UTEP Upsets No. 12 New Mexico

Texas-El Paso made the New Mexico Lobos' last visit to the border city as a member of the Western Athletic Conference a memorable one.

For the Miners.

UTEP, behind sophomore Brandon Wolfram's 16 points and a scoring run of 17 straight first-half points, beat No. 12 New Mexico 67-49 Saturday night.

New Mexico is one of eight schools leaving the WAC this summer to form the Mountain West Conference. UTEP is staying and while the schools will continue their series that dates to 1929, their rematch in Albuquerque next month will be the last as WAC members.

Don Haskins, UTEP's 68-year-old coach, said he did not expect such an easy win against a New Mexico team that a week ago beat Arizona in Albuquerque.

"If I had sensed that we would play this well, I would have gotten some sleep last night," Haskins said. "I was surprised New Mexico never went on any kind of a run in the second half. I kept waiting for it but it never came."

Wolfram, who hit 6-of-8 shots and outplayed New Mexico star center Kenny Thomas, said the Lobos' impending departure from the WAC got him ready.

"I was pumped," Wolfram said. "This was New Mexico's last time here as a WAC team. They were number twelve in the nation and playing against Thomas will pump anybody."

It was the second consecutive rout of the ranked but slumping Lobos (16-4, 3-2 WAC), who lost to New Mexico State 76-55 four days earlier.

New Mexico, which came into the game averaging 85.2 points a game, finished with its fewest since a 56-46 loss to Syracuse in the second round of last year's NCAA tournament.

After shooting a season-low 34 percent against NMSU, the Lobos shot 35 percent against the Miners' defense. UTEP double-teamed Thomas much of the night and alternated defenses against the rest of the Lobos.

"The situation was dictated early and the reality is still that the youth at guaris what's costing us a lot of headway," said New Mexico coach Dave Bliss.

Lobo freshman point guard John Robinson had eight of the Lobos' 17 turnovers and had just three assists. Sophomore guard Kevin Henry, who was averaging 12.6 points a game, was held to six points.

UTEP (11-7, 3-2) was nearly perfect at both ends of the floor while breaking the game open in the game's first six minutes. The Miners hit six of their first eight shots -- four of them 3-pointers. New Mexico, meanwhile, was missing 14 of its first 17 shots.

The miners shut down thomas and forced several turnovers en route to a 20-4 lead with 14 minutes left in the opening half.

Thomas, who had averaged nearly 19 points in six previous games against UTEP, scored 16 points. But he went scoreless until the 4:43 mark of the first half and got most of his points after the game was out of hand.

A layup by Lamont Long gave New Mexico its only lead of the night at 4-3 two minutes into the game. Eggie McRae started the Miners' run with a 3-pointer and Wolfram added a 3-point play. Nelson then hit back-to-back 3s, McRae added a pair of free throws and Nelson finished off the run with a layup and free throw.

New Mexico got two 3-pointers from Henry and another from Long in a brief rally that cut the deficit to 32-22 with 3:37 left.

UTEP scored the final seven points of the half and 10 of the first 12 points in the second half.

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