Middle Tennessee uses late run to hold off UTEP

In the big picture, the building UTEP women's basketball team has a ways to go to reach the top of Conference USA.

In Saturday's smaller picture, against a Middle Tennessee team that has built a fortress on that mountaintop, the Miners were close enough to see what the summit looks like.

More: CUSA women's basketball standings

UTEP stuck with the unbeaten-in-league Blue Raiders for three and a half quarters, the Miners trailed 42-41 inside the final 6:00, but Middle Tennessee closed the game on a 14-0 run to win 56-41 and improve to 21-4, 11-0 in CUSA play. UTEP fell to 9-15, 4-7.

Quoting the coach

"That's a group that's won a lot of games," UTEP coach Keitha Adams said of Middle Tennessee. "We're a group that's learning and trying to figure things out. That's a veteran team, it's like the Super Bowl: The Chiefs have been there, they've done it. We're trying to find ourselves, we have freshmen.

"Where they are at and where we're at is a different place. But we can learn from this, no doubt."

UTEP gave itself a blueprint in the game's first 34 minutes. The Miners are the only CUSA team that's led MTSU after a quarter, which they've now done twice. They were tied early in the fourth and when Delma Zita went coast-to-coast for a layup, the Miners were down 42-41 with 6:13 to play.

UTEP failed to score on its final eight possessions to finish a night where it shot 33% from the field. Middle Tennessee, scored on five of its next seven possessions before dribbling out the final seconds.

Offense struggles

"Against that team, on both sides of the ball, you have to be on point," Adams said. "You can't be on point on one end and not on the other end. On one end we were pretty good today, defense, but our offense didn't get the job done.

"Our offense is what cost us the game, not being able to score. The game is kinder to the team that makes shots, they made more shots than we did. Our effort was good, I'm proud of our team, we have to build off this week."

As an example of UTEP's struggles, the Miners never found a hot hand and didn't have anyone with more than 11 points.

UTEP did a lot of things right, winning the boards 36-33, second-chance points 6-4, turnovers 10-9 and holding Middle Tennessee to 40% shooting. The Blue Raiders, who at one point went through a 1-for-15 spell in the first half, did make 11-of-25 3-pointers to the Miners' 1-of-7, which was a big part of the difference.

Quoting the team

"We boxed out and rebounded," said Jane Asinde, who scored eight points with 11 rebounds. "The first trip (to Middle Tennessee, an 11-point UTEP loss), they had second-chance points off the rebounds. We took that away and that is why we were in the game most of the time.

"(At the end) we took quick shots and gave them the opportunity to transition on us."

Middle Tennessee's game-closing run included to breakaway layups off steals and two other baskets in transition.

Besides playing competitively against the league standard, another aspect Adams found encouraging was the play of freshmen Aaliyah Stanton, Aspen Salazar and Luisa Vydrova.

Stanton led the Miners with 11 points, the Las Crucen Salazar scored four and Vyrdova scored all six of her points in the fourth quarter when UTEP was hanging close.

That wasn't enough to slay CUSA's juggernaut, but it was enough to give the Miners something to build on.

Up next

The Miners go on their final two-game trip of the season, starting with a Thursday night game at Louisiana Tech. The 5 p.m. Mountain time tip from Ruston will be streamed on ESPN+.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Middle Tennessee uses late run to hold off UTEP women's basketball