UTEP WBB Ready for Challenging North Texas and Rice Road Trip

Following an impressive 73-60 win at UTSA to open C-USA play this past Saturday, the Miners are ready for the challenging road swing that includes games at North Texas on Thursday at 6 pm MST, and at Rice on Saturday at 1 pm MST.  UTEP struggled in the non-conference portion of their schedule going 3-10, but the win in San Antonio was a sigh of relief as the Miners improved to 11-3 all-time in C-USA openers.  Arriving in Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, UTEP is poised to continue the past success they've had against the Mean Green, as they are 7-4 all-time versus UNT.

Despite playing without second-leading scorer Ariona Gill, who sustained a stress fracture and will be out for 4-6 weeks, Alexa Hoy, Jordan Alexander, Zuzanna Puc, and Sabine Lipe all stepped up in the win over the Roadrunners.  Alexa Hoy scored a career-high 22 points off the bench in that contest.  Winning at the Super Pit in Denton will be no easy task though as the Mean Green are 5-2 at home, have won 5 in a row, and 7 out of their last 8 games overall.

UNT is lead by junior post player Anisha George from St.Croix, a two-time C-USA player of the week averaging 11.1 ppg, and Terriell Bradley, also a C-USA player of the week this season, who's averaging 18.4 ppg, and is ranked 32nd in the nation in free throws made.  The Miners will face a tremendous challenge at Rice on Saturday in Houston as the Owls are 11-3 overall, 5-0 at Tudor Fieldhouse, and have won 11 of their last 12 games.  Traditionally UTEP has struggled at Rice as the program is 7-16 when playing at Tudor Fieldhouse.

The Owls are led by junior guard Erica Ogwumike, who was the C-USA preseason player of the year, averages 17.1 ppg,10.7 rpg, and has scored double-figures in 11 of 13 games.  Redshirt sophomore Nancy Mulkey is averaging 13 ppg, and ranks second in C-USA with 21 blocks.  You can listen to Thursday's game on 600 ESPN El Paso and Saturday's contest on our free app 600 ESPN El Paso.com with the Iceman.