UTEP Miners

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery by Michael Patrick Reese 

UTEP 69, UTSA 62 (Box Score) 

Earvin Morris scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half as UTEP shrugged off a shaky start and beat UTSA, 69-62, on Saturday night in the Haskins Center.

The Miners (19-7, 11-3 C-USA) closed to within a half-game of Conference USA leader Louisiana Tech with their seventh straight win. UTEP and LA Tech will square off on Thursday at 6 p.m. MT before a national television audience (Fox Sports 1) with first place in the league on the line.

UTEP fell behind 24-12 in the first eight minutes of Saturday's game as UTSA (13-12, 7-7 C-USA) hit 11 of its first 15 shots. The Miners scored the next 12 points to deadlock the game at 24. At halftime it was still knotted up at 30.

UTSA led by one (43-42) when Ryan Bowie scored with 11:29 remaining. Morris scored eight points during a 10-0 run that put the Miners up by nine (52-43), and they were able to hold on after the Roadrunners pulled within three on three separate occasions in the final eight minutes.

"It was a good win for us against a really well-coached, energetic, talented team," said Tim Floyd, who recorded his 100th victory as UTEP's head coach. "I can see where they've won [four conference games] on the road. They came out inspired. They came out with a belief system. They weren't intimidated with our crowd. I thought they made shots. They just really made shots. I thought we were trying to guard, but obviously got a little more inspired when we were down 24-12 and had a nice stretch there."

After falling behind by double digits, the Miners held the Roadrunners scoreless for eight minutes and 23 seconds before Keon Lewis knocked in a jumper at the 4:03 mark of the first half.

"I just think we played exceedingly hard during that stretch," Floyd said. "We really did. And I thought our crowd really helped us in that comeback."

The audience of 10,884 was UTEP's third-largest in a home game this season behind the 12,000 for Arizona and 11,127 for New Mexico State.

The outcome was very much in doubt when Cedrick Lang fouled out with 3:51 remaining and UTSA closed to within three (58-55) on a three-point play by Lewis with 3:24 to go. But C.J. Cooper made three pointers on consecutive possessions to stretch it to nine (64-55), and the Miners were 5-for-6 from the line in the final half-minute.

Cooper scored 16 points with four three pointers, while Vince Hunter and Julian Washburn added 10 each. The Miners got great play off the bench from Omega Harris and Hooper Vint, who collected six points, six rebounds and four assists over 28 minutes.

"C.J. had a terrific game," Floyd said. "Hooper had great minutes with Ced in foul trouble. Vince, I thought played within himself. He had his toughest assignment of the year with [Jeromie] Hill. He made a couple of late threes. But until that point he had eight points. The kid is talented and is probably going to end up being their all-time leading scorer and rebounder.

"Omega didn't shoot it much but I thought he had a couple of great, great passes when we were in that period where we stretched it to 52-43. Some dump handoffs to Earvin Morris where he was able to go back and finish and get and 1's. An extra pass to Vince where he was able to go back and get fouled. I thought for the most part everybody played very, very well."

Hill and Bowie both scored 14 points for UTSA, and Lewis added 12.

The Miners won their second straight Noche Latina game with Folklorico performers and Mariachis in tow.

"I thought our crowd was terrific," Floyd said. "I thought they helped us when we were down. I thought they inspired us. Hopefully we'll have a couple of sellouts when we come back.

"There are great lessons to be learned [from the game]. It's very difficult on young people when they win a game on the road and you come back home. There's this subtle thought that it's probably going to be a little easier. The great lesson there is Rice and North Texas are two teams that we have beaten on the road that will be coming in the following week. They both have had some quality, quality wins of late."

As for now, however, the Miners will take another shot at Louisiana Tech after getting outclassed in the first meeting between the teams in the Haskins Center, 58-45, on Jan. 8.

"We're playing a great college game here on Thursday night. And it means something," Floyd said. "That's something that these kids always like to do. It should be fun."