UTEP men drop third straight game after loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – UTEP men’s basketball was handed its third straight loss after it suffered a 67-64 defeat to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the Don Haskins Center on Wednesday.

FINAL: TAMU-CC stuns UTEP at home 67-63. After a 5-0 start, the Miners have lost 3 straight.

— Colin Deaver November 30, 2023

“These guys are going to get crushed by whatever out there saying they can’t shoot, they can’t play, they aren’t any good. I told them that we are going to find out a lot about our team right now,” UTEP men’s basketball head coach Joe Golding said. “I am excited about that. I am going to find out who wants to play, who wants to work. It’s going to be a great tape to evaluate and we’ll figure it out and have some good practices here.”

“We started off lackadaisical. We’ve been doing that the last couple of games,” UTEP guard Otis Frazier III said. “I think the older guys aren’t really leading, myself included, and defensively we were terrible tonight.”

A slow first half really hurt UTEP, as the Miners shot 0-of-8 from three-point land and committed nine turnovers. That led the Miners to trailing the Islanders, 33-28, at the end of the first half.

In the second half, UTEP went down as much as seven points twice before the Miners tied the game at 47 with 09:47 left in the game. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi built up another seven-point lead, 56-49, with 07:35 to go before UTEP tied the game at 58 at the 05:32 mark and then again at 60 with 03:34 remaining.

UTEP tied the game three times in the second half but never took a lead. UTEP was down 64-63, needing one stop for a chance to take the lead on the other end, but the Islanders extended its lead after Dayne Prim collected a rebound, and after being blocked twice, still maintained possession of the ball and scored it to go up 66-63 with 11 seconds left in the contest.

UTEP did not get the chance for a game-tying shot as the Miners ensuing play ended in Tae Hardy stepping out of bounds after receiving a pass in the corner of the floor.

UTEP would foul Prim on the very next play, he knocked down one of two free throws to help Texas A&M-Corpus Christi secure a 67-64 win.

That was UTEP’s first home loss of the 2023 season and that loss puts the Miners at a 5-2 overall record on the year. UTEP will look to snap its three-game losing streak against Western New Mexico, a NCAA Division II program, on Monday at the Don Haskins Center.