Jan. 6, 2010
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Derrick Caracter broke a 41-41 tie on two free throws with 2:09 remaining, then added a steal and a dunk 30 seconds later as UTEP held on for a 49-45 win over SMU in the Conference USA opener for both schools on Wednesday at the Don Haskins Center.
The Miners (10-3, 1-0 C-USA) survived a major upset bid by the Mustangs (5-8, 0-1), who had dropped four of their last five games and were playing without their second-leading scorer Mouhammad Faye. SMU slowed the tempo and had success, holding UTEP to five field goals in the second half.
"Give SMU a lot of credit because they played the game how they had to play it to survive," UTEP coach Tony Barbee said. "They slowed it down, they made the game drag out and we were fortunate to pull out the win.
"Hopefully we weren't looking ahead to Saturday [against BYU]. I don't know if that was the case. We didn't have everything and everybody firing on all cylinders."
Caracter made 7-of-11 shots and all four of his free throw attempts as UTEP won its conference opener for the sixth straight year. The Miners have won 13 of the last 14 against SMU, including seven in a row in El Paso.
This one, however, was anything but easy, as SMU erased a 13-point second half deficit and tied the game at 39 on a free throw by Frank Otis with 5:32 to play. Otis, however, missed the second foul shot that would've given the Mustangs their first lead of the night.
Neither team scored again until Arnett Moultrie nailed a jumper with 3:03 left to put UTEP ahead 41-39. SMU knotted the contest on a jumper by Derek Williams with 2:26 remaining before Caracter took over.
With the Miners ahead 47-45 and only 10 ticks on the clock, Caracter threw a baseball pass to Randy Culpepper over the Mustang defense. Culpepper hit the layup for a 49-45 lead with six seconds left.
"They had to try and get a steal or get a foul, which means they were going to be overly aggressive," Barbee said. "We just played against their aggressiveness and set a play that we work on in practice for that exact situation, and the guys executed it to a T.
"He's (Derrick Caracter) one of the best passing big men I've been around ... there's no question he's one of the best passing big men that we have."
Culpepper joined Caracter in double figures with 14 points for UTEP, which was outscored 25-20 in the second half. The Miners were ahead 29-20 at the break.
Williams led SMU with 14 points.
After SMU wasn't whistled for a foul in the first half, the Mustangs committed nine in the second period and UTEP took advantage, going 10-for-11 from the charity stripe.
UTEP will host long-time rival and no. 25 BYU on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Cougars' first visit to the Haskins Center in 11 years.
