Aggies advance to WAC title game
But Trakh is not happy with play
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Mark Trakh hit the coaching doubledown Friday afternoon in the Orleans Arena.
Most important, his top-seeded New Mexico State Aggies won in the Western Athletic Conference semifinals, beating No. 5 MissouriKansas City 71-63 to continue a remarkable run of dominance in the league and returning them to today’s 4 p.m. championship game vs. Seattle (ESPN3. com) with a shot at a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
But Friday’s win also came in less than dominant fashion, even if the Aggies led for 38 of the 40 minutes, which gave the sixthyear coach plenty of opportunity to grab his team’s attention.
“I’m not happy with our play,” said Trakh. “I’m not happy with how we handled the pressure. I’m not happy with the way we left so many points on the floor.”
UMKC grabbed 20 offensive rebounds in the loss and outrebounded NMSU 43-29 overall. That led Trakh to question the toughness of his Aggies, who nonetheless improve to 23-6 overall and have won of a program-record 16 consecutive games and 17 straight vs. WAC teams over the past two seasons.
“I think we played tough, but coach Trakh’s right,” said senior guard Moriah Mack, the WAC Player of the Year, who scored
a team-high 21 points to go with four assists, three blocks and two steals. “We could have played tougher.”
UMKC (10-19) managed only 12 second-chance points off those 20 offensive rebounds and shot just 38.2 percent from the field.
“We played good defense on the initial shot,” Trakh said, “but I thought a lot of those 20 offensive rebounds were looseball rebounds. That’s toughness when they got most of the 50-50 balls. That’s what I mean by toughness.”
NMSU led 53-39 after three quarters, before the Kangaroos made their strongest run. UMKC opened the final period scoring 10 of the first 14 points. After a 6-0 run that cut the Aggies’ lead to 57-49, a visibly agitated Trakh called a timeout.
“During the timeout, we got together, we held hands and sang ‘Kumbaya’ — and I read from Anthony Robbins’ ‘Awaken the Giant Within,’” said Trakh. “So it was a good timeout. Very positive. Warm and fuzzy like these kids need nowadays.”
NMSU hit seven free throws in the final 1:37, the team’s final seven points, to close out the game.