UTEP Miners

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery by Michael Patrick Reese 

UTEP 73, Charlotte 68 (Box Score) 

Cedrick Lang had a big second half with 10 points and eight rebounds, and UTEP went to the line 20 times over the final 20 minutes en route to dispatching Charlotte, 73-68, on Thursday at the Don Haskins Center.

The Miners (17-7, 9-3 C-USA) won their season-high fifth consecutive game and are now tied for third place in the C-USA standings with UAB, which lost at North Texas earlier in the evening. UTEP is a game behind first-place Louisiana Tech and a half-game behind second-place Western Kentucky with six league games remaining.

A year after opening the Conference USA schedule with a 73-68 home loss to the 49ers, the Miners topped Charlotte in the Haskins Center by an identical score.

"We got a couple of excellent performances tonight," UTEP coach Tim Floyd said. "C.J. Cooper was really good. Just a lot of poise, made big shots, didn't hurt us defensively. Really did a nice job. And he was the one guy who had a lot of confidence with it in his hands against their pressure. They extended their pressure and I thought he handled it really, really well.

"Julian Washburn guarded their leading scorer [Torin Dorn] in the first half because Pierria Henry didn't play. Henry started the second half and Julian went to Henry after he made a field goal to end the first half on Earvin [Morris]. I think he held him to a field goal [in the second half], that three late. He was exceptional on the defensive end. He just played very, very well."

Cooper was one of five Miners in double figures with 15 points. He shot 5-for-8 from the field, 3-for-4 from three and 2-for-2 from the line.

Vince Hunter had 14 points and seven rebounds. Morris and Washburn scored 11 points each. Lang had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.

Many of Lang's eight second-half boards came down the stretch as the Miners closed the rebounding gap after getting pummeled on the glass in the first 30 minutes.

UTEP shot 55 percent in the second half and went 15-for-20 at the line during that stretch, but couldn't shake the 49ers until the final minute. Charlotte played yet another close contest, dropping to 4-8 in games decided by five points or fewer.

The Miners never trailed. They led by as many as 11 points in the first half and were up 34-27 at the intermission. After UTEP re-established an 11-point cushion (55-44) with 11:05 to play, Charlotte went on an 8-2 run to pull within five. The 49ers cut it to three times in the last five minutes, but the Miners were able to answer on every occasion.

A big sequence came with 48 seconds remaining when, in a 64-61 game, Omega Harris missed a three pointer but Lang corralled the rebound and hit two foul shots to push the lead to five. After Williams sliced it to 3 with free throws of his own, Harris went 2-for-2 at the stripe and UTEP didn't lead by less than four in the final half-minute.

"We made more free throws than they attempted," Floyd said. "It's always a big stat. It just adds another scorer to the box score. It makes up for the baskets that we gave up on the offensive board. They crushed us on the glass. The fact that we got to the line gave us an opportunity to go back and go play."

UTEP finished 17-for-23 at the stripe. Charlotte was 9-for-11. The 49ers owned the boards 39-26 and had a 23-10 advantage in second chance points.

Mike Thorne Jr., who put 16 points and 14 rebounds on the board against UTEP last season, had nearly identical numbers (16 points, 13 rebounds) this time around. Terrence Williams, who scored 16 points in the 2014 meeting, tallied 12 on Thursday night.

Charlotte has given the Miners all it could handle over the last two years.

"I think everybody should see that team which is now 3-8 [in the conference] is very, very talented and once they figure it out, it's going to be a team that everybody is going to have to reckon with in the conference tournament. The kind of team that can just storm through it and win four games," Floyd said. "They've got bigs, they've got guards, they've got wings that can shoot it, and I thought they played with a lot of poise. I thought they played really well to catch up after turning it over some early in the game. Once they got their arms around that, I thought they were terrific."

The Miners move on to tackle Old Dominion, which stumbled at UTSA on Thursday night.

"I kind of hate that Old Dominion lost because I know three weeks ago they were ranked 23rd in the country and kicked VCU around when they were healthy and beat LSU on the road," Floyd said. "This is an exceptional team that's coming in here [Saturday]. We've always had a sophisticated fan base, and I think they're going to show up and understand that we keep closing the gap. Those that jumped off the bridge when we lost to Marshall, maybe they'll come back. We hope our students will turn out, that's the big deal. We've got to protect home and that's not an easy task, given who's coming in here."