Following its fourth WAC match identified in the remaining five years, the New Mexico State ladies’ basketball crew will face Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA event in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (MT) and can be proven on ESPN 2.
“For us, it doesn’t, in reality, rely on, we’re excited, we’re equipped to play whoever, that’s a form of how this organization has been,” NM State head train Brooke Atkinson said in a press convention on Monday. “That next opponent is the most critical, and those youngsters are locked in and geared up to move.”
NM State enters the tournament as the No. 14 seed within the Chicago Region, which is a rank better than this system’s preceding time within the Big Dance (Aggies performed Stanford two seasons ago as the No. 15 seed). This system’s fifth time in the tourney hasn’t begun to win an NCAA match recreation (0-5).
Atkinson has her group gambling some “no-quit” basketball properly now, gambling two video games in a row in the WAC event, wherein both games went into a minimum of one additional time length. The Aggies enter the match using a 17-recreation win streak – tied for its longest win streak in application history. Also, with a universal document of 26-6, the faculty’s file should be tied for maximum wins in an unmarried season.
Iowa State enters as the No. Three seed with a 25-8 overall file after dropping to Baylor in the ladies’ Big 12 championship game, scoring 67-49. ISU does have some wonderful wins, one against the at-the-time No. 24 Miami, and some other once they beat No. 18 Texas two times, once lower back in early March and again in the Big 12 semi-finals. One aspect for certain is that NM State could have its fingers full looking to comprise an effective Cyclones group who shoots the ball successfully (44 percent at the year). Yet, on paper, the team’s match-up is similarly protective, wherein both teams handiest allow their opponents to around sixty-three points a recreation.
ISU’s senior guard Bridget Carleton was named a second-team All-American through ESPN this past Thursday. She leads the Big 12 with 21.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. She also sits at the second spot in ISU history with 2,088 career points—additionally, she is the school in most points scored in an unmarried season with 706 thus far.
These numbers may petrify Atkinson and her crew as they may be hugely similar to NM State’s Brooke Salas’ stat line. Yet, the Aggies do have key starters who’ve reveled in the Big Dance, with Salas and junior Gia Pack being a part of the crew two seasons in the past, who narrowly changed into defeated by using Stanford.
Atkinson is coaching for the first time in the NCAA match as a head coach, and this is only her second year at the helm for the Aggies. NM State will most likely give ISU a run for its money, as the Aggies will continue to play their “resiliency, no-cease” style of game, seeking their 27th win of the season.
