UTEP survives Norfolk St., 67-65; Miners advance to Sun Bowl Invitational final
EL PASO, Texas - It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win for the UTEP Miners.
Wednesday night at the Don Haskins Center, the Miners defeated the Norfolk State Spartans, 67-65 to advance to the championship game of the WestStar Bank Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational.
It was UTEP's first win against a division one opponent since November 20.
The Miners will face an old WAC rival in Wyoming Thursday at 7 p.m. for the tournament championship.
Wyoming defeated South Dakota State, 78-65 to advance to Thursday's final.
It was a good back and forth game between the Spartans & Miners.
The game was tied at 30 at halftime.
Ultimately it would come down to free throws that allowed UTEP to pull away with less than a minute to go in the game.
Four Miners would end up with double digits in scoring with Calvin Solomon leading the way for UTEP with 13 points.
The Miners forced 16 turnovers by the Spartans, and held them to 44.2 percent (19-43) from the floor.
That was aided by keeping the Spartans without a field goal the final five minutes of the contest.
The victory snaps a two game losing skid for the Miners, and improves their overall record to 7-5 on the season, 6-1 inside the Haskins Center.
“We had to get off a skid and we said it was not going to be easy. Tonight was a perfect example of that,” UTEP head coach Joe Golding said. “There were just so many things that happened where our guys could have given up. To see them finish a game, I’m just so proud of them."
