EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Visiting Liberty used a barrage of 3-pointers to beat the UTEP men’s basketball team 76-69 Saturday night, Feb. 15 at the Don Haskins Center.
The Miners fell to 17-8 overall and 7-5 in Conference USA action. The visiting Flames improved to 21-5 overall, 9-4 in CUSA.
The Miners were led by Otis Frazier III, who had 16 points.
The Miners led 53-46 with 9 mintues and change before Liberty went on a 16-3 run, including 10 straight at one point, to pull ahed.
UTEP kept battling and made it a one-possession game with 52 seconds left, but the visitors were able to hang on for the key conference win.
Liberty shot 14-of-29 (48.3 percent) from 3-point range. Four of those 3s came during the decisive run.
David Terrell Jr. had 10 points to go with a team-high six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
He is the first Miner to have at least six assists in six consecutive games since Fili Rivera went on an eight-game streak in 2004-05.
“The whole gameplan was to take away the three (point shot), and we gave up 14 of them,” UTEP head coach Joe Golding said. “You’re not going to win (when that happens). They controlled the game down the stretch. I’ll our guys credit. We fought. We had some looks down the stretch to get it a one-possession game. They’ve got a really good team. We’d beaten them three times in a row.
“You’re not going to keep beating a good team all the time. Eventually the tide is going to turn a little bit. They had a toughness to them. The game was back and forth. The crowd was great. It was a good college basketball game. They made the shots down the stretch,” Golding said.
UTEP will go back on the road for a pair of games. The Miners will start off the trip by making their first visit to Kennesaw State for a 5 p.m. Mountain Time (7 p.m. Eastern Time) game on Thursday. UTEP will then wrap up the week by battling conference-leading Jax State at 3 p.m. MT on Feb. 22.
Read: Read More