Jan. 28, 2009
Final Stats
UTEP-Houston Box Score (PDF) 
UTEP started the second half with a 22-2 run and held on for a thrilling 62-55 win at Houston on Wednesday night.
The Miners trailed by 13 points midway through the first half. It tied for UTEP's second-biggest comeback win under third-year coach Tony Barbee. UTEP was behind by 14 points before rallying for a 72-67 win at SMU during the 2006-07 season. The Miners trailed by 13 points to Penn in Barbee's first game on the bench that year before pulling out a 69-66 triumph.
UTEP (12-8, 3-3 C-USA) was down 34-25 at the half before scoring the first 16 points of the second period. The Miners had their largest lead of the night, 54-41, on a three pointer by Randy Culpepper with 10:55 to play. Houston (12-6, 3-2 C-USA) came storming back, using a 10-0 spurt to pull within a point, 56-55, with 4:46 to go. But the Miners outscored the Cougars 6-0 over the final 4:16 to stave off the comeback bid.
The Miners were outstanding defensively all night, limiting the Cougars to 37.3 percent shooting after they hit eight of their first nine shots. Houston made just 14 of its final 50 attempts, a .280 percentage.
Arnett Moultrie had a monster game for UTEP with 19 points and 18 rebounds, both career highs. It marked the most boards by a UTEP player since Darrius Mattear also had 18 versus Boise State during the 2002-03 season. Moultrie has had three double-doubles this season, tying the most by a Miner freshman since Dave Feitl in 1982-83.
The Miners crushed the Cougars on the boards, 51-34.
Randy Culpepper scored 13 points and Stefon Jackson had 12 for UTEP. Jackson now has 2,006 career points and needs only 12 to break the Conference USA scoring record of 2,017, held by USF's Altron Jackson. Julyan Stone dished out 11 assists.
Marcus Cousin had 15 points to lead four Houston players in double figures.
The Miners avenged a 94-86 loss to Houston on Jan. 14 at the Don Haskins Center. It was UTEP's first win in five trips to Hofheinz Pavilion.
UTEP is 3-1 in Conference USA road games. The Miners posted one C-USA road victory in each of the last two seasons.
Both teams were short-handed. Houston was missing second-leading scorer Aubrey Coleman, who was serving a one-game suspension for violating C-USA's Sportsmanship Policy. UTEP was without swingman Gabriel McCulley, who is out for two to three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, and center Kareem Cooper, who did not make the trip per coach's decision.
Claude Britten stepped up in Cooper's absence and scored eight points with two blocked shots in 17 minutes off the bench.
The Miners will host Southern Miss (13-6, 3-2 C-USA) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. MST.
