UTEP Beats Tulsa, Advances To C-USA Championship Saturday Morning

UTEP senior Randy Culpepper started off with the hot hand, scoring nine of his team’s first 14 points, but Tulsa battled back to take a one-point lead into halftime in the C-USA men’s semifinal game.

The Miners were able to overcome the deficit in the second half and defeated Tulsa, to advance to Saturday morning’s C-USA Men’s Championship game at 9:30 a.m. at the Don Haskins Center.

Culpepper finished with 26 points, one rebound, three assists and one steal.

Since the time for the game was moved up from 4:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., many die hard basketball fans suddenly came down with interesting health issues like ‘Miner’ fever and ‘Miner’ toothaches.

Jacob Monarez, 12, was one of those with a ‘Miner’ toothache. His dad picked him up for the game in the middle of math class.

“I’m a big Miner fan. All the kids know me for a fan at school, so they were all making fun of me because when they said I had to leave, they already knew I was coming here.”

Buy tickets for the C-USA Men’s Championship game at the University Ticket Center, Ticketmaster locations, or online here.

Tickets are $15-$50, not including service charges.

Justin Hurtt has scored 11 straight points to give Tulsa an 18-16 lead over UTEP. 9:52 to go in first half.