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UTEP Miners

UTEP Miners
Miners Look to Get Back on Winning Track Against Rice

Miners Look to Get Back on Winning Track Against Rice

- By UTEP Athletics

UTEP Notes For Rice Game (PDF)

UTEP (5-8, 0-1 C-USA) wraps up a season-long nine-game homestand by taking on Rice (3-11, 0-1 C-USA) on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Haskins Center.  The Miners are 4-4 on the homestand, including a 63-62 loss to North Texas in the league opener on Thursday.  Despite dropping their last two games, the Miners have a chance to finish December 5-2 with a victory over the Owls.  That would be UTEP's best December mark since going 6-1 in 2013. 

Rice is under the direction of first-year head coach and former assistant Scott Pera.  He was a highly successful high school head coach (258-65 record) before embarking on stints as an assistant at Arizona State (2006-12), Penn (2012-14) and Rice. The rebuilding Owls have just one starter back – and eight letterwinners – from the 2016-17 club that finished 23-12 and 11-7 in C-USA (fifth place).  Rice has struggled this season, compiling a 3-11 mark.  The Owls trailed by as many 21 points en route to a 79-66 loss at UTSA in their conference opener on Thursday.  Rice is averaging 66.9 ppg, shooting 39.5 percent from the floor, 31 percent from beyond the arc and 66 percent from the charity stripe.  Opponents are collecting 75.4 ppg with a .436 field goal percentage and .316 three-point percentage.  Rice leads C-USA in three-point field goal percentage defense.  Junior guard Connor Cashaw leads the Owls in scoring (16.2 ppg), followed by grad transfer A.J. Lapray (11.1 ppg).  Lapray spent his freshman season (2013-14) at Oregon, and his sophomore and junior campaigns (2014-16) at Pepperdine.  At 6-5, Cashaw is the Owls' leading rebounder with 6.8 per outing.  Freshman forward Malik Osborne pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds in the loss to the Roadrunners on Thursday, while Cashaw contributed 14 points and seven boards.  The Owls had three double-figure scorers off the bench as sophomore forward Robert Martin and freshman guard Najja Hunter tallied 11 points apiece and sophomore forward Tim Harrison added 10 points.

The Miners are 22-11 versus Rice and have won 18 of the last 22 meetings between the schools, including eight in a row.  UTEP is 13-3 all-time versus the Owls at the Don Haskins Center.

Following the encounter with the Owls, the Miners will play only their second "true" road game of 2017-18 when they meet Southern Miss in Hattiesburg (Jan. 4), followed by LA Tech in Ruston (Jan. 6) next week.
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