UTEP men's basketball plays better, but falls late to Seattle

The UTEP men's basketball team played one of its best games of the year but lost late to 7-2 Seattle in a 75-68 road loss on Sunday, Dec. 7, that dropped the Miners to 3-5.

UTEP, now on a three-game losing streak, was tied 65-65 as the game hit the 3:00 mark, then Seattle made a 3-pointer, got a stop and made a 3-point play to go up six points. UTEP got a 3-pointer from Elijah Jones and a stop, but Seattle answered with a stop and closed the game out.

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How it happened

The game was close throughout, with UTEP's biggest lead, in the first half, was eight and Seattle's biggest lead was seven.

Jamal West led the Miners with a career night, with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting with 14 rebounds. Elijah Jones was the other player in double figures with 18 points.

Ultimately UTEP lost because of a 3-point disparity, as Seattle was 10-of-23 and UTEP was 5-of-19. The Miners won or were close in most other stats but couldn't make up that 15-point disparity.

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Quoting coach Joe Golding

"It was better," coach Joe Golding said. "There were some good things. Our guys competed, I can take that effort. ... Wearing that uniform, you have to take some pride and compete. I was disappointed in the start of the season, but the second half, we showed some toughness, going and getting rebounds, going to the glass, the way we competed."

A UTEP team that struggles to rebound was only outboarded 33-29 and only lost second-chance points 11-10, won points in the paint 36-26 and won fast-break points 12-3. Ultimately they lost because they weren't as good at 3-pointers as Seattle.

This was a rematch of the last game of UTEP's 1965-66 regular season, when Seattle won 74-72 to hand the Miners their only loss in a 28-1 season that ended with an historic national championship.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at [email protected]; @BrMTbloomquist on X.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP Miners basketball goes to 3-5 after competitive loss to Seattle