The Miners played their most complete half of basketball this season en route to an easy 59-39 win over interstate foe UTSA on Saturday night.  UTEP swept their three game home stand by taking full advantage of a Roadrunners squad who shot quite poorly throughout the contest.  Even more impressive is that the Miners controlled the first half with Dominic Artis and Omega Harris on the bench for several minutes.

At one point the Miners went on a 13-0 run to take a 20-10 lead at the 8:53 mark of the first half. UTEP held UTSA to a dismal shooting percentage of less than 25 percent in both halves of the game, and the 39 points scored by the Roadrunners were the second fewest allowed by the Miners since joining C-USA in 2005.  UAB scored 37 points against UTEP on February 8, 2006.

Leading scorers for the Miners included Omega Harris who tallied 16 points, while emerging forward Paul Thomas recorded the second double-double of his career with 12 points and a career high 13 rebounds.  Jake Flaggert also added 11 points, and Dominic Artis' 9 points in the game gave him 1,000 for his career.

Photo by Brandon Cohn
Photo by Brandon Cohn
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UTEP shot 64 percent in the first half and took a 39-21 lead into the locker room.  In the second half both teams couldn't score to save their lives as the Miners shot 27.3 percent and the Roadrunners were equally as bad by shooting 24.1 percent.  Both teams combined to only score a total of 38 points in the sloppy second half.  UTEP's outstanding first half performance enabled them to play so poorly throughout the remainder of the game, and still win it with relative ease.

The Miners outrebounded UTSA 42-37, which was an accomplishment in itself considering that the Roadrunners are one of C-USA's top rebounding teams.  UTEP also outscored UTSA 22-10 in the paint.  The Miners will now venture on a challenging road trip to Western Kentucky and Marshall, where they will look to carry over their momentum.

 

 

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