Sports Journal November 23 to 30, 2019

11-23-19

This is a bit of a cheat here.  I didn’t watch or hear this Women’s Basketball game between the Miners and Aggies when it was played.  I’d been at Aggie Football versus the Miners during the afternoon and ate out in the evening.  I’d tried to get this game on the radio at home, but I’d come in late and the reception on the El Paso station had powered down for the night.

This was the reciprocal game after the Aggie home game (11-13-19).  UTEP won the first meeting in a fairly tight game, but in El Paso, the Miners dominated, 65-45.  UTEP led the game all the way.  Gia Pack had 18 points and Aaliyah Prince had 10 to lead the Aggies.  My dear Katerina Zec had 11 and two other Miner players in were double figures.  (Yes, I’m playing favorites.  I don’t have to cover UTEP’s players fairly.)  The significant stats were a 19-9 Miner advantage in bench points and the Aggies going 1-15 in three-pointers.  They did have a 13-8 edge in steals though.

11-24-19

I still didn’t know how the Aggie Volleyball team had done in their championship game on Sunday morning, but I got to watch the Patriot League Volleyball Championship on Stadium with Army versus American University.  I’d seen the Eagles play against Navy for the championship last year (11-18-18).  The Midshipmen had beaten AU on their home court to win it.

I didn’t take notes during the match, but I can sum it up by starting at the trophy presentation.  The MVP for the tournament was the AU setter, Olivia Wassner.  She was also one of the tallest girls on the team and helped with the blocking.  She had four dump shot kills in the match.  Olivia had run into one of the posts in the first set going for a dig and had to come out.  I was distressed, because I’d latched on to her as the cute one on court.  During that time, Army came back and won Set 2.  When she got back in, American got back on track and won the match 3-1.  Don’t say that people don’t notice good setter play. 

11-25-19

This was a Monday morning game for Aggie Men’s Basketball versus the Colorado State Rams in the Cayman Islands Classic.  I think AD Mario Moccia scheduled this to pick up (and launder) some offshore contributions for the university.  The man will do anything for NMSU. 

   

I woke up late and came in at halftime.  The Aggies had had a big lead to start the first half, but the Rams came back.  They tied it on a pair of free throws at the end of regulation.  In overtime, Jabari Rice went off to the tune of 12 of this 21 total points.  The Aggies scored 14 points total in OT.  Trevelin Queen followed with 19 total for the game.  The Aggies couldn’t hold a big lead, couldn’t lock it down at the end of regulation, and didn’t close it out well in overtime, but they got the win, 78-70.

11-26-19

This was another morning game for Aggie Men’s Basketball.  They were playing the South Florida Bulls.  Strange that there still seemed to be more Aggie fans (or Cheerleaders) there.  However, the Aggies had two more injured players: Shawn Williams with a turned ankle and Terrell Brown with a stomach virus.  Terrell played well initially, but his morning bout of nausea probably got the better of him later.  Shawn scored 13 to lead the team.  Trevelin Queen was held scoreless in the first half.  Johnny McCants made up the difference with 10 points.  This was reversed in the second half.  Trev came on with 10 points and McCants didn’t score again.

The Aggies were up 32-20 at the half and never looked back, winning 65-45.  They were playing against a team that was nationally ranked in creating turnovers, but the Aggies came out ahead in that category today.  When Jack Nixon started talking to Coach Jans after the game, he said this was the Aggies’, “Best game of the year.”  The coach thought that was pretty astute analysis. 

During halftime, Jack interviewed Sherry Jans, the coach’s wife.  Mario had said they’d hired Jans just to bring his wife here.  She was indeed as charming as I’d heard.  Jack called her, “The first lady of Aggie sports,” which I think I heard him also call the football coach’s wife.  Never mind that Barbra Hubbard is the Aggies’ actual first lady.  We’ll just diplomatically say that we’re lucky have them all.

11-27-19

The championship game for the Cayman Islands Classic came on in the evening, while I was at work.  I ended up joining the game in progress in the second half.  I didn’t even know who the Aggie Men’s Basketball opponent was before tuning in.  They were up 49-43 over the George Mason Patriots at the time.  The Aggies’ biggest lead was 15 earlier, but GM’s full court defense was stifling them in the second half.  With seeming inevitably, the Patriots took the lead with five minutes left. 

Terrell Brown hit a three to regain the Aggie lead, but it went back-and-forth from there until GM started pulling away.  The final was 68-64 George Mason.  The score really wasn’t that close.  Jabari Rice had 19 points, but 16 were in the first half.  His last three came when it was too late.  Trevelin Queen had 14 points and Johnny McCants had 11.   Coach Jans sounded depressed and disappointed afterward (and like his voice had been rubbed raw).  This was definitely a lost opportunity.   

11-29-19

We had an afternoon game on Black Friday with Aggie Women’s Basketball today.  The 1-5 Aggies were playing the 0-4 Georgia State Panthers.  Maybe I should have gone shopping.  I had my misgivings in the first quarter when Aaliyah Prince accidentally bounced a pass off of Gia Pack’s head.  Then, Nana Sule attempted to enter the game off the bench still wearing her warmup jacket and was called for improper wardrobe by the refs.  Prince was finding the basket though and had all 9 of the Aggies’ first points.  Amanda Soderqvist hit a three and Gia had 2.  The Aggies led 17-15 after ten minutes.

In the second quarter though, the Panthers’ offense picked up and they jumped out to a 9-point lead.  An emphatic block on Amanda got their defense doing.  Gia hit a pair of three’s late to get the score closer and had 11 points before the half.  34-31 Georgia State at halftime.  Somebody leaned on the final horn for about ten very loud seconds to stop play.  It was about as loud as the Georgia State coach, who was barking orders for the entire game.

I had a hockey game on TV at the time, but poor reception kept me from really watching it.  The Bruins beat the Rangers 3-2.  The announcers had amusingly been throwing dirt on Boston’s chances since the first period, after New York had scored the first two goals. The Bruins scored the winner late in the game.  After they’d won, the team came over to the glass and saluted the crowd.  It felt like a big win for them.

The third quarter started with a 5-0 Panthers’ run that prompted an Aggie timeout.  Nana made it to the free throw line and missed both shots.  She hasn’t scored in five games and has frankly been a disappointment this season.  Micayla Buckner accumulated three fouls trading infractions with the down-low player on the Panthers.  Gia hit another three in this quarter.  45-40 Panthers going into the fourth. 

Unfortunately, the Aggies never really got closer.  Amanda hit another three to bring the Panther lead to five again, but Georgia State just kept adding on.  Strangely at the end, the Aggies made no effort to foul.  In fact, the Panthers stopped the clock for a timeouts twice when their players got trapped.  The game ended 59-51 Georgia State.  Again, the final horn went off for ten seconds. 

Gia Pack led the Aggies with 17 points and 10 rebounds.  She’s just about back to playing like her old self.  Aaliyah Prince finished with 11 points.  She really cooled off after that hot first quarter.  The big difference was again in bench points.  This could really be a problem.  Shockingly, the game itself only took an hour and 37 minutes (from my counting).  The refs seemed to let quite a few fouls go.  It was like everyone involved wanted this one over as quickly as possible.   

11-30-19
Aggie Football finished their season with a 49-28 loss at Liberty University this afternoon.  It’d been close at the half, but turnovers and bad defense had doomed them.  We’ll have to hope for a better season next year.  The Aggie Women’s Basketball team played the Western Michigan Broncos in the evening at UTEP.  The Broncos had been crushed in the tournament yesterday by the Miners by 30 points.  They took it out on the Aggies.  In the first quarter, the Broncos were hitting on their three’s and took a 31-16 lead after the first quarter. 

In the second quarter, Western Michigan got into immediate foul trouble, including their star player, who had to sit out.  They maintained their lead, 48-38.  Gia Pack at least was having a good game with 15 points to that point.  At the start of the third quarter, Didi Echols picked up two quick fouls and had to sit with four total.  Gia kept scoring and the Aggies came within one point of tying twice.  It was 59-58 Broncos after three quarters.

To start the fourth, the Aggies briefly took the lead.  Freshman Soufia Inoussa got in on the scoring.  The Bronco’s star came in and fouled out halfway through the quarter.  The teams tied at 72 with about two minutes left.  Micayla Buckner fouled out for the Aggies with under a minute left.  Soufia hit two free throws to put the Aggies within one with 16 seconds left.  She then got a steal with 10 seconds left, but the Aggies turned it right over and had to foul.  They went down by three after a couple of free throws and ultimately lost 79-76. 

This was a discouraging result, but had a couple of bright points.  Gia Pack finished with 29 points, so her offense definitely seems to be back on track.  Soufia Inoussa was next with 12, excellent for the freshman.  Aaliyah Prince had 10.  However, Western Michigan had two players with 20 or more and that was even with neutralizing their star player.  In the game right after, the Miners would beat Georgia State by three in a thriller.  They are looking good (especially Katerina Zec), though I think (unsure because of poor radio reception) that their star Ariona Gill was injured in the game.