Miners Hit the Road to Battle Guard-Dominated Golden Eagles

UTEP Miners

UTEP Notes for Southern Miss Game (PDF)

The UTEP Miners will play only their second road game of the season – and first within Conference USA play – when they take on Southern Miss on Thursday at 6 p.m. MT. beIN Sports will televise the game from Reed Green Coliseum, where the Golden Eagles are 5-0 this season.

UTEP won its last five C-USA road games during the 2016-17 season but will bring a distinctly different cast of characters to Hattiesburg.

"It will be interesting to see how a lot of our new guys respond to being on the road," UTEP Interim Head Coach Phil Johnson said. "I don't want to make too big of a deal about being on the road, because the court is the same length and the baskets are the same height. It will be a new experience for a lot of our guys, but at the end of the day it's still a 40-minute game. You've got to go execute and do what we do well and continue to get better."

The Miners (6-8) certainly executed in the second half of the Rice game on Saturday, outscoring the Owls 51-31 to square their C-USA mark at 1-1 with an 80-62 victory. Now they'll go up against a Southern Miss (7-8) team that has lost four straight and relies on a lineup dominated by guards.

"I see a lot of quickness," Johnson said. "They're not particularly big, but they play four guards together and they're really, really fast and quick. They try to get out and run. They're creating a lot of turnovers. And so we've got to take care of the ball and value the ball, which we've been doing. We've been improving in that area. So that will be a priority, taking care of the ball and guarding the drive."

The Miners have committed 10 turnovers or fewer in five of their last six games. That will be key on Thursday as Southern Miss rates sixth nationally in turnover margin. The Golden Eagles commit only 9.7 turnovers per game (also sixth in the country) while forcing 15.5 per outing.

Southern Miss starts a lineup of 6-7 Kevin Holland, 6-7 Eddie Davis III, 6-4 Dominic Magee, 6-2 Cortez Edwards and 5-10 Tyree Griffin. Edwards averages a team-leading 16.7 points and 6.1 rebounds and also has a team-high 32 steals. Oklahoma State transfer Griffin averages 14.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and is dishing out 5.8 assists per game to pace the squad. Another transfer, Magee (10.1 ppg/5.7 rpg) helped Grand Canyon to a 27-7 mark during the 2015-16 season.

"We always try to give our guys four or five keys to winning," Johnson said. "For this one it will be our ability to guard the screen and roll. They are playing four guards together with one big guy, so matching up with them with bigger guys is tough. They're really a drive-oriented team and being able to contain the drive will be a real key."

The Miners' longest C-USA road win streak is seven games twice, during the 2009-10 season and over the course of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 campaigns. If they're going to extend the current streak, they'll have to do so at a couple of places where they haven't tasted victory in a while. UTEP hasn't won at Southern Miss since 2010, and at LA Tech (Saturday's opponent) since 2004. But anything can happen when the ball is thrown up on Thursday night.

"[Getting a win] would be huge," Johnson said. "We're 1-1 right now, real close to being 2-0. We need to go down and play very, very well. It would be huge to get a win or maybe two. I know our guys are ready to go. There's no question about that. They're eager to go on the road and try to get a win."

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