Recent Game Recaps

Epilogue, The Ninth: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Memories

So We Meet Again

Rte. 139 - End of the Line

Hanging On

A Championship in Pictures

This Time of Year

Dotson Leads Ducks to the Sweet Sixteen

Grizzlies Overwhelmed by Orangemen

Empire

Challenge 11: Final Four Memories

By George, UConn is Dead

Butler and Us

Donning the Black and Gold

Challenge 10: Tourney Memories

The Madness of the Horizon League

The Rare Ivy League Conference Tournament

MAC Madness

Anything Can Happen in the MAAC

Challenge 9: Shock The Neighborhood

A Youthful Surprise

From Worst to First

Peers and Seers

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs  New Mexico State Aggies  

Game #8-517: Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at New Mexico State Aggies February 4, 2012 9:00 pm Pan American Center BBState Stats/Recap

Saturday marked the beginning of the second half of the WAC season for both New Mexico State and visiting Louisiana Tech. On Jan. 7 at the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, the Aggies defeated the Bulldogs 83-73, in a game that the Aggies led by six at the half and by double digits much of the second half. But after losing at home to both Idaho and Utah State the following week, the Bulldogs have been much improved, winning both at Hawai'i and San Jose State, and at home over Fresno State, before losing in the final seconds to conference leader Nevada. No one in Las Cruces was taking this game for granted.

The Aggies and Bulldogs have a relatively brief history: one non-conference Aggie victory in Las Cruces in 1977; one Aggie victory in Ruston in 2001, the lone year their memberships in the Sun Belt overlapped (being in different divisions, they only played once); and 13 WAC games before this season, the Aggies winning 10 of them, and all of the Las Cruces games, including one in the 2007 WAC tournament.

Everyone I spoke with before the game expected a close contest, and no one was disappointed. New Mexico State played a matchup zone early, and much of the night. Louisiana Tech also played zone defense much of the first half, before going to a man-to-man for much of the second. The NMSU offense was very typical of their play to date, passing around the perimeter seeking a pass inside for a shot from one of the bigs. Louisiana Tech's offense was similar in the passes, but not in the shots; most of the Bulldog shots were from long range. The game was exceptionally even, tied both at the under-16 and under-12 minute media timeouts. Under eight, the Bulldogs led 28-27; under four, they were again tied at 34. Before the half, the Aggies had a 10-6 run, leading to a four-point halftime advantage.

The young guards of Louisiana Tech were impressive all evening. Raheem Appleby, a freshman, had 15 points in the first half, including six of nine from the free-throw line. Sophomores Kenyon McNeail and Cordarius Johnson added 10 and 8, respectively. First-half leaders for the Aggies were seniors Hamidu Rahman, with 12 points on three dunks and 2-for-6 free-throw shooting, and Wendell McKines, with nine points, as well as junior Bandja Sy, with seven.

At the half of Military Appreciation Night, a three-point shooting contest between representatives of the campus Army and Air Force ROTC units was dominated by the Army. The rules stated that each time a shot was made, the opponent's shooter and rebounders had to do 10 pushups each before resuming play. The Army sharpshooter made three straight shots at the start moving left along the arc from the corner, and the Air Force never really had the chance to catch up on anything but pushups.

The second half began with a burst by the Bulldogs, tying the game at 51 with about 15 minutes to play, despite a colossal #omgdunx by McKines. Louisiana Tech continued by taking, then holding a lead for several minutes; the Bulldogs led by four at the under-eight media timeout. Appleby, Johnson and McNeail continued to impress; in fact only nine Louisiana Tech points in the game were scored by anyone else. Appleby ended the game with 30 points and four #superhoops; however, he shot no free throws in the second half. Johnson ended with 16, and McNeail with 17.

Preparing to write this, I read the previous @800GP writeup of a Louisiana Tech game, Dwight Strayer's story about the Bulldogs' game at Arkansas in December. Eerily, his penultimate paragraph describes the end of this game nearly perfectly. With the words "Razorbacks" and "Hogs" changed to "Aggies":

However, after this timeout, the Bulldogs became ice cold and the Aggies red hot. After the media timeout, Louisiana Tech was only able to muster one two field goals for the rest of the game. The Aggies quickly poured on the points and the game was in hand as it entered the last minute. Sensing the inevitable, Louisiana Tech Coach Mike White ordered his players to not foul and the clock ticked to zero on a victory for the Aggies.

Aggie freshman guard Daniel Mullings led the team's final run, scoring on four consecutive layups driving through the Louisiana Tech defense. After that, Tech tried fouling to get back into the game for a couple of minutes, but without any success. The Aggies outscored the Bulldogs 20-5 in the final nine minutes of the game, winning 83-72, nearly identical to the score of their first meeting. Rahman had 20 points for New Mexico State. McKines and Mullings each finished with 15; McKines also had 10 rebounds for his 14th double-double of the season. Next week, these WAC traveling partners will each visit both Idaho and Utah State for vital games among the WAC contenders. Saturday's upset wins by Idaho at Nevada and by Fresno over Utah State, together with Hawai'i's overtime win at San Jose State, have tightened up the conference race considerably.


blog comments powered by Disqus

Expanded Standings | Meet the Teams
Games: 562 | Articles: 612

2012-13 Upsets 158/933 (16.9%)

2011-12 Upsets 153/988 (15.5%)

2010-11 Upsets 164/954 (17.2%)

Follow Us: @midmajority @ballybasketball @bbstate @wbbstate @redlineupsets

© 2004-13 The Mid-Majority Basketball Concern Ltd. and ComputerPants Robotics. Your host and commissioner is Kyle Whelliston.