Nov. 26, 2011
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Jereal Scott scored 16 of his 17 points in the first half, and Stephen F. Austin blew out to an early 12-0 run en route to a 53-35 win over UTEP on Saturday at the Don Haskins Center.
After the Miners (1-3) scored the game's first four points on buckets by Michael Perez and John Bohannon, the Lumberjacks (2-2) reeled off 12 unanswered -- including 10 by Scott -- to forge a 12-4 lead six minutes into the game. UTEP was playing catch-up the rest of the night, falling behind by as many as 20 points in the second period.
The Miners closed the gap to four points (14-10) on a layup by Cedrick Lang with 12:32 remaining in the half before Stephen F. Austin strung together seven points in a row, going ahead 21-10 on a jumper by Antonio Bostic at the 7:51 mark.
UTEP trailed 28-17 at the break and couldn't get closer than nine points in the final 20 minutes.
"I'm real disappointed with what we were unable to get into the game," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "Our offensive execution was bad. When we did execute, we got the ball to the rim and could not finish. We had four consecutive trips in the first half when we got down 10 or 12 [points] and just missed easy baskets. The defensive boards are still a problem, and that was a 6-5, 6-6 team we were playing against. We had three consecutive days of work on who Stephen F. Austin was [offensively], which we knew and understood, and we were unable to get that into the game, whatever they ran. Their center looked like Bill Russell out there in the first half, and our inability to limit catches and touches was a real issue. And offensively, it's an event when we come down the floor. We're not sure where the baskets are going to come from, whether we'll execute properly or whether the guy we run the action for will rise up and go make a shot."
It was a nightmarish evening for the Miners in nearly every facet, as they were held to a record-low point total in the Don Haskins Center and were outrebounded 35-23. The Lumberjacks also shot 48.9 percent from the field.
UTEP's previous low point total in the Haskins Center was 41 versus Villanova on Dec. 29, 1980.
The Miners also failed to place a player in double figure scoring for the first time since March 6, 2004 at Boise State, as Julian Washburn led the way with nine points. Lang added seven points as UTEP shot 31 percent from the floor.
Bostic scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting for the Lumberjacks, who led the nation in scoring defense last season and entered the game yielding 58.3 ppg in 2011-12.
"Stephen F. Austin is a disciplined team, and a team that guarded us exceedingly well," Floyd said. "They did a great job of executing their offense with poise, getting the ball to where it needed to go."
UTEP will take on Oregon for the first time in its history on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Eugene.
"We're trying to look at everybody on our roster. Nobody has a secure position," Floyd said. "But that being said, you have to have somebody step up and go play. And right now we really haven't seen it. And right now we're getting ready to enter one of the most difficult stretches of our schedule. We're going to continue to try to be patient, try to coach, try to guard these other teams' actions and keep our spirits as high as we can."
