We’ve had some more Basketball games and some Aggie Sports news, since the last game I was at.
Thursday, Russ Langer was back announcing for the Aggie Men’s Basketball game against Western Kentucky. I didn’t find out what happened to him, but I did miss most of the pregame show. An alley oop from Elijah Elliot to Juice Mims started the game on the way to a 13-0 start and a 28-point lead at one point. It was 46-28 Aggies at the half after some sloppy play at the end.
It was down to a 9-point lead, when the WKU coach got a technical for arguing an offensive foul. Jayland Randall hit a 3 right after. An Elliot 3 plus a free throw made it a 20-point lead with about 10 minutes left, 70-50. The Aggies won it, 80-64. Four Aggie players were in double digits lead by Jemel Jones with 24 points. (WKU only had one player in double digits.) Juice Mims had 15 rebounds. The Aggies were shooting 39% and 43% on 3’s. WKU did have 30 points in the paint. That was 10 more than the Aggies.
Coach Hooten got a Gatorade bath from his players afterward. The broadcasters didn’t know it, but this was his 300-th win. The Coach was happy about that, but not so pleased that it was the smallest crowd of season at 2,600. Interesting that he had stats on attendance during the game.
The Aggie Women’s Basketball team won over WKU on the same day, 70-67. Lucia Yenes had a great game with 26 points. Imani Warren had 18. Emma Christiano had 4 offensive rebounds. The ladies were 51% shooting and had 40 points in the paint, which is awesome, except WKU had about the same stats. This game could have gone either way.
There was a newspaper article about the Aggie 2026 Hall of Fame inductees and I’ve seen several of them play. Have I really been watching Aggie Sports that long? Sasha Weber scored 20 at my first Aggie Women’s Basketball game **(1-23-16).*** She led the team to back-to-back NCAA appearances and was the WAC Tournament MVP in 2016.
For Baseball, Kyle Bradish set a single season strikeout record in 2018 among other honors, and was the first Aggie to reach the MLB postseason. Joey Ortiz hit .422 in 2019 and set a single season record for hits. Nick Gonzales had a .399 career batting average, hit 37 home runs, and drove in 152 RBI’s. In 2019, Nick won the NCAA batting title by hitting .432. He was a first round draft pick in 2020.
Finally, Kelsey Horton was the back-to-back WAC Softball Player of the Year in 2017 and 2018 and the WAC Tournament MVP in 2018. She’s the program’s all-time leader in batting average at .378, in home runs at 72 (with a record 25 in 2018), and in RBI’s, 210. Kelsey hit a grand slam to win WAC regular season in 2018 (4-28-18). A local newscaster reported it by starting, “How do you win a regular season championship like a boss?” When I say that a hush came over the crowd when Kelsey came to bat, I’m not kidding.
On Saturday, Aggie Men’s Basketball played Middle Tennessee at home for a nationally broadcast game. Unfortunately, they only got a slightly larger crowd. A new Henson Fund was announced for athletic fundraising. We’ll see how this works out.
The Aggies come out firing with a 19-4 lead early. It was up to a 16-point lead, before the Aggies went cold and the Blue Raiders came back. They tied it with 4’ left in the half and it was tied at the half at 29.
The Aggies fall behind early in second half by 13 with 10 minutes left. Jayland Randall hit a 3 with 2 minutes left and the Aggies were only down, 58-54. Broadcaster Anita Skipper couldn’t watch the free throws. The Aggies had the ball with 19 seconds left, down by 3, but couldn’t get closer. MTSU wins, 59-55. Jemel Jones led the Aggies with 16 points and Cyr Malonga had 10. The Aggies were only 13 of 22 on free throws. No wonder Anita couldn’t watch. MTSU was up 40% to 34% in shooting.
Attendance at the Pan-Am Center was 2,800. I mention this number because the Aggie Women lost on the road to MTSU, 88-51, in front of 3,600. They love their basketball in Tennessee. Lucia Yenes and Senoj Jones each had 11 points, but everyone else was held below double digits. Possibly the only good thing was that I think everyone got playing time. (Nikki Stanic hit a 3.) That Aggies only shot 32%, while the Blue Raiders shot 52% and 52% on 3’s, and had 20 points off turnovers. In the official recap, Emma Christiano’s postgame comments were so eloquent. I’m calling it; she’s future coach material.
I listened to a couple of Aggie podcasts during the day. Major changes are under way at Presley Askew Field. Artificial turf is being installed for the entire field and the mound. I heard something about a berm was being added to the outfield, but I’ll believe when I see it. They’ve figured out what was going wrong with the canopy and will be fixing it in the future. They’ll have a temporary solution in place for this season. Little wonder, they’re starting the season on the road with all this construction.
There have been other changes in Aggie Sports. AD Joe Fields started the New Year by firing three of his assistant directors, including the woman that was the interim AD before he was hired. (It only took one season without a full time AD to take down all of Aggie Sports.) Only Chet Savage is left from the previous administration. Fields said he’d be bringing in his own people, which he did quickly. They’re about what I expected. Chet and Marketing Director Nicole Sack did get promoted.
On the other hand, Fields offhandedly mentioned they were open to changing conferences. I’m not sure anybody’s knocking on the door with an offer, but with UTEP leaving, Las Cruces will be the sole travel-burdensome western outpost of C-USA. Since NMSU is no longer competitive, its membership doesn’t enhance the conference. Going to the Mountain West would be helpful, but they’re going to have to get more desperate for members for that to happen. Taking UTEP was a pretty desperate act to begin with, and I don’t understand why the Mountain West and whatever is left of the “PAC-12” didn’t just merge.
On the Aggie Coaches Show, Adam Young asked Coach Adams about Emma Christiano. Adams admitted she took a chance on her and was skeptical given her height (or lack thereof). The Coach praised Emma and her effort. Her only problem was with Emma’s family and fans. They were sitting behind the bench and were too enthusiastic. The Coach got them to move to the other side of the court.
The Aggie Men would play at Liberty later in the week. I got to listen to most of this game at work. LU is unbeaten in conference and very hard to beat at home, winning over 90% of their home games. The pregame show built up the opponent pretty well. I wasn’t expecting much from an Aggie team that hasn’t won on the road all season, in fact, since last March.
The Aggies came out firing with a couple of 3’s and a Juice Mims’ alley oop. LU came back with 10-point run and then an 8-point run. It was a 17-point LU lead, 46-29, going into halftime. This was about what I expected.
In the second half, the Aggies locked it down and started hitting their shots. An Anthony Wrzeszcz 3 shaved it to a 6-point lead, 50-42. Another W 3 made it a 5-point lead and the crowd got quiet. After his third 3, it was 52-48 LU with 13 minutes left. W missed a 3, but Chris Terrell cleaned it up with a 3 on the rebound. Jemel Jones added a 3, but the Aggies were still down 4 with 10 minutes left.
The Aggies hustled on the offensive boards and got three bites of the apple on a possession. Jae’Coby Osborne eventually made a layup to get the Aggies within 2. The next Aggie shot bounced on rim several times without going in. Russ Langer called it, “The ball was hanging there so long, you could have forwarded your mail there.”
W tied it by going inside. LU scored with 7 minutes left, 62-60, and brought the crowd back into it. The Aggies came up empty on four trips, which included open shots and a missed alley oop. It was 66-60, but Terrell hit a 3 coming out of a timeout. W had another trey with a 1’ left and the Aggies were down by 1.
LU made a couple of free throws. Jemel made a steal and Osborne made a layup with less than a minute left to put it back to a 1-point LU lead. The Aggies forced a shot clock violation on LU’s possession with 8 seconds left. Jemel was open for a final shot off an inbounds, but it missed. LU put in a final free throw to finish it, 73-71. Fudge.
The Aggies had four players in double digits. Anthony Wrzeszcz led with 16 points. Jae’Coby Osborne had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Shooting was 54% to 47% for LU, along with 77% to 50% in free throws. They were about equal in 3’s. That was a heartbreaker that might have turned the Aggies’ season around.
Meanwhile, the Aggie Women lost at home to FIU, 83-74. Lucia Yenes led the Aggies with 19 points. Shockingly, Emma Christiano was second with 10 points and 4 steals. The girl can step up and shoot when needed. Keira Hudson had 10. Notably, Morane Dossou fouled out and Imani Warren only had 4 points. I wonder they were sick. FIU had two players with 20+ points. The Aggies out-shot the Panthers, 49% to 45%, but were out-rebounded 40 to 30. Attendance was good, at least, at 825.
I meant for this to be a little recap before this weekend’s game, but this has gone long. We’ll recap the game in the next post.
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