss as the team was out-hustled.  However, we were all introduced to the wonder of fan entertainment that was “Dino Dash.”  We also got to see Brooke Salas coaching on the sidelines.  That was great.

11-26-18 vs NMMC.  The Aggies clobbered them and scored 101.  Gia Pack nearly had a triple-double.

12-1-18 The Aggies lost bad in Albuquerque to the Lobos.  I found out later that the Lobos were leading the nation in attendance.  They would bring a couple of busses full of their fans here a couple of weeks later.  

12-11-18 vs Denver U.  An extremely tough game.  The Aggies won thanks to some tremendous defense in the fourth quarter.  Aaliyah Prince and Kalei Atkinson were sparkplugs off the bench.

12-15-18 vs UNM.  It was a bad enough losing to a really good Lobo team, but their fans were out-cheering us too.  It was rough.  The Aggies did break out their throwback uniforms and continued wearing them as much as possible during the season.  I did get to chat with Brooke for a moment during the autograph session afterward.  It made the loss sting a bit less.

12-18-18 The Aggies won a very close game against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.  They’re a small school, but they played hard.  This was A&M CC’s biggest home matchup of the year and was on local TV. 

12-20-18 The Aggies were in Miami for a tournament and playing undefeated South Alabama to start.  The Aggies gave them everything they had.  They were up by three with five seconds left.  The Jags made an off-balance three and were fouled and won the game by one point.  Coach Atkinson was almost speechless afterward.

12-21-18 Next in the tournament, the girls played a team with one win this season.  It was from one extreme to another.  The team took full advantage of the mismatch.  Brooke scored 32 points as part of a triple-double and even got some props from a Lobo reporter and Oregon University.

12-28-18 Brooke had a bit of a homecoming game on the road against UC-Riverside in California.  While she put up 22 points, the team suffered another tragic one-point loss.  Coach Atkinson was probably on suicide watch after this game. 

12-30-18 The girls’ California swing continued with a game against UC-Santa Barbara.  The Gauchos had crushed them here at about this time last year.  Did the Aggies remember?  Oh, yeah.  It was a win this time.  Gia dropped 29 points on them.  Brooke had 24, and Prince had 10 off the bench.  (Whew, talk about some frequent flyer miles.  The girls went coast-to-coast over these two weeks.) 

1-3-19 I had to miss the girls’ first conference game and their first game back.  They beat CBU, who put up a stiff fight in their first WAC conference game.  Stabresa McDaniel busted out with 21 points.

1-10-19 The Aggies took a loss in Phoenix against the Lopes.  At least they played better there this time than last year when they lost by 20.

1-12-19 The Aggies beat the Roadrunners in a close game.  Dominique Mills had a double-double.

1-17-19 This was sound beating of Seattle U at home.

1-19-19 vs Utah Valley.  It was close for most of the game, but the Aggies had a great run in the fourth quarter to win it.    

1-26-19 vs UTRGV.  This eight-point Aggie win was not indicative of how hard fought this game was.  The Aggies started off awesome, but the Vaqueros roared right back into it and didn’t let up.

1-31-19 Gia scored 32 points in a road win against UMKC.  The Aggies needed all of them as Brooke only had 8 points.  Monique Mills also stepped up with 17.

2-2-19 The Aggies beat Chicago State on the road.  Brooke scored 28.  Both Mills sisters scored in double digits.  Gia scored her 1,000-th point for the program.

2-7-19 vs CSU-Bakersfield.  It was a close game at the half, but the Aggies blew out the Roadrunners by the end.

2-9-19 vs GCU.  Free cookies for Brooke’s Senior Day.  There was huge crowd for the game with a little girls cheerleading group performing.  The Aggies remembered their loss last month and absolutely crushed the Lopes by 29.

2-14-19 It was an odd morning game against Utah Valley on the road.  The Aggies sleepwalked to another win.

2-23-19 The Aggies won a close one at UTRGV and clinched the number one seed at the WAC Tournament. 

2-28-19 The Aggies were down by 12 in the fourth quarter at home to the Roos.  The Aggies won by 7 thanks to some incredible defense.  The girls really didn’t have anything to play for, except for the pride of their conference home winning streak.  I feel like this game was where they showed their championship-level grit. 

 

3-2-19 vs Chicago State.  “Chicago’s not a state!”  The Cougars did fight hard today, but the Aggies were overwhelming.  For the second time this season, Gia nearly got a triple-double.  (Actually, I think it almost happened three times this season, but I don’t know where the other one happened.)

 

3-13-19 WAC Tournament vs Chicago State Cougars.  The Aggies took care of business here pretty efficiently and rested their starters at the end.  That was a good idea given what happened afterward.

3-15-19 WAC Tournament vs UMKC Roos.  What a fight!  40 minutes of regulation wasn’t enough time to decide this one.  Gia scored 36 and took over in the OT for a great win.  Kalei had 11 off the bench.  I’m sure nothing could top this game. 

3-16-19 WAC Championship vs UTRGV Vaqueros.  I was really wrong.  Brooke started this game on fire.  She ended it in the second overtime by scoring the last four points.  Gia was the tournament MVP and set a record for scoring in the tournament.  The both of them played almost the entirely of these last two games.  I don’t think I can express my admiration.

 

3-23-19 NCAA Tournament vs Iowa St Cyclones.  And they lost to a really good team on their home court.

Sort of like the Men, the ladies had some tough non-conference losses (two one-point ones).  Winning some of those games would have put them on a different level.  Both teams dominated the conference in results (only one loss), but it felt like the Women were facing stiffer competition.  They really had to earn their #1 seed, having to comeback for their wins several times. 

I feel like Coach Atkinson was handed a good team (she’d agree with that), but had to learn how to win the WAC Tournament after losing out last year.  From this first NCAA experience, I think she probably learned some more.  If she can recruit the horses for another run, we’ll see if she can do more. 

For the players, I’m glad Gia Pack will be coming back to lead the team.  She really came into her own this season.  I think Aaliyah Prince and Kalei Atkinson could be great next season.  Where the team goes depends on who Coach Atkinson can bring in and getting back several players who were injured for this season.  I’m not going to say the team was unlucky with injuries.  They won the conference and Brooke and Gia took a few hard falls that could have ended everybody’s season, but the team might have been even better if everyone had been able to play.  This will be the last year that Coach Atkinson will have Coach Trakh’s recruits to work with, so she’d best make the most of them.

Lastly, I don’t even really want to acknowledge that Brooke Salas is leaving.  It’s too painful.  I wish I had a transcript of PA Ed’s list of accomplishments for her Senior Day ceremony.  We’ll just say that she was the second best Aggie Women’s Basketball player ever.  For this season, she was the WAC MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year, an unprecedented honor.  She scored, rebounded, and defended very well.  I think she learned leadership this year.  I know the unasked question that was on everyone’s minds at Coach Atkinson’s postseason press conference was “Do you have another good-looking future star player recruited to replace Brooke?”    

I hope Brooke goes on to play professionally.  I don’t watch the WNBA.  I have no idea what their talent level is like.  I’m pretty sure she’ll be playing against bigger and taller players, but that doesn’t mean Brooke couldn’t succeed there.  She’ll probably be a popular player if she gets in and does well, just like here.  I fully expect to see her in a smart female business suit coaching on the sidelines of a game some day. 

Personally, Brooke was actually the first female Aggie athlete I ever latched on to.  Yeah really, I checked (1-23-16).  That was a terrible post and it got way too many hits because of a disgruntled Sundancer.  I referred to Brooke as “cute.”  And here I am three years later, waxing poetic about her skills.  (Brooke was good as a freshman actually, and her looks certainly made her easy to watch while she was playing so well.) 

I’ve been to any number of various Aggie Women’s sporting events since.  I wonder if I hadn’t enjoyed that game and liked Brooke, if I’d gone back.  I’m sure I’m not the only fan she made of this program.  Good job.