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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Elijah Jones poured in a career-high 21 points while
Kaseem Watson added 13 off the bench, but the UTEP men's basketball team was upended by former Conference USA rival UAB, 75-59, in its second and final game of the Jacksonville Classic, presented by Just Play Solutions, on Tuesday afternoon.
It was back-and-forth in the opening frame, with the Miners (3-4) leading by four (16-12) eight minutes into the contest. The Blazers (6-2) struck back with an 18-5 surge to take the lead, and UTEP was unable to fully recover. The Miners whittled the deficit to three (37-34) at the break. The difference was five (45-40) five minutes into the second half before the UAB finally pulled away for good with a 20-4 surge over the next few minutes of action.
Jones was extremely efficient, burning the Blazers for the aforementioned 21 points in only 27 minutes of playing time. He connected on 9-12 from the floor (1-2 on 3-pointers) and 2-2 at the charity stripe.
Kaseem Watson buried a career-most four triples on the way to a 13-point effort.
Tyreese Watson added eight points and
Jamal West Jr. had six.
UTEP nailed 40.8 percent (20-49) from the floor, including 34.8 percent (8-23) from distance. The Miners kept the Blazers to an overall readout of 40.7 percent (24-59), including just 22.2 percent (2-9) on 3-pointers, but UAB compensated in other ways.
The Blazers enjoyed a huge advantage at the line, finishing 25-34 (73.5 percent) compared to UTEP's effort of 11-15 (73.3 percent). That was largely in part to their effort on the boards (46-22), while UAB also managed to outpace the Orange and Blue by a count of 40-14 for points in the paint.
UAB snagged the early 4-2 edge before back-to-back scores from
Cassius Brooks and
Caleb Blackwell gave the Miners the lead at the first media break. The Blazers countered with five straight, but the Orange and Blue came right back with a 7-0 burst.
LA Hayes started it with a pair of free throws. He then blocked a shot, raced up the court and found Jones for the transition dunk. After another stop,
Tyreese Watson was dared to shoot an open 3-pointer, and he burned Blazers with his stroke.
A triple for UAB halted the stretch, but
Trey Horton III answered it with one of his own to send the Miners in front by four (16-12, 11:54, 1H). The Blazers countered with an 18-5 surge to vault ahead by nine (30-21, 5:04, 1H), but UTEP wouldn't let them run away.
Kaseem Watson nailed a 3-pointer after good inside-out movement. After the Blazers extended the difference to eight (32-24),
Kaseem Watson stepped out behind the arc to fill up another triple toss.
The margin was at seven (34-27) before Jones pitched in his own personal 5-0 push to cut the defect down to two (34-32, 2:05, 1H). Both teams battled in the final two minutes of the frame, with UTEP trailing by three heading to halftime.
UAB scored the first six points of the second half to stretch the margin to nine before Jones pump faked past his defender and drained a jumper. After a score from the Blazers, Blackwell filled up a straightaway triple on an out of bounds play to make it a six-point affair (45-39, 16:17, 2H). UTEP got a stop and a free throw from
Kaseem Watson cut the difference to five (45-40).
The Blazers regrouped and punched back in a big way, ripping off an 20-4 run over the next several minutes to put the Miners down by 21 (65-44, 7:09, 2H). UTEP kept playing hard from that point on, but it was unable to get back into the ball game.
The Miners will have a chance to get back to work at practice before returning to action at Seattle at 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT on Dec. 7. It will be streamed on ESPN+ and
Jon Teicher (45th year) will be on the call on "The Home of UTEP Basketball" 600 ESPN El Paso and the UTEP Miners' App.
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