This recap is not timely and a bit out-of-place, but I
wanted to go ahead and list the final regular season games in March with this.
2-13-20
WBB Aggies
@ Seattle U Redhawks
The Men’s and Women’s games were both on video at the same
time. Unfortunately, I was pretty busy at
work and not really able to watch. The
first thing I saw in this game was the SU
Cheerleaders, specifically one Cheerleader who had no arms. None. Yeah,
I’m sure. I counted. Well, I’m going to leave that lie there
without further comment.
Still no Gia Pack
for the Aggies for this game. Kamira Sanders for the Redhawks was still very hot. Her and Aaliyah Prince led their teams with 19
points each, but SU led the whole game and won 67-57. A cooler of Powerade
at the Aggie bench was harmed during the game and a cleanup was necessary.
MBB
Aggies vs Seattle U Redhawks
Trevelin
Queen was back from his surgery for this game, but was clearly
not 100%. Just to even it out, Terrell Brown was injured during the
game. Ivan Aurrecoechea was also suffering from a minor injury. The Student Section looked a bit deserted
tonight. I missed the Wiener Dog race at
halftime. Man, I felt bad about
that.
As for the game, the Aggies kept building up leads (two of
11 points each), only to see SU come back and make it close again. Very late in the game, the Terrell Brown that plays for the
Redhawks made a steal on a bad Evan
Gilyard pass and got a layup as part of his 16 points. The Aggie lead was cut to four, but that was
as close as it got. 72-62 Aggies was the final.
Gilyard and Jabari
Rice both got 10 points. Ivan Aurrecoechea got 11, mostly on
free throws. However, the night belonged
to Johnny McCants. He got a critical block and a rebound at the
end of the game. McCants had 18 rebounds,
14 points, and a couple of highlight reel dunks.
2-15-20
WBB
Aggies @ Utah State Wolverines
Gia
Pack
was still out, but the Aggies won this one, 65-57. Didi Echols led with 19 points.
MBB
Aggies vs Utah State Wolverines
I was listening to this game on the radio while at an Aggie Softball game. Terrell
Brown was out for this game. Trevelin Queen was playing, but still
not in his usual high-scoring form. It was
a tight game all the way through. Let’s
just cut to the play that this game will be remembered for. The Aggies were down by one with six seconds
left. Jabari Rice heaved a last second three-pointer for his 29-th point
of the game. It banked directly into the
basket for the 84-82 win.
The crowd went completely insane. Jack
Nixon, calling the game, was in shock.
Justin Hawkins summed it up
best, “That was a no-pressure shot. If
you miss it, nobody expected you to make it.
If you make it, you’re a hero.”
2-22-20
MBB Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros
This was the second Pack
the Pan-Am game for the season. A
local business, who didn’t get in the on the first one, bought a bunch of
tickets, so the university decided to offer up a bunch more low-cost
tickets. Thanks to ticket sales, this
game was on TV, but I mostly listened to the radio broadcast. There were a few empty seats, but it was
pretty packed. The Aggies had beaten the
Vaqueros last month, but both
teams were missing their best players then.
Vaqueros were coming in hot on a winning streak. This was also the Hall of Fame induction game, as mentioned at today’s baseball game.
The Men have locked up the number one seed at WAC Tournament, as Cal Baptist isn’t eligible, but needed to win one more to secure a regular
season title. Terrell Brown was available to play tonight (that would turn out
well). On the radio pregame it was
mentioned that the Women’s team lost
this afternoon on the road 74-63. They are not in good shape for the
tournament. AD Mario Moccia came on and announced that the Pan-Am Center would be getting a new scoreboard thanks to some
state funding. That should be nice.
The Aggies started off slow. It was 9-2 UTRGV at the first break, as Aggie
shots weren’t falling in. It was 12-5 at
next break with 11 minutes left, but the Aggies started a comeback. At 14-10 there was a flagrant foul, as Ivan Aurrecoechea was hit in the
face. (“Not the face!” he said, “That’s
my money-maker!”) The Aggies hustled on the
next possession even while not getting the shots to go in. They got four bites of the apple with three
offensive rebounds, before McCants got one under the basket and a foul, 14-13. Jabari Rice
put in a jumper for the lead. Trevelin Queen got a rejection on the
other end. Evan Gilyard then put in a three.
18-14 Aggies.
It was up to 22-16 Aggies with four minutes left. A verbal scrum ensued after a foul away from
the ball. A charging Vaqueros player had
dropped a ball on a prone Ivan provoking some words. After a review, there were two technical
handed to UTRGV and one to Terrell that offset one of them. The Aggies then went on a tear. Queen hit a three. Ivan had an alley oop dunk with an assist
from Johnny McCants. With two minutes left, the Aggies were up
12. Terrell was fouled on a three
attempt and made all three free throws.
He then followed that up with a made three. It was 39-25 Aggies at the half.
Terrell started the second half with a three. I think he’s feeling okay. McCants then took a hard foul on a layup
attempt and took a shot to the face. These
UTRGV guys are mean girls. The offending
Vaquero player, Javon Levi, was
boo’d for the rest of the game whenever he touched the ball. However, UTRGV drilled three three’s in a row
to cut a 17-point lead down to 8. Another
Vaquero three cut it to five, 51-46, with 11 minutes left.
The Aggies got their wind back. Ivan made a pretty layup. This was followed up by a Jabari three, a
Terrell layup, another Jabari three, and a McCants’ dunk. 64-50 Aggies with seven minutes left. Terrell put in another three. Queen had his headband off late for some
reason. (It’s not the NBA finals,
Trev. Don’t go all Lebron.) Maybe it improved his aim as he dropped in
another three. In short, it rained
Aggies. 78-62 Aggies win and are the WAC
regular season champs. Good thing
the WAC commissioner was there to hand out that trophy.
I think your stat of the game was the Aggies outrebounding
the Vaqueros 40 to 21. Jabari Rice had another great game with
20. Terrell
Brown had 18 in a great comeback from his injury, and then, GD it! I think he hurt himself again cutting down a
piece of the net in celebration. It’s
been that kind of year.
2-27-20
I was at work and sick and buried in work. I sort of watched or listened to these games,
but had no time or strength to take notes.
WBB
vs GCU Lopes
The Aggies won 69-58. They had four players in double figures
scoring and that was without Gia Pack
playing. Adrianna Henderson had a career high with 15 points. Freshman Soufia
Inoussa had 14. The ladies really
stepped it up to defend their home court.
Gia is hoping to play on Saturday, her last game at the Pan-Am Center.
MBB @
GCU Lopes
Different venue, but another blowout, 67-53 Aggies. This one was never in doubt from what I
heard. Jabari Rice led with 16 points.
What was really encouraging was Trevelin
Queen’s 14. I think he’s back in
form (and he’s dispensed with the headband from the pictures I saw). The Aggies completely dominated the boards,
48 to 26. Coach Jans was a little down on himself for not playing more
reserves earlier in the second half.
2-29-20
MBB @ CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners
This is shameful to write.
After a long day at Aggie Women’s Basketball and a long late lunch, I came home and started
writing up the game while watching a goofy movie. When I went to bed late that night, I
suddenly started; I had forgotten all about the Men’s game that evening.
Granted that the guys weren’t actually playing for
anything. They’ve already won the WAC regular season championship.
I was also kind of enjoying the goofy movie (King Solomon’s Mines from the 80’s), so I probably just would have
had the radio on the background and kept the movie on. Regardless, I felt like such a bad fan that it
kept me awake for a while. I wasn’t able
to find out who won until the next day.
The Aggies turned in great defensive effort against a high-powered
Roadrunner offense and won 62-46. Johnny
McCants and Trevelin Queen led
with 14 and 12 points respectively.
It’s very encouraging that the Aggies were able to play
lockdown defense on the road in a game that didn’t matter. Hopefully nobody got hurt in this game. I will try to do better as a fan.
3-5-20
MBB vs Cal Baptist Lancers
While the Aggies had already secured winning the WAC regular season and the #1 seed at
the tournament by going undefeated in conference, they had stuff to play for
tonight. One, it was Senior Day. You don’t want to lose with your family there
or the last time you’re playing on your home court. Two, this game was against the #2 in
conference, CBU. They’re not eligible for the tournament this
season, but they’re a good team. Three,
there have only been two other teams that have ever gone undefeated for the regular
season in the WAC. Fourth, the Aggies
currently own the longest winning streak in the nation.
No pressure.
The pregame show with Jack
Nixon featured some interesting conversation. Forgive the non-basketball sidebar here, but
I have few opportunities to write on this subject. The Aggie Track team won the WAC Indoor
Championship for the first time ever.
(In like 35 years? Sorry, I
didn’t write it down at the time. It’s
been a while in any case.) Jack
interviewed a couple of the athletes.
One of them said, “I didn’t entirely meet my expectations.” Jack: “Where did you finish?” “First,” was her answer.
The coach was pretty happy with the recognition. He had told the team they could celebrate
until the bus trip back home was over, then it was back to work. Adam
Young had interviewed him on the Coach’s
Show yesterday. He asked, “How did
you do it?” Coach: “Can I say this now
that we won? We kicked their
butts.” The facilities for his team
might be charitably described as “quaint.”
He tried to fix them up a bit when he took over the team, a process he
described as “putting lipstick on a pig.”
The team was honored out on court during the game.
AD
Mario Moccia was particularly pleased with the Track
championship. When a local TV sports station
went out to the team practice track, Mario had to shoo them away from it and from
showing what poor condition it was in from being a public-use facility. National news had been made that Chicago State and UMKC had both cancelled travel to Seattle U because of the Corona-virus and forfeited their
games. Some far they’ve been the only DI
schools that I know of that have cancelled games. Mario didn’t seem to approve. I can see cash-strapped CS and soon to leave
the conference, UMKC, cancelling for other reasons. The Cougars are the Aggies’ first round
opponent in the WAC tournament. Mario said they needed to know if they’re
coming, otherwise they want to schedule a pickup game to stay sharp.
Mario also mentioned that the Baseball team was playing #20 Texas
A&M this weekend. He said, if
you multiplied his budget by 10, they’d still have more. He also crowed about the Softball team beating Houston
last week. Mario told the story that the
team had gone down 8-0 in the first inning and Houston started heckling
them. An unnamed player (I’m suspecting Nikki Butler) called an impromptu team
motivational meeting. The Aggie girls
went on to win 10-8.
Coach
Jans
apologized to the fans that he was holding team Senior ceremony after the
game. He said otherwise players might be
too emotional to play. (He’s seen it before.) Given that there are six seniors (Ivan Aurrecoechea, CJ Bobbitt, Terrell Brown, Shunn
Buchanan, AJ Harris, and
Trevelin Queen), that could be nearly
half the team in tears before the game. The
crowd for tonight’s game was 7,000+.
That’s basically capacity when they don’t open up the rafters. There wasn’t any big promotion that I know
of, so that was a really good crowd. They
sounded loud and enthusiastic for the game.
There was one notable absence. I
did not hear PA Ed Carnathan. It was the Softball PA (whose name I really
did try to get when I met him) working the mic tonight. He did a good job in Ed’s absence.
First
half
The seniors all started the game (except for AJ, who’s
still injured). They didn’t
disappoint. Queen hit a three as part of
a 5-0 Aggies start. The CBU coach called
a quick timeout. He must have seen
something he didn’t like or had some real ominous foreboding. It got worse for the Lancers. Trev had a pair of steals. Terrell hit a three. Shunn had a steal. It was 9-1.
Bobbitt put in a three, 12-1.
There was a block by Jabari Rice.
Queen hit another three, 15-1.
Well, this was just getting silly. The CBU coach got a technical foul, but I
really doubt the referees were the cause of the Lancers’ troubles. Their two best players did acquire two fouls
each. Milan Acquaah (with the unforgettable name) was briefly on the bench,
but had to come back in to try and stop the bleeding.
11 minutes left, Terrell hit another three to make it 23-3
Aggies. Shunn had another steal, which
led to a CJ basket. Terrell made his third
three. 29-9 with seven minutes
left. Evan Gilyard came in and hit a three. Trev hit a pair of threes and had a dunk off
a turnover. It was 46-20 Aggies at the
half. Hmm, I think all I did here was
list Aggie scoring. That’s my kind of
game.
During the second half, I switched over to watching the
Women’s game, which was going on at the same time, but checked back
periodically. I gather it was more of
the same back at the Pan-Am Center. I just missed the Aggies running off three
dunks in a row late. They may have had a
40-point lead at that point. With five
minutes left, the seniors were brought off the court individually. CBU was resting their star players for their
Saturday game.
The local boys, Bryce
Rewalt and Tennessee Owens, came
in. Bryce may have had the play of the
game. He missed the front end of a one-and-one.
CBU thought it was two shots and didn’t
try to get the ball. Bryce charged in, got
the rebound, and made a layup. The crowd
loved it and the 83-50 Aggies final
score.
How did the Aggies do it?
They shot 50% to CBU’s 29%. That
might be enough to beat anybody, but, as I said earlier, there was a special
confluence of events tonight. The Aggies
had five players in double figures. Trevelin Queen led with 19. Shunn Buchanan had no points, but had
four steals and was all over the court helping.
This was a great performance for this season’s team to exit their home
court with. During the Senior ceremony,
Coach Jans saluted the crowd who stayed for it.
He said it said something about your character to do that.
3-5-20
WBB @ Cal Baptist Lancers
On the other end of the spectrum, I joined this game in progress
in the third quarter over the WAC
Digital Network. The Aggies were losing
badly by about 20. Gia Pack was still not available.
I do think she’ll be playing the tournament or at least try. In the fourth quarter, the team made a bit of
a comeback and played hard to the end, but they were down too far. 82-70
CBU was the final.
Four Aggies finished in double figures, including Soufia Inoussa, who led with 14 points,
but they were outrebounded 50-31 and 22-3 in offensive rebounds. I’ve been concerned about the team missing
Gia’s rebounding. Once again (1-2-20), I couldn’t help but notice that the Lancer team was pretty
good-looking. Cutie, Georgia Dale had 27 points and six
threes. Another thing I noticed was that
the team had an enormous number of Cheerleaders. It seemed like they filled one side of the
stands. Here’s hoping Gia is able to
play and contribute next week in the tournament.
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