UTEP MBB knocks out Sam Houston in the first round of the CUSA tournament
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (KVIA) -- Corey Camper Jr. poured in 18 points, Kevin Kalu recorded a monstrous double-double (15 points, career-high 15 rebounds) and Otis Frazier III and Devon Barnes each netted 12 points to help lead the No. 8 seed UTEP men’s basketball team past No. 9 seed Sam Houston, 79-65, in the first round of the 2025 Conference USA Championships inside Propst Arena on Tuesday.
The Miners (18-14) advance to challenge top seed and regular-season champion Liberty in the quarterfinals of the tournament at 4:30 p.m. MT/5:30 p.m. CT Wednesday. The Bearkats (13-19), who had won two straight and five of seven, jumped out to a 10-point cushion (13-3) six minutes into the game. UTEP shook off the sluggish start by responding with a 24-7 run over the next nine minutes to vault ahead by seven (27-20, 5:13, 1H). The Miners would never trail again.
The closest Sam Houston got was creeping within four (50-46, 12:50, 2H) almost midway through the second stanza. With the shot clock winding down, Frazier III, the All-CUSA Second-Team honoree, stepped back and buried a 3-pointer to reassert control and stave off any run down the stretch by the Bearkats. It was one of a UTEP conference tournament record-tying 12 triples (12-24) for the Miners.
UTEP shared the ball effectively with 16 assists on 27 made field goals. David Terrell Jr. dropped seven dimes and Frazier III added five to help set the tone in the area. Overall, the Miners filled up 45.0 percent (27-60) from the floor while knocking down 13-17 at the charity stripe (76.5 percent). They also took great care of the ball, committing only nine giveaways.
Camper Jr. used the long ball to lead the assault, burying a career-high four 3-pointers on six shots from distance. Barnes (2-5), Frazier III (2-5) and Trey Horton III (2-4) also had multiple treys. The Miners, buoyed by 15 caroms by Kalu, won the boards (35-34) to stay undefeated on the season (7-0) when outrebounding the opposition. Elijah Jones provided a boost off the bench with five points and four rebounds, as did Baylor Hebb with two key baskets late in the first half.
Not to be overshadowed was UTEP’s defense, which shut down one of top 3-point shooting teams (by percentage) in the country. Sam Houston entered the contest making 39.5 percent (fifth NCAA) from distance, but the Miners held them to just 2-19 (10.5 percent) from beyond-the-arc. That resulted in the Bearkats finishing at 40.0 percent (20-50) overall. They also were 23-31 (74.2 percent) from the charity stripe.
Sam Houston’s 10.5 percent on 3-pointers is the lowest by a Miner opponent at the CUSA Tournament since UTEP joined the league in 2005-06. The prior best was when it held Marshall to 12.5 percent (2-16) on March 10, 2011.
Another milestone was Frazier III moving past 1,000 points as Miner. He becomes the 36th member of the club at UTEP, and he is the 17th to do so in three seasons or less
Lamar Wilkerson tallied 22 points to lead the way for Sam Houston, but he was just 6-16 overall (1-8 on triples). Coming into the affair, he was making 3.48 triples per game (first CUSA/fourth NCAA) while shooting 45.6 percent (first CUSA/sixth NCAA) from distance.
“I’m just really happy for these guys. It’s been a tough month for these guys, but they stuck together. They’ve had great energy, great practices,” UTEP head coach Joe Golding said. “They’re a fun group to be around, and I’m just really happy for them to play the way they did tonight. We played exactly how we wanted to play it. We had a low-turnover game. We turned them over a bit, got some offense. I thought the 3-point line was huge. We hold them to two, and we get 12. We took good shots tonight. We valued the basketball, and we had great possessions. Against a really, really good basketball team, we hold them to 65 points, and I thought our offense was a big reason for that. We made the extra pass, touched paint, got deeper into possessions, and I thought that really helped our defense.”
Sam Houston snagged an early 4-0 lead on a pair of dunks before Kalu got the Miners on the board with an offensive board and putback. UTEP got a stop, and Kalu split a pair of free throws. The Bearkats responded with nine in a row, including an old-fashioned three-point play, to put UTEP down by 10 (13-3, 14:11, 1H).
Terrell Jr. was pure on his own trey to halt the surge. After a Wilkerson bucket, Camper Jr. buried his own 3-pointer to cut the deficit to six (15-9, 13:00, 1H). Horton III followed with a transition triple, bringing the Orange and Blue to within three (15-12, 12:46, 1H). Sam Houston nudged it out to six before a 6-0 push pulled the Miners even (18-18, 7:16, 1H). Frazier III kicked it off by hooking home a shot in the post. Terrell Jr. then came up with a steal and went coast-to-coast for the score. After Kalu was fouled, he calmly sank both tosses to tie the tilt.
A turnaround basket by the Bearkats slowed the surge, but UTEP kept coming. Camper Jr. knocked down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to force a timeout by Sam Houston and give the Miners the lead, 24-20 (6:07, 1H). They never relinquished it.
After another stop, Horton III drained the corner 3-pointer to extend the run to nine in a row. The Bearkats clawed back to within four (32-28) before Hebb tallied buckets on back-to-back transition layups. A score in the waning seconds cut the Miners’ margin to six (36-30) heading into halftime.
UTEP scored five of the first seven points of the second half to nudge the difference to nine, with a layup by Kalu and a trey by Frazier III. Sam Houston worked it back within six, but UTEP had an answer. Camper Jr. buried a corner triple. Barnes followed with a layup, stretching the lead back to double digits (48-37, 16:00,2H).
It was still an 11-point difference (50-39, 15:12, 2H) before seven in a row from Sam Houston, including five via the charity stripe, allowed it to whittle the UTEP advantage down to four (50-46, 12:50, 2H). The Bearkats looked poised to get another stop, but with the shot clock winding down Frazier III stepped back and sank the trey. Two makes at the free throw line by Kalu inched it to nine.
Sam Houston got it back to seven before a corner 3-pointer by Barnes. The Bearkats cut it to six, but UTEP used two quick scores to move ahead by 10 again. Sam Houston never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Miners’ contest with Liberty marks a rematch of the 2024 CUSA quarterfinals, which UTEP won, 66-57. Jon Teicher (44th year) and Steve Yellen(22nd year) will be on the call on "The Home of UTEP Basketball" 600 ESPN El Paso, with audio airing on the UTEP Miners app as well. It will also be streamed on ESPN+ (subscription required).
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