UTEP Miners

Final Stats

UTEP 73, UTSA 55 (Box Score) 

Earvin Morris scored a career-high 23 points as UTEP won for the 12th time in its last 13 C-USA road games, 73-55 at UTSA on Saturday afternoon.

The Miners (12-5, 4-1 C-USA) shot 49 percent from the field and scored 24 points off 20 turnovers by the Roadrunners (8-8, 2-3 C-USA).

"We played through a lot of foul trouble and adversity tonight with Matt Willms," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "We got solid minutes with our guard play from C.J. [Cooper] and Omega [Harris] out front. Julian [Washburn] once again did a great job defensively and for the third consecutive game had six boards, which really helped us. It's once again a really nice road win."

As they have done many times this season, the Miners closed the first half with a big run. An 11-4 spurt turned a 22-19 deficit into a 30-26 lead. UTEP jumped on UTSA to start the second half, extending the lead to double digits (40-30) about four minutes in. The Roadrunners couldn't get closer than seven points.

"We were really challenged in the first half on the glass in every area," Floyd said. "We were really pounded on the offensive boards by San Antonio. Once we got that under control to start the second half, it gave us an opportunity to get the ball off the defensive board and get some runouts and balls at the basket."

A 9-2 run, capped by three consecutive Morris three pointers, gave the Miners their largest lead (61-43) with 6:20 to go. UTSA tried to rally, closing the gap to 11 (63-52) on a Jeromie Hill free throw with 3:10 remaining. But UTEP outscored the Roadrunners 10-3 down the stretch.

Morris made 9-of-15 shots and 4-of-9 three pointers, but that wasn't what impressed Floyd.

"I was really pleased with his emergence defensively," he said. "He had a great game offensively but defensively the last two games he has done the job and that's why we're putting him out there and starting him. His guy tonight, [Ryan] Bowie, was averaging 14 points and he held him to a field goal. We've needed a secondary stopper in addition to Julian Washburn. We have found that Earvin didn't like sitting and has taken that as a real challenge and played really well."

The Miners are now 5-0 in games that Morris has started.

Cedrick Lang and Washburn added 11 points apiece for the Miners. Lang had eight rebounds, giving him 607 for his career. He is closing in on joining UTEP's list of the all-time top 15 rebounders.

Vince Hunter encountered first-half foul trouble but still finished with nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 29 minutes. Cooper added nine points off the bench, and Harris scored eight.

The Miners held UTSA nearly 18 points below its season scoring average. Hill, a 1,400-point, 700-rebound player, was contained for the most part with 10 points and five boards. Kaj-Bjorn Sherman and Larry Lewis Jr. both scored 11 points for the Roadrunners, who shot 33 percent in the first half and 38.5 percent on the day. UTSA also had its troubles at the free throw line (12-for-22), while UTEP was 12-for-16 at the charity stripe.

UTEP will continues its three-game road swing when it faces C-USA leader Western Kentucky on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT in Bowling Green, Ky. The game will be nationally televised on FSN.