UTEP Wins a Game for the Ages at FIU 77-76

A resilient UTEP Women's basketball team moved to 10-4, (1-0) C-USA, with a a tremendous hard fought 77-76 victory at FIU to open conference play.  The thrilling win came for the Miners despite not having leading scorer Tamara Seda for the majority of the contest due to a nose injury that she suffered early in the first quarter.  Seda has cleared concussion protocol and will play at FAU on Sunday.

Najala Howell scored 21 points including the game-winning free throws with 3.5 seconds left to give UTEP the victory.  FIU's Kristian Hudson misfired on a triple at the buzzer to clinch the third straight win for the Miners, in what turned out to be an epic battle.  Zuzanna Puc played exceptionally well filling in for Seda by scoring 18 points and 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.

The seesaw battle featured 12 ties and 14 lead changes, the Miners took a 2-point lead into halftime and FIU came storming back in the third quarter with a 13-0 run which gave FIU a nine-point lead at 52-45 with 2:45 to play in the period.  UTEP was able to cut the deficit to four heading to the fourth quarter and then completed the comeback by outscoring the Panthers, 24-19 over the final 10 minutes.

The Miners will finish their Florida roadtrip by playing at FAU on Sunday at 12 pm MST.  You can listen to the game with the Iceman on our free 600 ESPN El Paso app.