Big stories from 2020: Lubbock s New year starts off with tragedies
(We re counting down some of the biggest stories on the South Plains from 2020. Be sure to check out the New Year s Day A-J on Friday to see the full countdown and other highlights from the year.)
Tragic news dominated much of the first weeks of 2020 in Lubbock as six homicides were reported in the first weeks of the new year followed by the line of duty deaths of two Lubbock first responders.
Lubbock Fire Rescue Lt. Eric Hill, 39, and Lubbock police officer Nicholas Reyna, 27, were killed on Jan. 11 while working a vehicle wreck on icy roads on I-27 north of Lubbock.
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The show goes on for what last week seemed to be an already road-weary Lobos men’s basketball team in Boise, Idaho.
A pair of Mountain West Conference-opening losses to Boise State by a combined 61 points left people with plenty of questions about how the UNM program got there.
There are questions about coaching, talent, inexperience. Questions about the impact brought on by the unique circumstances leading to the team relocating to Texas about a month ago, since it couldn’t hold regular, full team practices in its home state.
A week after those losses – with a full day of air travel back to Albuquerque on Christmas Eve, followed by a 5-hour-plus bus ride back to Lubbock, Texas, over the weekend – Lobos coach Paul Weir said what he’s seen from his team is encouraging.
LCU graduate fulfilled career dream with adoption agency
For A-J Media
When Ellis was an infant, she was adopted through a Dallas-based agency called Christian Works for Children.
After graduating from Cedar Hill ISD in 1999 and earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work, Ellis became the director of Adoption Works for Christian Works for Children.
“It was a pretty surreal feeling to be chosen to work as a director of the same adoption agency that my biological mother chose to work with and that my parents applied to adopt from,” Ellis said. “I felt like I was giving back to the community and helping families and children by putting them together. I would have never dreamed as a child that I would get to do that one day. That was a dream that came true.”
UNM is now 4-6 on the road in Boise
Boise State has now won the last three matchups
Boise State is now 3-2 over UNM in the last five games
TEAM NOTES:
UNM’s starting lineup of Francis, Singleton, Maluach, Brown and Matos marked the first time this season that a duplicate lineup was used.
The five started both Boise State games
In HC Paul Weir’s first season, he led the nation in most starting lineups with 21
The Lobos shot just 11.1 percent from behind the arc, going 1-for-7
The only three to make it in the basket for UNM came from sophomore Emmanuel Kuac