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Miners to Open 9-Game Homestand Versus Dangerous Lamar Monday

Miners to Open 9-Game Homestand Versus Dangerous Lamar Monday

- By UTEP Athletics

UTEP Notes For Lamar Game (PDF)

UTEP (1-4) begins a season-long nine-game homestand on Monday night against Lamar (4-1), one of the top teams in the Southland Conference.  The Miners will play three games in the Don Haskins Center in six days this week, hosting arch-rivals NM State on Thursday (8 p.m.) and New Mexico on Saturday (7 p.m.).  UTEP won't play its next road game until Jan. 4 at Southern Miss.  The Miners will be playing in the friendly confines of the DHC for the first time in two and a half weeks.  UTEP opened the season with a 100-50 rout of Louisiana College on the home court Nov. 10.  The nine-game homestand is the longest for the Miners since the 2000-01 season when they faced Alcorn State, Florida A&M, Charlotte, New Mexico State, Jackson State, Houston, New Mexico Highlands, Nevada and San Diego in succession at the Haskins Center.  

Monday is "Cure the Monday Blues & Blue Out The Don" night, and fans are asked to wear blue to the game.  The first 500 fans will receive free hot dogs, and halftime will feature a jazz performance by the Jesus Castillo Trio.

The Cardinals won 19 games last season and participated in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.  Lamar has seven letterwinners and four starters back from that squad.  Senior forward Colton Weisbrod averaged a team-leading 15.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game a year ago and is a preseason first team All-Southland Conference player.  Lamar, which is picked to finish second in the Southland Conference this season (five first-place votes), opened the campaign with a 74-67 victory at Tulsa.  The Cardinals followed the upset by going 3-1 on a four-game homestand, topping Coastal Carolina (66-60), Jarvis Christian (103-66) and Southern University of New Orleans (105-67) and falling to Cal State Bakersfield (85-73).  Junior guard Nick Garth leads Lamar in scoring (14.6 ppg), followed by Weisbrod (14.2 ppg), sophomore guard/forward T.J. Atwood (13.7 ppg) and junior forward Josh Nzeakor (10.8 ppg).  Garth scored 25 points versus Southern University and 23 at Tulsa.  Weisbrod posted double-doubles against Tulsa (15 points/13 rebounds) and Jarvis Christian (18 points/11 rebounds).  The Cardinals are averaging 84.2 points per game, shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from beyond the arc.  Lamar has a rebound margin of +7.4 per game with Weisbrod collecting 8.4 boards per contest.   

The Miners are 4-0 all-time versus the Cardinals.  They beat Lamar during the 1967-68 (83-65), 1984-85 (69-62), and 1987-88 (87-56) seasons and won in Beaumont during the 1986-87 campaign (68-52).

UTEP has been very good against Division I opponents from the state of Texas in the Haskins Center under coach Tim Floyd.  The Miners have posted a record of 25-4 versus Lone Star state foes in the Sun City, but three of the losses came during the 2011-12 season when UTEP fell to UTSA (73-64), Stephen F. Austin (53-35) and Rice (68-61) on its homecourt in a rebuilding campaign.  Since then the Miners have gone 17-1 versus DI opponents from Texas in the DHC, the only blemish a 76-62 decision to UT-Arlington on Dec. 5, 2015.
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