UTEP won a close game for the first time this season, defeating Tulane 54-52 in overtime on Saturday night.

John Bohannon only scored 5 points but they all came in overtime as the Miners are now 12-13 on the season with the victory.  Michael Perez was the only player with double figures scoring 15 points.  UTEP struggled against the fierce Tulane defense shooting only 34.6% in the game.

Despite their offensive struggles, the Miners managed to be quite resilient by overcoming a 7 point deficit with under 10 minutes to play in the game.  Tulane had a couple of opportunities to win the game at the end of regulation,  but missed two jumpers in the final minute. 

In OT the Miners stepped up defensivley and scored 6 points which was just enough to get the narrow victory.  John Bohannon, who has been averaging 15.4 points per game in C-USA play dominated the extra session for the Miners. 

Overall, it was a special night at the Don Haskins center.  The 1992 sweet 16 team was honored at halftime, and the Miners finally won a close game.  After the game Coach Floyd mentioned that there is a certain value to winning a close contest.

The Miners will play at Memphis next Saturday, Coach Floyd spoke about how difficult of a challenge it will be to win at the Fed Ex Forum. 

The road ahead will be challenging for the Miners as they will  face Memphis, Southern Miss, and UCF.  They have found a way to beat their last 2 C-USA opponents, this was no easy task considering those opponents were Tulsa and Tulane.  The close win against Tulane was important for the team's confidence, and was just what they needed heading into a difficult stretch.

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