It goes without saying that Jody Adams and her squad have figured things out at the perfect time of the season, as the Conference USA tournament looms around the corner. The NMSU women’s basketball found their next victim at home against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, winning 66-47.
The lady Aggies have won three out of their four games by a combined 40 points and are currently sitting fourth in CUSA standings, where they trail Western Kentucky, Liberty and Middle Tennessee, respectively.
Not even a minute passed before NMSU was up four points thanks to two immediate layups from Fanta Gassama and Jayla Harding. But those were just the first punches of what be a 40 minute beating from the Aggies. Before the end of the first quarter, every other starter in the game, including which included Sanchez-Oliver, Loes Rozing and Molly Kaiser, scored with bench help from Sylena Peterson and Lucia Yenes, getting the lead to a comfortable six points.
The score was 24-18 at the first buzzer.
It was the combined efforts of Jax States’ Clara Gonzalez-Planella and Bre’Anna Rhodes that was the only thing keeping the Gamecocks in the game. When they [Jax State] got within one score to put a scare in the Aggies, they just couldn’t get the clutch buckets.
(Courtesy of NMSU Athletics)
A timeout at the perfect time gave the Aggies a boost of energy. With more defensive intensity that two turnovers, the offense got more scoring from Kaiser and Yenes and even a block by Peterson in the last second of the first half knotted the score at an Aggie advantage of 37-31. Even with a foul call with less than a second left on the clock, but missed free throws by Mya Barnes kept the score the same out of halftime.
After halftime, the points kept coming for the Aggies from the regular sources of Gassama, Harding and Kaiser. The only hope for the Gamecocks came from a last second heave of a deep three pointer from Gonzalez-Planella that went in as the buzzer sounded.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when the Gamecocks started to whittle down the Aggie lead, but it was Yenes who got back-to back steals. She took it all the way to the basket to get her tally up to 10 points for the game. This was something she commented on after the game.
“I feel like I always want to win, so I try to give my best every time I go out,” she said. “Obviously the team helps me to do everything.”
All that was left was for the Aggies to finish the job. With a late bucket from Harding delivering the knockout punch to get the led to 18, the final buzzer gave the Aggies a 66-47 win in another impressive scoring output that the Aggies are making a habit out of. Something about the team seemed to have changed since the teams’ loss to Middle Tennessee and Gassama gave her input.
“Obviously, it was a tough loss,” Gassama said. “It hurt and and we were just like, ‘we want to win’. Our mentality changed after that game. [In] practices, giving everything we got, practices on the games, in warmups, everything.”
With the season in its final stage, consistency is more important than ever. Especially in a tough, competitive conference like Conference USA. If the Aggies keep up the momentum, they could punch their ticket and go dancing in March. History shows sometimes magical things can happen in March.
The Aggies are staying at home, and will play Middle Tennessee once again on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m. The game will stream on ESPN+ since the Aggies will be playing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
