Jan. 18, 2008
Final Stats
Box Score in PDF Format 
Trailing by 15 (51-36) with 11:32 left, the UTEP women's basketball team came alive with a 31-13 run down the stretch to down UAB, 67-64, Friday evening at the Don Haskins Center.
The Blazers had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but UAB's Diamond Rogers missed a contested three pointer.
The ninth straight win improves the Miners to 13-2 and 4-0 in Conference USA play while the Blazers fall to 7-10 and 3-1, respectively. UTEP now stands alone in first place in the 12-team league, as previously unbeaten Tulsa fell at Marshall.
Almost overshadowed in the exciting come-from-behind victory is the fact that senior guard Kasia Krezel became the fifth member of the 1,000-point club in program history after scoring nine points.
"I'm really proud of the team to fight back and get a win against a really good team," head coach Keitha Adams said. "We didn't play very well tonight, but the great crowd kept us energized. We wanted to win it for them."
Jareica Hughes, Timika Williams and Natasha Lacy led the comeback, accounting for 21 of the 31 points during the decisive run. For the game, Hughes finished with a career-high 10 rebounds and 13 points.
Williams pitched in eight points- all during the final 12 minutes- to go along with nine boards. Lacy flirted with a triple double with 15 points, seven caroms and seven assists.
Izabela Piekarska, who sank a pair of clutch free throws to stretch the lead to three with 4.6 seconds remaining, also contributed with 15 points.
It was a tightly-contested first half, as there were eight ties and neither team garnered more than a five-point edge. UAB entered the half up by one (32-31), marking just the third time on the season that the Miners trailed at the break.
A disastrous opening to the second half put UTEP in a hole that for a while it appeared would be simply too tall to climb out of. The Orange and Blue missed 14 of their 15 shots of the period, which allowed UAB to quickly extend its advantage to 10 (41-31).
Krezel drained a pair of free throws to halt the 9-0 spurt, but the Blazers answered with an 8-3 stretch to take the aforementioned 15-point lead.
UTEP trimmed it to eight courtesy of jumpers by Tasha Marisett and Lacy, only to have UAB move it back to 12. Crystal McFadden, who was in a thorn of the side of the Miners all night with a game-high 21 points, knocked down a long two to once again give the Blazers a double-digit advantage with 8:29 left.
The Orange and Blue refused to quit, though, rattling off 10 straight points in a span of two minutes to nip the deficit to two (55-53) with six minutes left.
After the Blazers pushed their lead back to four, Hughes and Lacy brought the Miners back. The duo combined for five straight points to afford UTEP its first edge since late in the opening half.
Rogers put the Blazers back on top, 64-63, with 1:19 left, but Piekarska handled a tough pass in traffic and converted the lay-up to give the Miners a lead they would never relinquish.
UTEP will be back in action against Memphis, which defeated preseason favorite Tulane 74-66 on Friday, at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday at the Don Haskins Center. The first 1,000 fans through the gates will receive a free UTEP pennant.
