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UTEP Miners

Miners Open 2003-04 Season on Sunday

A season of promise begins on Sunday when the UTEP men's basketball team hosts the EA Sports Southwest All-Stars.

UTEP returns eight letterwinners this season, and introduces a quartet of talented junior college transfers including first team All-Americans Filiberto Rivera and Omar Thomas.

"We're ready for our guys to get a gauge of exactly where they are," said Miner coach Billy Gillispie. "Our shooting has been better than I had anticipated. We have to be better defensively, and continue to work on our offensive and defensive rebounding. I'm going to be patient, and I hope people will be patient with us."

Tip-off for Sunday's game is 7:05 PM MT in the Don Haskins Center. A women's exhibition featuring UTEP and Eastern New Mexico will precede the contest at 4 PM.

Purchase of an individual or season ticket is good for admittance into both games. Women's basketball season ticket-holders will be moved to a reserved location for the men's game.

Season tickets may be purchased by calling (915) 747-6150. Individual tickets are available by calling (915) 747-5234.

The EA Sports Southwest All-Stars, a team of former college players, is 1-2 on its 13-game tour. EA Sports owns a win over Cal State Northridge (88-82), and has lost to UC Irvine (94-91) and Loyola Marymount (84-78).

EA Sports plays at Cal Riverside tonight, and meets Washington on Saturday in Seattle before coming to El Paso.

Four former Western Athletic Conference players dot the EA Sports roster -- guard Brett McFall (Wyoming), guard Mike McIntyre (Hawaii), guard/forward Chris McMillian (Wyoming) and guard/forward Tony Harvey (Utah).

Through three games, former Penn forward Koko Archibong leads EA Sports in scoring (16.3 ppg).

UTEP is facing EA Sports in the preseason for the third consecutive year. The Miners beat EA Sports in 2001 (87-77) and dropped a 90-66 decision in 2002.

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