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Friday, December 05, 2008

Terrible Shooting Sinks Ags' Chances

By Randy Harrison
Journal Staff Writer
      There's one common denominator between the best women's basketball teams New Mexico and New Mexico State have put on the floor in recent memory.
       When things weren't percolating offensively from the perimeter in that 2003 Sweet Sixteen season, the Lobos could look to Jordan Adams for the easy inside shot that would lift the lid off the basket.
       Same thing for the Aggies in last year's 23-9 campaign from Sherell Neal, who could put the team on her back the same way with the draught-ending baskets when nothing else was coming easily.
       Well, Neal is in Sweden playing professionally these days, and the Aggies really missed her — or what she could do — in the 80-48 loss Thursday at New Mexico.
       Granted, the 3-4 Aggies' season-low point total was a group effort. A 6-for-28 first half from the field helped put New Mexico State in a massive 36-17 hole by halftime.
       Guard Madison Spence scored only seven points, 10 below her team-leading average, on 3-of-9 shooting. The only obviously bad shot she took, a desperation off-balance heave in the lane, went in.
       And it was an off-night for all her teammates except guard Danisha Corbett, who flashed some improvisational skills in her 17-point performance that could hurt some opponents down the road, if she can get her teammates to run with her.
       Short of that, the points in the paint — the easy ones that quiet a crowd or soothe a disquieted young team — just weren't there.
       NMSU tried with 6-foot-2 Areyal LeDeatte, a juco signee coach Darin Spence billed as the first true “back to the basket” center in his tenure. She came in for starting center Niki Holt, who was scoreless in eight minutes of play.
       LeDeatte hit a turnaround jumper in her first trip off the bench, and it looked like the Aggies had something. Next time she got the ball in the post, a double-team and a turnover. Next time, she passed out of the double-team to a wide-open Tabytha Wampler, who air-balled a 3.
       It was one of those nights.
       “Tonight it was,” said coach Darin Spence. “I don't know if it'll be that way every night. We weren't very good tonight.”
       In consecutive first-half possessions, the Aggies dribbled into a double-team, half of which was 6-foot-6 Valerie Kast. They learned that Kast is hard to shoot over, even if she doesn't jump a lick.
       The 21 percent shooting had a residual effect on all the other aspects of the game, Darin Spence believed.
       “We were out of position offensively and took some bad shots, and it created our dysfunction in defensive balance,” he said. “It was kind of one thing leading to the other.”
       Even when the Aggies shot better in the second half, hitting 11 of their first 16 shots, they managed to whittle only three points off the 36-17 halftime deficit.
       The Aggies committed 19 turnovers, were outscored 38-18 in the paint, and outrebounded 39-31. They can hope that New Mexico, at 7-1, will be one of the toughest teams they face.
       “I'm disappointed, but not discouraged by any stretch,” said Darin Spence, neatly folding up a copy of a box score he'd probably like to burn and slipping it into his shirt pocket. “It's just our seventh game of the year. It just happened to be (New Mexico). So what?”
       

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