Once again, I’m going to have a
hi-jack this Aggie Women’s Basketball
post with news of other Aggie Sports, but it’s pretty big news. After Aggie
Football’s stunning win over Auburn,
they faced the surprising Jacksonville
State Gamecocks for the Aggies’ final home game. A recent convert to D1 FBS football, Jax
State had the same record as the Aggies, but weren’t eligible for the C-USA Championship game with Liberty, otherwise this game would have
carried a lot more weight.
The Aggies dominated the first half, but failed to put the
game away in the second. In a roller
coaster of turnovers, the Gamecocks tied it late. However, with time running out, the Aggie
offense quickly worked downfield for a 52-yard winning field goal by Ethan Albertson, 20-17 Aggies. My poor heart
almost couldn’t take the stress. I was
glad I wasn’t at the game. There was a
video going around of a skunk running through the stands late in the game, who
was dubbed, “the Rally Skunk.”
This led to the Aggies’ rematch with undefeated Liberty in
Virginia. Let’s just say it was not a
great day for either defense. It was
tied at 21 at the half, after Liberty failed on an onside kick and the Aggies
converted on the short field before time expired.
The third quarter featured four touchdowns with the score
still tied. Unfortunately, the Aggies
lost their quarterback, Diego Pavia. He apparently started the game with a sore
elbow. His final pass went for a 75-yard
touchdown, but that was it for him. True
freshman, Blaze Berlowitz, came in
for him. His appearance was so sudden,
his teammates were surprised to see him in the huddle. No problem.
Blaze’s first series in resulted in a touchdown pass. He’d have a contested interception in the
endzone in the next series. Blaze did a
good job, but needed to do a spectacular one as Liberty’s offense couldn’t be
stopped. The Flames put up two more
touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win 49-35. Holy cow!
Let’s go bowling!
The Aggies will face Fresno State
in the New Mexico Bowl next
week. They are expecting a big Aggie fan
turnout for the game. Liberty will be
playing Oregon on New Year’s Day. That is a coup for C-USA. (While Liberty is 13-0, they are still
criticized for playing a very soft schedule.
The Aggies may have been their best opponent.) Jax State also made a bowl game. That was a possibility if there weren’t
enough qualified teams to fill out the bowl schedule (43 games?). But forget all of this, the big news in the
region is that the Sun Bowl will be
hosting Notre Dame versus Oregon State. That was a quick sellout.
On the Basketball side, after their gritty win over Northern Colorado, the Aggie Men went on the road and lost all
four, including two overtime losses (one to Fresno State, the future Football
opponent). They were destroyed by the Lobos at the Pit, 106-62. The Women won a
pair on the road, but were likewise burned in Albuquerque, 67-52. The Lobos shutdown Molly Kaiser, but encouragingly Lucia Yenes scored 20 in the game.
(Sidebar: UTEP
Volleyball is playing in a national Volleyball tournament and have advanced
to the round of 8. They’ve been playing
games at Memorial Gym in El Paso and
had one of their largest crowds ever at one game. I don’t know if the Aggies were invited to
the tournament, but I’m guessing they turned it down for funding issues.)
I had a decent day.
I got the Archie Christmas
comics I’d ordered in the mail, like I mentioned earlier. They look good and I’ll have a ***review***
of them in the future. I had my truck
serviced for $40. I went to the Carl’s Jr. next door to the garage and
paid $10 for a hamburger and fries. The
burger was pretty good, but I’m still wondering which was the better deal.
I called work to remind someone about something and
mentioned I was going to the game and that there was going to be the Corgi race
at halftime. He was excited about that
and almost wanted to go. I’d tried
talking dad into going to see it. After
the game, he told me he wished he’d gone, since there was nothing on TV.
The crowd was only 478, so a couple more people might have
been appreciated. For some reason the
east side of the Pan-Am Center was
taped off. I thought maybe there was
going to be a large group coming, but they were left vacant. I picked up a pretzel and a tea at the
concessions. The pretzel turned out to
be inedible. I took it back and they
gave me another. That one was 3/4
edible. I think I’ll eat before I go for
the rest of the season. That was a $10
meal as well. I didn’t do well there.
Dad asked me earlier what conference tonight’s opponent, UC Irvine, played in. (It’s the Big West.) I took a look at
the Men’s team’s schedule. They played UAE, Qatar, Iran, Japan, Korea,
Taiwan, and the Philippines in the summer and won all of the games and mostly
by a wide margin. What a World Tour! (And they beat the Aggie Men earlier this
season.)
The Anteater
Girls team stayed on the floor for the Anthem (not ours, though). Well, that was slightly awkward, but not as
awkward as the next event on the itinerary.
During the introductions, they introduced the UCI head coach, Tamara Inoue, and two of her assistant
coaches. They were all former Aggie
players. They got a warm round of
applause. Our coach, Jody Adams, was styling as usual with a
white Aggie sport coat and black pants. Barbara “Mother” Hubbard graced us at
the game. The coach gave her a custom
Aggie varsity jacket before the game.
First
Quarter
Molly started the scoring with an early jumper. She was not going to be shutdown
tonight. Sabou Gueye had a steal and a layup. Ene
Adams scored from down low to make it 6-2 Aggies with 7’ left in the
quarter. Unfortunately, Ene didn’t play
much after that and those were her only points.
UCI briefly went to a full court press. 6’5” Femme Sikuzani Masudi, who is another
“big” like Ene but who I hadn’t seen before this season, was stuffed on a
shot. Back the other way, Nikki Tom hit a 3 for the Anteaters to
make it 8-9 UCI with 5’ left. On the
Aggie end, Sylena Peterson tried to
hit Molly for an Alley Oop, but couldn’t make the connection. Sy came back with a jumper to make it 10-11
with 4’ left going into the Media timeout.
Molly snatched a rebound on the UCI end, but lost it on a
bad pass. She’d stuff a breakaway pass
and got the ball to Jaila Harding
for a 3, 13-13, 2’ left. Shirel Nahum answers with a 3 for the
Anteaters. Femme fired a standing jumper
to make it 15-16. Molly had steal late
and passed to Sy, but missed a 3. The quarter
finished, 15-16 UCI.
Second
Quarter
The Corgis in the crowd were shown on camera. I’d already seen one in the concourse when I
came in and another going to the bathroom between quarters. I didn’t get any petting in, however.
I noticed some of Aggie
Volleyball had come in. Some of them
were having churros. I guess I should
have gotten one of those instead. I saw AD Mario Moccia go over and bother the
team. (I don’t suppose I could do
that?) I wonder if he was apologizing
for not letting them play in that tournament that UTEP is in. (The Aggies finished second in conference and
went to the C-USA championship game.
UTEP didn’t.)
Loes
Rozing made a nifty spin move in the lane to tie the score at 17
early in the second quarter. Lucia had
been subbed into the game earlier and picked up two fouls and came out. She’d taken no shots. There were a pair a charge fouls on successive
plays on both teams. Sy had taken one of
those fouls. She came back with a jumper
to put the Aggies up 19-17 with 7’ left.
Then Sylena immediately picked up her second foul.
Femme was then called for a charge. It’s like some of those Volleyball refs who
call double touches all the time. Sabou
Euro-stepped a layup to make it 21-19 Aggies and then broke up a fast break on
the other end. The Aggies fast-broke (?)
back and missed. UCI immediately tried
another fast break, but ended up trying to pass the ball to Coach Adams on the
sidelines. Thankfully, a Media timeout
allowed everyone to catch their breath and regain their senses.
The Corgis got on Dance Cam. They were magnificent. The PA (not Ed, I need to get this person’s
name sometime) was having a great time calling out to the crowd. The Volleyball girls got on camera. (They had no moves. Stick to sports, ladies.)
The Aggies came back with a pair of turnovers on
travelling calls. (Travels are also like
double touches. Certain Refs call it
more. That said, ladies, stop shuffling
your feet.) Shirel sank two free throws
to put UCI up 21-24 with 2’ left. She’d
racked up 11 points. Molly banked one
before the shot clock expired, 23-24.
Lucia was back in and got a rebound and was fouled. She put in a free throw to tie it at 24. Unfortunately, that was her only point of the
night with no field goal shots taken.
Shirel took an odd shot from her knees after scrambling
for a turnover. I didn’t think much of
it at the time, but I wonder if she got hurt from that, as she wasn’t playing
much in the second half though she was leading in scoring. Molly and Jaila made jumpers that put the
Aggies up, but Moulayna Johnson Sidi
Baba made a last second shot to tie it at 28 for the half.
On to Part 2.
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