UTEP Improves to 21-2 With a Dominant Performance Over FAU

The Miners continued their dominance over teams from the Sunshine State by defeating Florida Atlantic 75-47 on Saturday afternoon, giving Coach Keitha Adams an incredible birthday gift in doing so. UTEP swept both FIU and FAU this season and moved to 21-2, 12-1 in C-USA, and 14-0 at home which tied the '07-'08 squad for the best home start in program history.

Following a relatively close first quarter, UTEP outscored the Owls 17-8 in the second quarter and never looked back as they dominated the remainder of the game en route to an easy victory.  Defensively, the Miners held FAU, one of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation, to 17.4 percent from downtown on 4 of 23 shooting.  The Owls struggled from the field as well shooting 31.5 percent throughout the game, and committed 23 turnovers that led to 33 points for the Miners.

The Miners also shut down FAU's leading scorer Ali Gorrell by holding her to 2-8 shooting and just 6 points.  It was the first time that Gorrell had scored under double digit points in the past thirteen games.  For UTEP, Jenzel Nash led all scorers with 16 points, Sparkle Taylor added 12, Starr Breedlove contributed with 10 points and had 7 steals.

Breedlove's 7 steals all occurred in the first half, and outnumbered the Owl's total team steals of 6.  Breedlove is ranked sixth in the nation in steals, averaging more than 3 per game.  Cameasha Turner scored 9 points, and Lawna Kennedy also had another solid performance with 7 points.  The Miners utilized all 14 players on their roster who dressed, with each individual receiving at least six minutes.  UTEP shot 42.6 percent from the field and made 19 of 26 free throws.

The Miners will now head on their southern road trip as they travel to Mississippi next Wednesday and play at Southern Miss on Thursday at 5 p.m. MST, and at Louisiana Tech next Saturday at 5 p.m. MST.  You can listen to both of those games with the Iceman Brandon Cohn on 600 ESPN El Paso.