UTEP Defeats Marshall; Players, Fans Get To See Player Totals On Scoreboard

C-USA men’s basketball tournament day two: Six Miners score in double figures for the first time this season as UTEP defeated Marshall, 77-65. UTEP to play East Carolina at 2 p.m. Friday.

It was also believed to be the first time that Miner fans – and UTEP players themselves – this season could see how many points Miner players had scored during a game. UTEP head coach Tim Floyd had instituted a rule before the season started that the scoreboard would not show Miner players’ individual scoring totals.

Floyd said before the season that sometimes a player will notice his point total on the scoreboard and see he hasn’t scored much and will start taking bad shots.

“So much of what we do is talk team, team, team, team, team,” Floyd said. “Our theory is you got some guys trying to make it (to) the NBA. Take five bad shots and all of a sudden you’re down by eight.”

UTEP used a big first-half push and had six players score in double figures as the Miners defeated Marshall 77-65 in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament on Thursday night.

Gabriel McCulley led third-seeded UTEP (24-8) with 14 points. Randy Culpepper and Julyan Stone had 12 points each, Jeremy Williams and Christian Polk 11 apiece and Claude Britten 10.

Johnny Thomas scored 13 points for No. 6 seed Marshall (22-11). Tirrell Baines, Damier Pitts and Shaquille Johnson had 12 points each, and DeAndre Kane added 11.

UTEP will face the winner of Thursday’s late Tulsa-Rice matchup in the semifinals on Friday.

East Carolina will make its first C-USA semifinal trip after beating top-seeded UAB, 75-70 in overtime.