Rice secure a clean sweep of UTEP with a 73-62 win
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Rice dealt UTEP its first loss of the season inside the Don Haskins Center with a 73-62 win on Saturday afternoon.
The Owls (11-4, 2-4 C-USA) took a five-point lead into the half and expanded it to double digits in the third quarter, outscoring the Miners (11-4, 4-2 C-USA) 15-9 out of the break to go up 54-43 entering the fourth quarter.
In the third, the shots just didn’t fall for UTEP, which went 1-of-14 from the floor after going 15-of-31 in the first 20 minutes.
Rice came out hot to start the fourth as well, building the lead to 65-47 with an 11-4 run over the first 3:07 of the quarter.
In response, the Miners dialed up a N’Yah Boyd 3-pointer and back-to-back Elina Arike buckets as part of seven straight points to cut the deficit to 11.
That would be the closest that things would get though, as the Owls continued to deliver counterpunches to everything that the Miners did late.
Over the final 1:44, multiple UTEP reserves had nice showings, including Adela Valkova with a pair of rebounds and Soleil Montrose with four points.
“I do like our fight and that we are willing to stick around and hang in there when things aren’t going well,” UTEP Head Coach Kevin Baker said. “I can appreciate that as a coach because we did fight until the end. I was proud of our second group coming in. I thought they played pretty well over the last couple of minutes of the game.”
Once again, four Miners scored in double figures, led by Jazion Jackson and Arike with 11 each. Boyd and Sabine Lipe contributed 10 points apiece. Jackson grabbed seven rebounds with three steals and Arike brought down six boards.
“We just didn’t make shots today,” Arike said. “We didn’t make the easy shots that we can make, and that is one of many reasons why we lost. I think we always play hard though. I can count on my teammates to always play hard.”
Saturday marked a contrast to the game played between the two sides in Houston just two weeks ago in which the Miners led for nearly 30 minutes before a 12-1 Rice run late pushed the Owls over the top. In this one, Rice led for 37:22 of game action, shooting 30-of-53 (57 percent) overall and 8-of-22 (36 percent) on 3-pointers.
UTEP was 23-of-61 (37.7 percent) overall for the game and hit 14-of-19 (73.7 percent) at the free throw line. The Miners outrebounded Rice 34-31 on the day.
Ashlee Austin led the Owls with an all-around effort, scoring a team-high 15 points with eight rebounds and six assists.
After a 9-0 beginning to the season in non-conference action, Rice looks to be on the ascent in conference play after initially facing a gauntlet to begin things, including falling twice to undefeated C-USA leader Middle Tennessee and dropping games to LA Tech and WKU by five points each time.
“I think you have got to give Rice credit today, they just played better than we did,” Baker said. “We just picked a heck of a time to go cold and not be able to make a shot. We missed 23 layups, so that’s the difference in the game as far as we are concerned because when you are on one end and you are not able to score, it affects your defensive energy on the other end, and I think that is what happened to us today. We normally play really, really good halfcourt defense, and we didn’t today. I think it was a direct result of missing a layup and not have the energy to be able to guard the way we typically guard on the other end.”
UTEP is back in the Don Haskins Center on Monday for a special 1 p.m. start time on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
