"I was rooming with Toya (LaToya Lloyd) now. We were sitting in a hotel room in New Orleans, thinking about our first C-USA road game against Tulane. It's a long, long flight from El Paso to New Orleans, longer than I thought it was going to be. She said to me, 'So do you think Debra Rodgers will say hi to us?'
Debra Rodgers was a host of ESPN women's basketball. I said, "What, you think she'll fly in to see us?"
"Yeah. I think so. The game's gonna be on ESPN2."
Oh shit. Toya was right. I didn't even know! So I'm calling my family like crazy on Toya's cell phone, saying 'Turn on the game! Turn on the game! I'm gonna be on ESPN2!' I hoped I had a better showing in my second game than in my first one, because I want to play in the W someday. If it's still around, that is.
We drove by the football stadium. I remember when I was in high school, and I turned on the TV, and instead of a stadium there was one big pond full of water, its outlines marked by the stadium. The bus took us through some damaged parts of New Orleans. They still hadn't cleaned everything up. It was spooky, and knowing that we were going to be on national TV set me on edge. I like to drink a can of Mountain Dew and have a Snickers bar before a game; when we tipped off I was going to be caffeinated up.
We get to the basketball arena and Coach is telling us how important this is. 'You know that playing at UTEP is tough for other teams. Well, you won't be a championship team unless you can win on the road. They're telling each other, 'not in our house'! Well, you have to go out there and face that. Ladies, there are a lot of things that you can't control. But you can always control effort. I want to see effort."
So we go out there all fired up...and nothing.. We fall behind 6-0. Then 8-0. Then 12-0 and Coach Ballard calls time out. She looks at us and she says, 'Don't make me hickory switch you back to El Paso. You got yourselves into this mess, now go out there and get yourselves out of it. Don't expect me to call a time out for you every time you're facing adversity."
It didn't look like we were going to pull out of it. We were down 22-10 and we were in a lot of foul trouble. Going over the back. Being out of position to get the ball. Before we knew it, Toya was sitting, Patty Clark was sitting, and I was sitting.
Then, we went on a 9-0 run to close it to 22-19. We were way over the foul limit - we had 12 fouls in the first quarter - but we managed to fight our way back to a 24-23 game at halftime.
Coach held Toya out after halftime. She held a lot of us out, including me. Brianna (Neal) wasn't hitting any thing, but we had Antonia Martynau out there at shooting guard, and she pulled our bacon out of the burning fat. She hit a couple of back-to-back 3-pointers that had everyone on the bench on their feet and waving towels. Then she hit the next basket. Eight straight points from Marty, and we took a 10-0 run ot lead 35-26.
We were still having foul trouble, though. We were going to be over the limit again, and they brought it back to 43-41. I was back on the court, and my job was just to dish the ball to either #34 (Williamette Moss) or our designated second scorer. Tulane wasn't going to go away. Toya got hit with her fifth foul, and we were down our starting point guard.
Down 49-46, I managed to hit a 15 point jumper and drew the foul. I made the free throw to put the Miners up 52-46 and we were starting to edge forward. This was going to be close, because Tulane still wouldn't give up. We were up 57-53 and Tulane would get the next possession, but they were pressing us anyway. #34 drew the foul and hit both shots. Tulane couldn't make anything happen in the final 30 seconds despite two attempts at a long ball.
We did it. 59-53. We wouldn't have to play the Green Wave ever again - until we played them in the post-season tournament, and I hope we didn't."
--Brenda Dean
The jump Tulane got early in the game made me think that UTEP was doomed even before they started. Tulane had three Home Index points and UTEP was getting in a lot of foul trouble. So would the limitations on visiting UTEP be enough to win the game for Tulane.
Answer: No. I don't count offensive rebounds but UTEP outrebounded Tulane 38-29. Furthermore, despite going to the free throw line 26 times, Tulane could only hit 14 shots from the stripe. If Tulane had been more accurate at the free throw line and had a few more rebounds, they could have made a game of it. C'est la vie. Brenda's happy, and I'm happy.
Up next: UTEP goes back to El Paso to play Tulsa, which is 1-3 in CUSA - and 3-13 overall.
AP Poll RPI: 41
Coaches Poll RPI: 29
Hey, you look good when you're 14-2 on the year. But will UTEP ever crack the Top 25 in either poll?
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