UTEP Edges UTSA, Caps Regular Season on High Note
Earvin Morris scored 23 points on “Senior Day,” and UTEP shot 56.8 percent from the field in defeating UTSA, 81-74, in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday at the Haskins Center.
The Miners (18-13, 10-8 C-USA) will enter next week’s Conference USA Championship in Birmingham coming off a victory. UTEP will be seeded sixth if North Texas beats Charlotte tonight , and seventh if the 49ers win. UTEP’s opponent is also to be determined pending Saturday night’s results around the league. A possibility of a four-way tie for eighth place exists between FIU, North Texas, Rice and WKU, which could make things hairy when it comes time to compute tiebreakers. The Miners’ first C-USA Tournament game will be Wednesday night at Legacy Arena.
“I’m sure it will be somebody that has given us some problems somewhere along the way,” said UTEP coach Tim Floyd of his team’s potential opponent. “We’ve had our challenges with the teams that are in that group. They’ll all be problematic. We are going to go in there with spirit and try to play, but whoever we’re playing against is going to try to do the same thing.”
Now it’s off to Birmingham for what the Miners hope will be four games in four days.
“I still like our team,” Floyd said. “I really believe in our team offensively. Our challenge in getting through a tournament will be, ‘Can we come with back-to-back-to-back defensive efforts and defensive board efforts?’ Our kids will be excited. They’re looking forward to it.” ?
