UTEP Miners men's basketball wins fifth straight after rallying past FIU

The UTEP men's basketball team, fueled by a defense reaching a new level, is starting to put together something special.

Defending with a purpose and offense coming from all over the roster, particularly Souly Boum, the Miners dominated the final 15 minutes against Florida International, erasing an eight-point deficit in a 79-68 victory that ran their win streak to five games.

More:C-USA men's basketball standings

UTEP improved to 13-8 overall and 6-3 in Conference USA, and FIU fell to 12-9, 2-6. The Miners' five-game C-USA win streak is their longest in five seasons.

Trailing 48-40 early in the second half, UTEP took control with a 19-5 run when it forced seven turnovers and turned that into offense, making nine of 11 shots. The lead was 63-59 in the final 6:30 when a 12-4 run put away the Panthers.

What they said

"Defense," said Tydus Verhoeven, who had career highs with 14 points and 13 rebounds. "We picked up our defense, picked up our aggression and that changed the face of the game."

"Defense," coach Joe Golding said. "Defense won this game. We were getting defensive stops, turnovers and we got some stuff in transition. We got more aggressive, we were getting deflections and getting steals."

When that started happening the Miners began turning that defense into offense. After scoring two points off turnovers in a first half where UTEP trailed by as much as nine points, the Miners had 15 points off turnovers in the second half.

Boum was the big beneficiary, scoring 32 points.

"In the beginning of the game they were making runs and we weren't getting stops," Boum said. "Our defense had to pick up. We had to defend a lot of ball screen, defending ball screens isn't easy, especially with shooters. We had to tag them, close out and rotate. We had to pick our defense up."

How it went

UTEP received big contributions from a number of places. Jamal Bieniemy was typically good, scored 13 points with six assists and one turnover. Alfred Hollins added 13 points off the bench, while Christian Agnew was plus-18 in 26 minutes where he scored seven points. Agnew was put in to defend FIU's all-conference guard Tevin Brewer and he helped hold him to 11 points.

Through all that the Miners dug a hole and were down 48-40 with 15 minutes remaining. From there, Boum hit a 15-footer, Beiniemy hit a 3-pointer off a feed from Boum, Boum scored on a drive and then hit a fast-break 19-footer after an Agnew steal and assist.

In that 9-0 run that gave UTEP its first lead of the second half, FIU had three turnovers and missed two shots.

"I was proud of our fight-back, and also taking care of the lead is huge," Verhoeven said. "We played relaxed and with poise. ... I feel like we're finding ourselves, we're playing better at the right time.

"We need to keep it rolling. I won't say we're playing our best, there is still a lot of room to grow."

"We're winning," Golding said. "We're finding ways to win, we're finding different ways to win. Our team is coming together. We're starting to believe. When you have success it's good. There's good energy around the office, there's good energy in the locker room."

There's good energy on defense and now UTEP has ridden that to a five-game winning streak.

Up next

UTEP starts its North Texas-Rice road swing with a 6 p.m. Thursday night tip at North Texas. The game will be carried on 600 ESPN El Paso.

FIU will be at Southern Miss Thursday.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

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