UTEP Falls At UCF On Half-Court Buzzer Beater, 68-65

The UTEP women?s basketball team roared back to erase a 15-point second-half deficit only to fall in heartbreaking fashion, with Genevia Carter sinking a three pointer from just past half court shot as time expired to lift UCF to a 68-65 victory inside UCF Arena Thursday evening.

The buzzer-beating triple, which was the Knights? (13-10, 6-4 C-USA) 10th of the tilt, spoiled a brilliant comeback bid by the Miners (12-10, 4-6 C-USA). The visitors used a 32-12 run, which spanned most of the second period, to turn a 44-29 deficit into a 61-56 advantage with 2:10 to play. UCF fought back and pulled even at 65 after Jelisa Caldwell split a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining in regulation.

Freshman Kelli Willingham vied to break the tie but her contested lay-up attempt in traffic rattled out. The Knights finally came up with the loose change and called timeout with about five seconds left. UTEP used 6-4 post Kristine Vitola to harass the in-bounds pass and maintained full-court pressure but a solid screen afforded Carter just enough space to heave it in from two steps beyond the timeline. The play was reviewed by replay, which confirmed the call on the court.

?I?m really proud of the way our team fought,? UTEP head coach Keitha Adams said. ?We showed a lot of character tonight. UCF is a veteran team with really good guards. We took much better care of the ball and played extremely hard in the second half.?

El Pasoan and freshman forward Kayla Thornton led the way for UTEP with a career-high 18 points to go along with 11 boards for her third double-double of the year. Junior forward Gloria Brown joined her in double digits with 16 points, in addition to grabbing nine rebounds, blocking six shots and tallying three steals. Junior Kim Smith came off the bench to chip in nine points while Willingham finished with eight.

UTEP connected on 41.7 percent of its shots (25-of-60) while registering 13 assists to just 14 turnovers. The Miners couldn?t get it going from distance, finishing at 19 percent (3-of-16) but they did sink 71 percent (12-of-17) of their free throws.

While Carter was the hero for the Knights, her squad would have fallen short were it not for the efforts of Chelsie Wiley. Wiley made plenty of clutch baskets while finishing with 26 points, with that figure aided by her going 6-of-11 from three-point range. D?Nay Daniels (13 points) and Aisha Patrick (11) joined her in double figures, while Carter concluded the contest with nine points.

UCF finished at just 37.9 percent (22-of-58) from the floor, but did go 10-of-24 from three-point range. It also excelled at the charity stripe by making 14-of-19 tosses.

UCF pushed out to a 7-0 less than two minutes into the game. The Miners struck back with an 11-4 run over the next five minutes to tie the tilt (11-11) with 13:10 to play in the period. The two teams traded blows the next couple of minutes, and the Knights? lead was just two (17-15) following an Erika Warren jumper at 11:18.

The home side had an answer to the UTEP surge, though, which came in the form of a 16-2 run (including 11-0) over the next five-plus minutes. The push afforded the Knights their largest advantage of the contest (33-17) with 5:56 remaining in the period. UTEP regrouped and whittled it down to nine (36-27) at 3:09 but UCF extended it out to double figures (42-29) at the half.

UTEP was a bit sluggish at the onset of the second stanza with a trio of turnovers in the opening minute, with the third on leading a three-pointer by Wiley. The bucket put UTEP down by 15 (44-29) with 19:09 to play. The Miners would not just fold up shop, though.

Rather they clawed their way back into contention with a 21-6 push to get within two (50-48) at 9:19. They continued to fight and finally took their first lead of the game (54-52) with 6:44 to play. UTEP would not give up the lead until the very end, with Carter?s desperation three preventing overtime.

UTEP will return home to play host to Tulane at 1:05 p.m. MST on Sunday. It will be the ?Pink Zone? game, with all fans who wear anything pink receiving free admission. The Miners will be looking to avenge a 69-63 defeat against the Green Wave on Jan. 30.