UTEP Hoops: Miners to Wrap Up Three-Game Road Swing at UTSA

EL PASO, TEXAS – Following a week between competition, the UTEP men’s basketball team will return to action at UTSA on Saturday as it plays a third straight C-USA road game. The game will be televised on the American Sports Network at 2 p.m. MT.

The Miners have been very good in C-USA games following breaks of seven days or more under Tim Floyd – 9-1 overall with a six-game winning streak. But UTEP is a slightly banged up bunch heading to San Antonio.

“Terry Winn and Hooper Vint have not practiced with us this week,” Floyd said. “They’re both day-to-day. That will have a lot to do with how we play and who we play. [UTSA] is scoring the ball very well and that always bothers you.”

Winn turned his ankle in the first half of the Middle Tennessee game on Jan. 7. Vint is dealing with a tender lower back.

“There’s an issue there. We don’t know specifically what it is,” Floyd said. “As you remember, he had a back injury his freshman year which forced him to medical redshirt. He is really having some discomfort right now.”

There were plenty of positives to come out of UTEP’s first C-USA road trip to Middle Tennessee and UAB last week, although the Miners weren’t able to put a notch in the win column.

“We got down and were able to fight back,” Floyd said. “You can go one way or the other. You can lay down or you can continue to fight. I think the fact that we made some shots – Earvin Morris got his head up – is positive. Ivan [Venegas] had some solid minutes, which is positive. Jake Flaggert played his best basketball in probably a month, which is positive. [There were] a lot of takeaways that we like. I thought Hooper Vint had a really good road trip. He played well. We did all that without Terry Winn, which is a positive. At the same time, we’re not defensive rebounding and giving up way too many second chance points, we’re giving up too many free throws on the road … things that we need to shore up to get better.”

Floyd said the Miners’ struggles on the boards can be traced to more than having a depleted frontcourt.

“There’s a lot more to that,” he said. “Perimeter guys not being able to stay between their guy and the basket leads to big guys having to help. The big guy helps, the shot goes up, and there’s nobody to block out the big guy on the other team because our big guys are being compromised in situations based on guard play. Defensive transition being shaky at times, leading to quick early shots where we’re not in position to rebound. A lot of factors.”

Still, the Miners feel good knowing that they took two of the league’s top teams down to the wire while not necessarily playing their best.

“We took on the toughest challenge that I think we’ll see in conference road play,” Floyd said. “They’re all hard on the road, don’t get me wrong. But UAB and Middle Tennessee arguably is going to be the toughest trip we’re going to see this year. Both of them are picked in the top four in the league. Both of them have returning players. Both of them have very good frontlines. And I’ll be surprised, quite frankly, if anybody sneaks out a win at either place. We were in position at both places. That’s encouraging.”

The Miners will try to build on that performance – and secure their first road win of the season – when they take on the Roadrunners Saturday.

The Roadrunners dropped to 1-3 in C-USA play with losses at UAB (104-82) and Middle Tennessee (79-71) last week. UTSA led 42-34 at halftime in Murfreesboro and was still ahead with under eight minutes remaining before the Blue Raiders started to pull away.

Senior guard Ryan Bowie leads UTSA, averaging 17.8 points while shooting 46.7 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from three-point range and 78.8 percent from the line. At 6-1, Bowie is averaging 7.5 rebounds per contest. Sophomore guard Christian Wilson and junior guard J.R. Harris are averaging 13.9 ppg and 13.1 ppg, respectively.

Bowie (39) and Harris (38) have combined to make 77 of UTSA’s 120 three-point field goals. Harris is averaging 19.5 ppg and shooting 45.7 percent from beyond the arc in C-USA games. He scored 36 points (second-most by a C-USA player this season) at UAB on Jan. 7 while making 11-of-15 shots, 10-of-14 three pointers and 4-of-4 free throws.

Bowie is fourth in C-USA in minutes (33.5 avg.), fifth in scoring, sixth in three-pointers made per game (2.3), and seventh in rebounding, free throw percentage (.788) and three-point field goal percentage (.419). Harris is third in free throw percentage (.840) and fourth in three-pointers made per game (2.4).

“I didn’t know anything about [Harris] until last weekend,” Floyd said. “He has really changed the dynamic of their team. They have a team that struggled scoring and now they’re putting up a lot of points and it looks easy for them offensively.

“They’ve got a very fine point guard situation. Gino Littles has been out and has been replaced by Christian Wilson. They’re both going to be out there against us in this next ballgame. They’re a team that has been dangerous at home. They’re playing good basketball right now. We anticipate it being a real struggle just because of their ability to score.” ?