UTEP Miners set school scoring record enroute to second win
El Paso, Texas- For the second time in four days the UTEP Miners men’s basketball team cruised to victory, defeating the USAO Drovers by the score of 123-72 on Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center. It was the first time meeting between these two teams.
History was made in the process as the 123-points scored by the Miners became the new single game record.
Two victories to start the year, was expected, still the degree of thoroughness in their performance in these first two games is deserving of some attention. A total of 12 different players got minutes on Thursday night, as head coach Joe Golding is eager to see what his squad can do outside of the day-to-day competition of the team practices.
Here’s what happened
- The Miners got out to quick start going on a 19-0 run over the course of the first six minutes and 10 seconds to start the game. As was expected, a dominant start to the game.
- UTEP went on to lead by as many as 25 points with 6:36 to go in the first half. They went into halftime leading 52-36. Miners head coach Joe Golding used 11 different players in the opening half. Corey Camper Jr. was the leading scorer of the first 20 minutes with 13 points.
- The home team didn’t skip a beat to start the second half right where they left off, extending their lead to more than 30 points within the first five minutes. Red shirt freshman for the Miners Elijah Jones broke his perfect shooting streak making his first 14 shots in his collegiate career, missing his 15th attempt with a little less than five minutes to go in the game.
- The record breaking sequence wasn’t forced, it came naturally on a steal leading to a bucket on transition by Otis Frazier III. He was fouled on the play and executed on the plus one.
What was said
After the game, UTEP head coach Joe Golding talked about what is next for his team (a home game against UCSB on Monday night) declared that a day off here and there is coming to an end. Golding said, “No more days off. We’ll go after it the next three days. The preparation over the next three days will be important. You just don’t show up on Monday night and expect to perform well. You perform well because you prepare and we will have three days to do that.”
What’s next
The Miners home stretch to start the season continues, as next Monday they will host UC Santa Barbara at the Don Haskins Center. The game against the Gauchos is scheduled to tipoff at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
Author: Joe Rodriguez – El Paso Herald Post
Rodriguez is a life long El Pasoan. Joe has covered sports locally across the Borderland since 2007 for various media outlet both in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez as a personal passion as he is a professional in the world of healthcare (Physiatry). His favorite sports include soccer, auto racing, golf and horse racing.
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