Jan. 10, 2015
Final Stats |
Photo Gallery by Michael Patrick Reese 
UTEP 74, Southern Miss 40 (Box Score) 
UTEP put Southern Miss away early with a 17-0 run and coasted to a 74-40 victory over the Golden Eagles on Saturday night, getting back on the winning track in Conference USA.
The Miners (11-5, 3-1 C-USA) bounced back emphatically from Thursday's 58-45 loss to Louisiana Tech. After the Golden Eagles (5-9, 0-3 C-USA) jumped out to an early 5-3 lead, UTEP began the 17-0 run and, when it ended, was up 20-5. Following a three-point play by Southern Miss' Norville Carey, the Miners reeled off eight in a row to push the lead to 20 (28-8) and were ahead 40-15 at the break.
UTEP extended its lead to as many as 35 points in the second half, spoiling Doc Sadler's return to the Sun City as the Golden Eagles' head coach.
The key for the Miners was containing Southern Miss' top two scorers, Matt Bingaya and Chip Armelin. They entered the game averaging close to 30 points between them, but on Saturday were held to a combined 13 on 4-for-15 shooting, largely due to the defensive work of Julian Washburn (Bingaya) and Earvin Morris (Armelin).
"I know Southern Miss is not the Southern Miss of a year ago because of departures, but Bingaya and Armelin can play and I thought Julian and Earvin did a very nice job on those guys," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "I thought our ball movement was very good, which it had been at North Texas and at Rice [last week] and wasn't the other night. I do credit Louisiana Tech for a lot of that. But it was better. There's nothing like healing a team with ball movement and everybody getting involved."
The 34-point margin of victory was UTEP's second-largest in a Conference USA game behind the 96-59 drubbing of UCF on Jan. 23, 2010. The 40 points were the second-fewest allowed by the Miners in a C-USA game behind the 37 yielded to UAB on Feb. 8, 2006.
UTEP had tremendous scoring balance. Vince Hunter led the way with 14 points, while C.J. Cooper had 12 in a reserve role, Omega Harris 10, Matt Willms nine, Cedrick Lang eight, Earvin Morris eight and Julian Washburn eight. Cooper snapped out of a lengthy scoring slump by making 4-of-5 three pointers. It was his first game in double figures since Dec. 6. Hunter and Willms pulled down eight and seven rebounds respectively. Lang had five rebounds, giving him 599 for his career.
The Miners made a season-high 10 three pointers. They finished 10-for-20 from beyond the arc and shot 57.1 percent overall while collecting 17 assists and only eight turnovers.
"I thought Matt Willms played very well when he came in at the 16-minute mark of the first half defensively and offensively," Floyd said. "I thought Julian had his best half of basketball since he has been here in the first half. He had three rebounds where he had his armpits above the rim going back on the defensive board. He was great defensively. He is getting a little more confident offensively, which is great.
"We made a little change tonight [to the starting lineup] for no particular reason. C.J. is a vital part of what we do. We're basically playing eight guys right now until Lew Stallworth gets back. C.J. seemed to shoot it better coming off the bench. He was very comfortable and that was encouraging. Just overall I thought it was a very good effort."
The Miners held Southern Miss to 30.6 percent shooting, a season-low by a UTEP opponent, and scored 21 points off turnovers.
Defense was the big story on Saturday night.
"I think Armelin averaged 25 points last week and was the player of the week in our league," Floyd said. "I thought Earvin played his best game for us even though he was 0-for-4 at halftime. I told him, with most college teams it's 60 percent of the scoring from two guys. We have not been able to take that second guy out. Julian can't guard three people. I thought Earvin kind of took that challenge tonight and did a really nice job which is important not only for Earvin's minutes in the future, but for our team."
The Miners will need to bring that "D" - and then some - when they embark on a three-game road swing starting next weekend. UTEP will play at UTSA on Saturday, Jan. 17, followed by treks to Western Kentucky (Jan. 22) and Marshall (Jan. 24). The UTSA game will be televised on the American Sports Network with a 1 p.m. MT tipoff.
