Men’s Hoops: UTEP drops key contest on the road against Rice

The UTEP men’s basketball team still has a solid chance to make the Conference USA Tournament, but they let a golden opportunity slip away Thursday at Rice.

UTEP fell 76-70 against the Owls after allowing 12 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points. UTEP interim head coach Phil Johnson said that was the difference in the game.

“We lost on the boards tonight,” Johnson said. “We got dominated on the glass, and I don’t see any reason for that…We stopped them 10 times, I’ll bet, and couldn’t go rebound the ball and come away with it. You can’t win doing that.”

UTEP must now either win at North Texas on Saturday or hope that Rice falls against UTSA in their own regular season finale in order to qualify for the C-USA Tournament. The top 12 out of 14 total teams will make the tournament. UTEP entered the night in 12th place, while Rice entered two games behind UTEP in 13th place.

Omega Harris led the Miners with 18 points, connecting on five of his six shots from deep. Paul Thomas added 12 points and eight rebounds.

UTEP led 21-13 in the first half, but Rice closed the half on an explosive 23-8 run to take a seven-point lead into the break.

The Miners never recovered from that thanks in part to Rice’s Najja Hunter, who tallied a career-high 24 points on 10-14 shooting.