Photo By Daisy Hernandez
By Zack Ponce
The New Mexico State Aggies stormed out of the gate and
fought through adversity to win their first game of the 2012-13 women’s
basketball season against Loyola Marymount 77-76 in overtime.
Sophomore point guard Danesia Williamson, a newcomer who
transferred from San Diego, hit a jump shot with 28.7 seconds left in the
second half to tie the game for the Aggies at 69-69. The NMSU defense then held the Lions to a
tough shot that fell short of the basket to send the game to overtime.
Senior forward Kelsie Rozendaal then proceeded to lead NMSU
during the overtime period and helped the Aggies clinch a victory.
“After being down at halftime I decided I was going to take
(the game) on my shoulders and carry this team,” Rozendaal said. “We know this is the year that we can do
something big and today was our first test. We came out and we showed that we can finish
games.”
Rozendaal grabbed a key rebound after forcing LMU’s Alexis
Love to shoot over her arms. Rozendaal
then hit three of her four free throws down the stretch to extend NMSU’s lead
over LMU to 77-73.
“Kelsie was big time…she’s a tough kid,” said NMSU women’s
head basketball coach Mark Trakh. “I was
happy with the way we came back.”
Rozendaal led the team in both points (22) and rebounds (11). She shot 8-of-13 from inside the arch and
1-of-4 from three-point range.
Williamson showed the potential to be a solid floor general
for the Aggies. She scored 19 points on
8-of-11 shooting, but also had seven turnovers.
New Mexico State stormed out to an early lead over LMU and
led by as much as seven, 21-14, with just over 10 minutes left in the first
half. A string of offensive turnovers
and blown defensive assignment for NMSU allowed the Lions to erase the deficit.
“We just can’t afford to give up easy points, but unlike
last year we scored easy points too. We
struggled for everything last year,” Trakh said.
Loyola Marymount led 37-30 at halftime, but NMSU slowly
chipped away at the LMU margin and regained the lead at 56-55 with 9:34 to play
in the second half on a jump shot by guard Jasmine Rutledge.
New Mexico State will travel tomorrow to play UC Santa
Barbara on Wednesday in Calif. at 8:00 p.m. mountain time.
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