Dec. 8, 2007
Final Stats
NMSU-UTEP Box Score (PDF)
Stefon Jackson scored a career-high 36 points, and UTEP completed its fourth season sweep of I-10 rival New Mexico State in the last five years with a 79-78 win over the Aggies on Saturday in Las Cruces.
Jackson joined Jim Barnes as the only Miner players to have two 30-point games against the Aggies. He is the first UTEP player to score 30+ points twice in the same season versus NMSU.
Randy Culpepper added 19 points for the Miners (5-2) while coming off the bench for the first time this season. Freshman guard Julyan Stone made his first career start in Culpepper's place. He played only 12 minutes due to foul trouble, finishing with five assists and only one turnover.
Jackson shot 11-for-20 from the field and 13-for-16 from the charity stripe, while adding four rebounds and a blocked shot in 36 minutes. His 36 points marked the most by a UTEP player since Brandon Wolfram also netted 36 against TCU on March 1, 2001.
The Miners led for most of the first half, and enjoyed a 40-37 cushion at the intermission. After NMSU (4-7) built a four-point lead (44-40) two minutes into the second half, the Miners went on an 11-2 run and did not trail the rest of the night.
Fred Peete's three-pointer with one second left brought the Aggies to within one point, the closest they had been since it was 51-50 with 13:14 remaining.
Hatila Passos and Fred Peete led New Mexico State with 20 points each, and Justin Hawkins added 14 points.
The Aggies shot 53.5 percent to UTEP's 41.7 percent and outrebounded the Miners 37-28. NMSU also shot 15 more free throws than the Miners, but it was just 28-of-43 from the stripe and committed 22 turnovers.
UTEP will host Southeastern Louisiana on Dec. 19 at 7:05 p.m. MDT.
