Men’s Hoops: UTEP falls to 2-6 in conference play with loss at UAB

The UTEP men’s basketball team once again looked good early but faltered down the stretch.

The Miners jumped out to a quick seven-point lead early in their game Thursday at UAB, but ended up losing by a final of 85-78.

This comes just five days after UTEP blew a 21-5 lead on the road against UTSA.

The Miners fell to 7-13 overall and 2-6 in Conference USA action with the loss.

Meanwhile, UAB is now 14-7 (5-3 in C-USA) with a mark of 11-1 at home.

The Miners got strong play from multiple freshmen including Trey Wade, who led the team in scoring with a career-high 22 points.

Two more freshmen standouts also reached double figures in scoring. Evan Gilyard scored 14 points off the bench while Kobe Magee added 11 of his own.

But Isiah Osborne, who had scored 20 or more points in three of the past four games, was held to just three points on 1-11 shooting.

To make matters worse, late in the game, UTEP interim head coach Phil Johnson received a technical foul after appearing to confront a UAB player during a timeout. Johnson was seen pointing his finger at UAB’s Zack Bryant while Bryant was clapping and walking toward his team’s bench. A UAB assistant quickly ran onto the floor to pull Bryant away from Johnson.

The Miners will need to regroup before their next task – a road trip to play defending conference champion Middle Tennessee on Saturday.