Feb. 13, 2011
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EL PASO, TEXAS- Junior Gloria Brown posted a monstrous double-double (21 points and 17 rebounds) to help the UTEP women's basketball team past Tulane, 65-61, inside the Don Haskins Center Sunday afternoon.
The Green Wave (17-7, 6-5 C-USA) got on the board first with a free throw 26 seconds into the game before the Miners (13-10, 5-6 C-USA) scored eight straight to take a lead that they would never relinquish. UTEP entered the locker room up eight (30-22), and never looked back en route to the satisfying victory.
"We played hard," UTEP head coach Keitha Adams said. "Our team is showing a lot of character right now, a lot of fight."
UTEP dominated the boards to the tune of 44-31 and enjoyed an edge of 42-20 in points in the paint. The Miners shared the ball effectively with 16 assists, but more importantly committed a season-low tying 12 turnovers.
Brown overwhelmed Tulane at both ends of the court, with 10 of her 17 boards being of the offensive variety. The 17 total rebounds rates tied for the seventh-highest single-game figure in program history, and is only three shy of the school standard.
Senior Ashley Milian flirted with a double-double (14 points, eight rebounds), while freshman guard Kelli Willingham (13 points, six assists) also had a solid game.
UTEP finished at 36.8 percent (25-of-68) from the floor against a defensive-minded Tulane squad, but came away with the win thanks to the efforts in the other areas. The Miners made 75 percent (12-of-16) at the free-throw line, including a flawless 8-of-8 in the final three minutes of the game.
It was a bit of a more balanced approach offensively for Tulane, with five different players registering seven or more points. Roshaunda Barnes paced her squad with 18 points. Tiffany Aidoo joined her in double figure with 10 points, including nine via the triple.
Tulane hit on 42.3 percent (22-of-52) percent of its field-goal tries but it was done in due to shortcomings in other areas. In addition to its woes in rebounding the ball, UTEP's reserves out-scored its counterparts' back-ups by 26 (46-20).
Defense was the dominant theme early on, with the two squads combining for two points in the first three minutes of the game. Tulane led 1-0 after a free-throw make by Danielle Nunn, and then Brown started the aforementioned 8-0 run with a conversion of her own at 17:27.
The post player put UTEP on top, for good as it would turn out, after a nifty move to put in a lay-up. Fellow classmate Erika Warren drilled a triple to make it 6-1 before Willingham capped the stretch with a steal and breakaway bucket.
The two teams traded blows before a spurt by the Green Wave allowed it to get within four (12-8) at 9:08. The Miners countered with an 8-0 run on the way to staking their first double-digit advantage (20-8) of the game with 6:04 to play in the first half.
UTEP continued to play well, and extended its lead out to 14 (29-15) with 2:22 to go but the momentum would swing back to the visitors. Tulane put together a 12-1 run, which spanned three minutes combined over the end of the first half and start of the second, to pull within three (30-27). The Miners regrouped and eventually pushed the advantage out to nine (53-44) with 5:26 to play.
Tulane continued to fight, whittling the deficit down to three on a trio of occasions. Each time, though, the Orange and Blue had an answer, as they took care of business at the free-throw line to wipe away any aspirations of a Green Wave rally.
UTEP will be back in action when it plays at Rice at 7 p.m. MST on Thursday. The game will be carried live nationally by CBS College Sports in addition to airing locally in El Paso on the radio on KHRO 1150 AM.
