Hardy’s Buzzer Beater Lifts UTEP Past Power 5 team Cal 75-72
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, California (KVIA) -- Senior Tae Hardy drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the UTEP men’s basketball team past Pac-12 foe California, 75-72, Monday night/Tuesday morning to advance to the championship game at the SoCal Challenge.
The Bears (2-3) had tied the game with their own trey courtesy of Jalen Cone with six seconds left, but Hardy called game to keep the Miners (5-0) undefeated on the year. The shot, which was set up by Zid Powell pushing the ball up the court, spun around the rim before dropping through for Hardy’s lone triple of the game. It set off pandemonium on the UTEP sideline and in the stands among a passionate fanbase that showed out in the “Golden State” for the Miners.
It’s the first buzzer beater for the Orange and Blue since Alfred Hollins’s tip-in to beat the clock in a 70-68 triumph against Florida Atlantic on Jan. 27, 2022.
UTEP, which secured its first win against a Power Five program since taking out Arizona State on the road, 76-63, on Dec. 16, 2020, is off to its best start in four years (also 5-0 in 2019-20). It will challenge undefeated Bradley at 7:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. MT on Wednesday for the title of the SoCal Challenge.
It was a wild back-and-forth game with seven ties and 10 lead changes, but UTEP was mainly in control throughout. The Miners were up five (40-35) at the half and played from ahead for nearly 29 minutes total compared to just six by the Bears.
Hardy paced a quintet of five players in double figures for scoring with 16, with Calvin Solomon (13 points), Powell (13 points), Corey Camper Jr. (11 points) and Otis Frazier III (10 points) buoying him. Kevin Kalu pitched in six crucial points and five rebounds before fouling out. Elijah Jones came off the bench to net five points.
“What a game,” UTEP head coach Joe Golding said. “Credit to Cal. We had a couple of times to bury them, but they kept fighting back. We were out of whack from about 10 minutes left in the first half. We got in foul trouble. We were trying to rotate some guys, and then we had some guys in there for the first time to go through it in a close game.
“There were so many things on that last play that we’ve been trying to talk to these guys about with trust, belief and culture,” Golding said. “When (Jalen) Cone hits it, the easy thing to do is have bad body language and sulk. Otis (Frazier III) grabs it out of the net, throws it in to Zid (Powell) as quick as he can. Anybody wants to be the hero, great atmosphere in here, it’s easy for Zid to drive it or shoot it. He doesn’t, he makes the right pass and hits Tae (Hardy), who was sprinting down the floor and the shot goes in. That sums up everything we’ve been talking about. You get wins like this, tough, gritty wins and the belief starts to happen.”
The Miners shot 37.7 percent (20-53) from the floor and 29.4 percent (5-17) from 3-point range but did other things extremely well to give themselves a chance. UTEP was 30-37 at the charity stripe, came up with 16 offensive rebounds that led to 20 second-chance points and forced 21 turnovers resulting in 22 key points.
Hardy was 7-9 at the line to lead the way, with two late misses becoming a moot point when he drilled the triple at the horn. Powell and Solomon each finished 7-8 from the charity stripe.
After a scoreless first two minutes of basketball, the Miners got on the board with a free throw from Solomon. That was followed by respective lay-ups from Powell and Hardy, both off Cal turnovers, to afford UTEP the early 5-0 lead (16:18, 1H).
The Bears countered with a 19-7 surge on the way to going up by seven (19-12, 11:50 1H), but the Orange and Blue had a response. A 5-0 spurt, with two free throws from Solomon and a deep trey from Frazier III cut the deficit down to two (19-17, 10:34 1H).
A dunk from Fardaws Aimaq seemingly reinstated control for the Bears, but UTEP had a different idea. It came in the form of a 14-0 run on the way to the Miners staking a 10-point cushion (31-21, 5:28 1H). Solomon started it with a nifty score down low. Hardy followed with a pull-up fadeaway jumper before David Terrell Jr. set up Camper Jr. for the trey, which was pure.
After a couple of free throws, Jones showed off his strength for the old-fashioned 3-point play. Powell drained two more free throws to cap the sequence. The Bears regrouped and trimmed the UTEP advantage down to five (40-35) heading into the break.
Cal tallied the first six points of the second stanza to reclaim the lead at 41-40. A little push by the Miners, including a workmanlike approach for the offensive board and putback from Kalu, reinstated a 48-43 edge for UTEP with 15:54 remaining in regulation. The Miners were up six (51-45) before an 8-2 sequence from the Bears vaulted them back into the lead.
It was still a one-point affair (57-56, 9:33) in favor of Cal before four straight points from UTEP sent it back ahead. The Miners wouldn’t trail from that point, staving off every push by the Bears, before Hardy’s heroics.
Aimaq led all players with 18 points while Cone and Jaylon Tyson (15 points each) also entered double figures for scoring for Cal.
UTEP will be back at it against Bradley on Wednesday night. The game will be broadcast locally in the Sun City on 600 ESPN El Paso and carried nationally on TV on CBS Sports Network.
