UTEP vs. UC Riverside basketball recap

CUSA-fans.com has a new staff of team correspondents this fall to help bring you, the fan, more detailed Conference USA sports coverage. Today, our new UTEP Correspondent Robert Robles brings you a recap of the basketball game between UTEP and UC Riverside.

For 4 straight games, the young and talented UTEP Miners have scored 90+ on the opposing teams. The rout of the UC-Davis Highlanders, 95- 55 in the Don Haskins center on Tuesday, is evident that the UTEP miner team is improving. Led by Sophomore Guard in Stefon Jackson, a potent and fluid Miner offense is on the move, and seems to be getting better and better, as an obvious case being that the Miners have scored a total of 392 points total sum from the last 4 games.

The Highlanders, whose high scorer being Chris Johnson with a game high 28 points, shot only 39 (19 of 49)percent from the field compared to the Miners 50 (31 of 62), a stat which is improving and becoming a strength on the Miner team, was a big factor in the win. The Miners high scorers were Stefon Jackson and Dale Vanwright with 18 points, and Maurice Thomas with 12.

A big win for the Miners was the rebounding margin, which the Miners won having 41 rebounds of their own compared to the Highlanders scanty 22. Turnovers seem to not be a problem with the Miners, having a total of 13 in the game, with only 3 of those coming in the second half. The Highlanders had 20 turnovers.

A noteworthy statistic is that no UTEP player played for more than 24 minutes in the game.

With Conference play finally arriving this coming Saturday, being the 6 th of the January in the Don Haskins Center, against the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers, the statistics and chemistry working for the Miners lately could not have come at a better time. Head Coach Tony Barbee will have his hands full with Mike Davis and company.