UTEP Crushes SMU To Advance To C-USA Quarterfinals

EL PASO, TEXAS- UTEP bolted out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back on the way to throttling eighth-seed SMU, 75-57, in its opening-round game of the 2011 Buick Conference USA Championships inside historic Memorial Gym Wednesday evening.

It marks the largest margin of victory in a league tournament in school history for the ninth-seeded Miners (16-13, 7-9 C-USA), who advance into the quarterfinals to take on top-seeded and No. 22 Houston at 7:30 p.m. MST Thursday. The Mustangs conclude their 2010-11 season at 14-16.

Four Miners reached double digits in scoring, with 2011 C-USA Newcomer and Sixth Player of the year Gloria Brown and freshman forward Kayla Thornton sharing top honors with 17 points each. Junior guard Dietra Caldwell pitched in 16 points, including 12 via the triple, while freshman Kelli Willingham impressed with 15 points and seven assists.

UTEP shot a crisp 46.0 percent from the floor, including a sizzling 62.1 percent over the final 20 minutes. The Miners drilled 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from three-point range. It was a much different story for the Mustangs, who were held to just 30.8 percent (20-of-65) from the floor. Impacting that figure was a woeful readout of 1-of-21 from three-point range.

The Miners led by as many as 14 in the opening stanza but the Mustangs struck back to cut the deficit to five (30-25) at the break. SMU whittled the lead down to a pair at 33-31 with 17:57 left to play, but the Miners used a 21-5 rally over the next 6:18 to thwart any talks of a Pony?s comeback.

UTEP is now 5-4 in conference tournament play since the 2006-07 season and 6-9 all time under head coach Keitha Adams. It was 3-11 prior to her arrival at the league?s pinnacle event.

The Miners got things going early on as Caldwell connected on consecutive 3-pointers to open the scoring while Ashley Milian capped the game-opening run with a layup. While SMU rallied to make things close at the end of the first half, the final 20 minutes was all UTEP.

A jumper by SMU center Christine Elliott made it a two-point contest 2:03 into the second half. That was as close as the Mustangs would get, however, as UTEP responded with three straight baskets to stretch the advantage to eight at 39-31. Following a three-point play by SMU?s Delisha Wills, the Miners got consecutive 3-pointers by Thornton and Kim Smith to make it an 11-point affair and the Miners? lead never dipped below double digits the rest of the way.

UTEP led by as many as 22 twice in the second half ? at 63-41 with 8:31 on the clock and again at 75-53 with 2:14 left to go. SMU made things a bit better cosmetically with the final four points of the game, but it was far too little too late.

Elliott led SMU with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Alisha Filmore joined her in the double-figure scoring club with 15. Samantha Mahnesmith had a team-best six assists and Filmore led all players with a pair of steals.