UTEP clips UAB to finish season on 14-game win streak

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - El Paso, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derrick Caracter scored UTEP's final six points and finished with 13 to lead the 24th ranked Miners to a 52-50 win over the UAB Blazers at Don Haskins Center in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Myron Strong led the Miners with 15 points, and Caracter chipped in with six rebounds. The team will now head into postseason play riding an impressive 14- game win streak.

UTEP (24-5, 15-1) will be seeded first in its conference tournament when it plays in next week's C-USA Championship in Tulsa. The Miners will face the winner of Wednesday's game between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams in the tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.

Aaron Johnson provided 16 points to lead UAB (23-7, 11-5), who locked up the third seed despite losing its last two games. Elijah Millsap added 12 points and 14 rebounds in defeat.

UAB extended its lead to 38-24 early in the second half on a Kenneth Cooper jumper, but UTEP roared back with a 16-3 spurt, as a Christian Polk three- pointer with 8:18 left brought the hosts to within 41-40.

The Miners finally pulled even, 48-48, on Caracter's two free throws with 2:35 to go, and he gave the team the lead with 37 ticks left on a jumper after the Blazers had missed a pair of shots.

Jamarr Sanders came right back for UAB with a three-point attempt, but the shot was off the mark; however, Julyan Stone missed the front end of a 1-and-1 for UTEP, giving the Blazers new life.

Johnson tied the game with six seconds left on a jumper, but Caracter came out of the ensuing UTEP timeout and threw down a dunk with two seconds left for a two-point Miners advantage.

The Blazers never got off a final shot.

UAB jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the opening half. The Miners fought back to tie the game at 14-14 with nine minutes left in the half.

The Blazers regrouped and used a 10-1 burst to take an 11-point lead. Three- pointers by Dexter Fields and Johnson made it 30-19 with 2:35 left. It was 32-22 at halftime.

Game Notes

UTEP leads the all-time series between these two schools, 6-5...UTEP won in double-overtime, 74-65, when these two teams met on January 30...UTEP is only the third school in C-USA history to post 15 league wins or more, joining Cincinnati in 1999-00 (16-0) and Memphis, which went 16-0 in each of the past three seasons.

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