NM State Aggies vs NM Highlands Cowgirls Women’s Basketball 11-9-22

 

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written about Aggie Women’s Basketball.  I had to go back and look.  It was December 21, 2021.  Apparently, I’d only gone to two games last season and had decided in the previous game that I didn’t want to go back.  This is pretty explainable as I didn’t buy an Aggie Country Pass in 2021.  I wasn’t entirely convinced there was going to be an entire season after what had happened in 2020.

 

This ties directly into the other reason; you had to wear a mask at the game.  I barely tolerated that with Volleyball.  With a declining program in basketball, I wasn’t interested.  I did make a prediction in my posts that came true.  Coach Atkinson was on the way out, if for no other reason than her inability to beat UNM. 

 

Am I more enthusiastic about the new coach, Jody Adams?  She has a heck of a pedigree.  Adams coached Wichita State to three NCAA appearances and won a championship as a player under Pat Summitt.  She was also fired from coaching for . . . yelling at her players?  That’s what I heard.  I don’t care enough to look it up.  Still, it will likely take some time, even with the transfer portal, for her to put together a full team how she wants it.  The team’s first game was last week at Colorado and was a 30-point loss.  

Adams was wearing an Aggie Soccer WAC Championship t-shirt at practice, so she, at least knows how to support the school.  The Men had their first game a couple of days ago and scored 101 points against NM Highlands.  They hosted the Soccer team there on court to be honored by crowd.  Given all their trials over the years that must have been awesome for them.  Tonight, Adams was wearing a black shiny, rhinestone-studded Aggie jacket.  She looked a bit like she’d walked off the set of Grease.  

 

The bottom line is that I have the Country Pass this season, so I’ll go when it’s convenient.  I set up to take a week off to go to two basketball games and two volleyball games (and take a day trip out-of-town).  This isn’t going to be much of a vacation if I’m writing up all these games.

 

Ron was all in on going.  He picked me up way early to go to the Downtown Mall for dinner.  I’d found out about a pizza place I hadn’t known about and wanted to try it.  We went by Coas Books and Zia Comics before getting the meal.  I’ll tap that into a comic review later.  

 

The restaurant is called Grounded.  It’s a coffee café that also serves pizza.  I was skeptical, but intrigued.  It was pricey for a small pizza.  Ron also put in an order of pretzel bites with a cheese sauce.  There was no soda.  There was only a lemonade La Croix water.  There was also no bathroom that I could find.  How was it?  Delicious.  Absolutely delicious.  The pizza was on a sourdough crust with a sweet tomato sauce.  Ron completely fell in love with the pretzel bites and sauce, myself as well.  And this all prepared in about five minutes.  It was just wonderful.

 

Ron had brought by another box of ice cream Drumsticks last weekend, when he came by to watch the World Series.  He’d brought a box to watch baseball a couple of weeks ago, too.  I still had plenty left over, so we stopped back by my apartment for dessert before going to the Pan-Am Center.  There was a spectacular orange sunset against a clear blue sky as we pulled in.

The program for the game was half-sized and only included the team rosters, no scorecard.  I scribbled scoring on the empty spaces next to the roster, but it was mostly out of habit.  On the other hand, it had this nice picture of Moe Shida on the cover.  I was looking forward to seeing her play more this season.  I mentioned there was a Japanese player on the team to a co-worker, Taylor.  When he saw her picture, he was all over going out to a game sometime.  

While the main concourse renovations are still walled off, the new box seat section at the north end of the arena is nearly done.  There’s also a narrow video board across the top of the section.  On court, Highlands was warming up.  Neysa Munguia was their tallest player at 6’2” and nice looking.  In spite of the exotic name, she’s from Arizona.  (Jessika Espinosa, pictured second, was also eye-catching.)  The Roadrunner Revue band was here for the game.  The Cheer coach gave the Cheerleaders a bunch of instructions before the game. 

 

Ten minutes before tipoff, both teams had left the court to dress.  Suddenly PA Ed Carnathan announced the Anthem, which started immediately.  It caught everyone off guard as the crowd was still coming in and the Sundancers were still getting dressed.  This may have also happened at the Aggie/Miner Men’s game on Saturday, so perhaps it’s NCAA guidance.  They can’t trust the players not to take a knee and the crowd wants the Anthem played.        

  

First Quarter

Fama Thiam started off the game with a 3.  Thiam is pronounced “Cham,” by the way.  I’d be surprised by this, but a couple of years ago, the Men’s team had a Mohamed Thiam on the team.  They’re both from Senegal, but I haven’t found any other relation between the two.  (It’d be kind of cool if they were brother and sister.)

 

There were lots of fouls at the beginning.  Delani Harris on the Cowgirls got called for a charge where she knocked down two Aggie players.  She also got a block on a jumper.  Four minutes in, Coach Adams subbed out all five starters.  Surprising.  Moe was one of the subs and scored a layup to make it 7-4 Aggies.  Highlands took a timeout.  During the break, the Cane’s Challenge was announced.  It activates at 70 points.  A few members of the Men’s team were in the crowd.  The rest of the crowd was a bit subdued, if not confused.  It felt like I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been at a Women’s Basketball game in a while.

 

Lucia Yenes dropped in a 3, then everyone was subbed out again with four minutes left.  Ashley Strawbridge got a steal on a bad long pass.  Molly Kaiser also got a steal.  Lucia made a nice pass to Taylor Donaldson under the basket for a layup.  The Aggies were up 20-11 at the end of the quarter.

 

Second Quarter

A large crowd had materialized by the start of this quarter.  Attendance was listed at    1,400.  Strangely, most of the crowd was on the west side of the court.  This mystery would be cleared up later.  Pistol Pete was hanging out with a family on camera for Dance Cam during the break.

 

In this quarter, the subbing was more normal for the Aggies.  This was probably mostly because some of fouling was adding up.  Soufia Inoussa got a steal and a layup to make it 26-11.  Sabou Gueye got a block.  5’3” graduate Rachael Niles on the Cowgirls got two steals in this quarter.  She’d also hit two 3’s in the first quarter.  Darn it.  Stop making me root for your team.  They did go on a 6-point run late in the quarter.  The Aggies took a timeout.  28-17 Aggies.

 

Sylena Peterson made a steal and fed Sabou for a bucket.  At 34-18 Aggies, Highlands called a timeout.  Things got a bit chippie at the end of the quarter, but not too rough.  Sylena hit a 3 and quarter finished 43-20 Aggies.

 

Halftime

Much of the late-arriving crowd turned out to be little kids, who were the Borderland Cheerleaders.  They came out and performed for the halftime show.  The Cheerleaders and the Sundancers sat and watch and seemed to be enjoying it.  Camera phones were out all over the crowd.  A little group of tumbling toddlers came out to finish the show.  The Cheerleaders made a bridge for the kids leaving on their side.  The Sundancers congratulated the kids leaving the court on their side.

 

Third Quarter

In the break, PA Ed made a premature call on a t-shirt toss to the crowd as play started.  The crowd was disappointed.  They live for the free T’s.  Coach Adams went back to subbing out the whole team for this quarter. 

 

Moe made a good assist on a fast break to Sabou, who made a fancy spin move before laying it in.  (Ed was getting completely tongue-tied on calling her name.)  47-24 Aggies.  Lucia had a bad turnover right after and was pulled.  The coach gave her a long lecture on sidelines.  The fouls were still coming.  Highlands was getting to the stripe, but couldn’t hit them.  That’s kind of inexcusable given that foul shots are undefended, even if you were playing an NBA team.

 

49-28 Aggies and Highlands took a timeout.  Back to play, Fama found Taylor under the basket for another layup.  The Roadrunner Revue suddenly started singing the Aggie fight song a cappella for a couple of minutes straight.  I’m not sure what brought that on.  Donaldson started taking over.  She hit a 3 and made a steal and stuffed it in.  60-33 Aggies at the end of the quarter.  I’m starting to taste some chicken.         

 

Fourth Quarter

The scoreboard was showing player scoring during the game (unlike during Volleyball games).  Donaldson led everyone with 17 points.  Also on the videoboard during the break was the What-a-burger Fry Contest.  I completely lost track, but others in the crowd did not and helped out the contestant.  I noticed Colin Deaver from the El Paso NBC affiliate by the sideline talking to AD Mario Moccia.  He was shooting some footage.  Regrettably, I can’t get his station over-the-air here.  (We get the Albuquerque affiliate.) 

 

Strawbridge came out with a strip and a steal for a layup and added another steal on an inbounds right after.  That looked good, but the team was immediately shaky on the next play.  Moe got the play from the coach and motioned to other players, which led to a pass to no one and a turnover.  Oops. 

 

The Aggies started doing mass subs again.  Molly made a breakaway layup and drew a hard foul.  The offending Cowgirl put her hand to mouth in shock after Molly went down.  Looking down at the sidelines again, I thought I noticed Men’s Basketball Coach Heiar.  Him and Coach Adams worked at Wichita State at the same time.  They might be friends, at least friendly. 

 

Sabou scored her tenth point.  Molly hit a jumper and made it 71-37.  The Aggies thus achieved the Cane’s Challenge.  I think I know where me and Ron will be eating lunch tomorrow.  Flex Cam came on and focused on the Men’s team members in the stands.  Super-jacked Mike Peake was on his phone.  I think that was Deshawndre Washington sitting next to him, who grabbed his phone and made him flex.       

 

Aggie defense was still doing well.  Strawbridge added another steal and a rebound.  Donaldson grabbed a rebound.  She passed it down court to Moe, who laid it in.  Moe added a steal by tipping away a ball.  She danced on sideline and made a nifty behind the back save to keep it inbounds.  One thing that was not good was Aggie free throw shooting at the end (four misses).  The Cowgirls last points were on a nice feed by Juliana Aragon to Aja Scott for a layup under the basket.  Soufia scored the Aggies’ last with a three-pointer.  Aggies win 80-39.

 

Here’s the numbers.  Taylor Donaldson led all players with 17 points.  Sabou Gueye was next with 10 points and 5 rebounds.  Fama Thiam and Molly Kaiser each had 9 points.  Other stat leaders were Ashley Strawbridge with 4 steals, and Moe Shida with 5 assists.  Rachel Niles led the Cowgirls with 9 points.  Let’s hear it for 5’3” basketball players.  (I did find myself cheering on Highlands a bit.)  A couple other relevant stats.  Highlands was 4 for 14 in free throws (Aggies 9 for 14) and 3 for 18 in 3’s (Aggies 5 for 8).   

 

Ron and I decided on Raising Canes before tomorrow’s Volleyball match.  They’d also announced that Aggie Country Pass card holders could use that in lieu of presenting tickets.  Overall, it was a good warmup for the Aggies.  We’ll see how good they really are next week against UNM.