Houston Holds Off UTEP Women’s Team, 57-55

The UTEP women?s basketball team gave Houston all it could handle before ultimately falling, 57-55, in the quarterfinals of the 2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Women?s Basketball Championship at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Tuesday.

The 10th-seeded Miners (16-16) trailed 48-30 with 12:53 left to play but refused to go down without a fight. UTEP put together an incredible 20-2 run over the next 9:57 to stake its first lead of the contest (50-49). The No. 2 seed Cougars (17-13) moved back ahead momentarily on the strength of two Brittany Mason free throws but senior Jareica Hughes drilled a triple to afford the Miners a 53-51 advantage with 2:18 remaining in regulation.

The two teams traded the next two baskets and with a pair of Porche Landry freebies, Houston knotted the score at 55. Courtney Taylor, who led the Cougars with 14 points and 11 boards, converted a lay-up with 36 seconds remaining for what would prove to be the game?s final points.

The Miners had two possessions to either tie or take the lead, but it was not to be. Hughes? three-pointer with 17 seconds left rimmed out. Landry missed the front end of a one-and-one with 12 seconds left, but UTEP was unable to get a final shot off in the waning moments as Houston was able to hold on.

Hughes tallied 13 points in her final game of her illustrious career with the Orange and Blue, while Briana Greened had nine. Freshman forward Anete Steinberga etched her name into the record books with 16 rebounds, which establish a single-game postseason record at the school.

?I told our team that I was extremely proud of them,? UTEP head coach Keitha Adams said. ?We showed tremendous character in the second half in coming back. We were disappointed with the outcome of the game, but as a coach you are always looking for your team to play hard. And if we lose the game, but your team gives it all it has, you have to feel good about that. I?m proud of this team.?

UTEP dug itself an early hole, with UH bolting out to leads of 7-0 and 9-2. The Miners countered with a 7-0 spurt and trailed by just two (11-9) with 11:58 to play in the first half following a lay-up by Ashley Milian. The Cougars came to life, though, utilizing a 13-0 run in a little more than three minutes to stake a 24-9 lead with 7:40 on the clock. Green nailed a triple to end the stretch, but UTEP still found itself down by 11 (34-23) heading into halftime.

UTEP cut the deficit to eight early in the second half when Dietra Caldwell drilled a three-pointer to make it 38-30. Houston responded with a 10-0 run to go up by 18, setting the stage for the Miners? come-back bid.

The setback brings the 2009-10 UTEP season to a close at 16-16, in addition to the sensational careers of seniors Hughes and Timika Williams. The Miners compiled a gaudy record of 84-39 since the duo arrived on campus in 2006-07, which was aided by a school-record three straight winning seasons.

UTEP was 28-4 in 2007-08, including an unprecedented 16-0 in C-USA play to claim the program?s first league championship. The Miners were nationally-ranked for the final six weeks of season and advanced to the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Williams is the lone player in program history to have amassed more than 1,000 career points, 700 rebounds and 100 steals. She holds the school record for games played (120) and wins (84), is second all time in rebounding (794) and games started (107). Additionally she rates fourth in minutes played (3,183), sixth in blocked shots (63), field-goals made (442) & percentage (45.4), scoring (1,087)

Hughes burst onto the scene as the 2007 C-USA Freshman of the Year before garnering back-to-back league Player of the Year awards. She is one of two players in the history of C-USA to have registered career totals of more than 1,500 points, 570 assists and 270 steals.

Hughes was a four-time all-league honoree-one of five individuals in C-USA annals to do so. She departs the Sun City as the school record hold for nine career standards. They are in the form of assists (599), field-goals made (527), free-throws made (359) and attempted (492), minutes played (3,777), points (1,555), starts (114), steals (277) and wins (84).