Dec. 3, 2006
EL PASO, Texas (AP) – Stefon Jackson scored 25 points and UTEP’s 3-point shooters punched early holes in New Mexico’s zone defense in the Miners’ 87-63 win Sunday afternoon.
UTEP (4-3) hit six 3-pointers in the first half as New Mexico (5-1) stayed in the zone and steadily fell behind the scrappy Miners. UTEP hit just one 3-pointer in the second half, but by then the Miners were safely in front.
Jeremy Sampson hit 7-of-9 shots and added 15 points for the Miners. Sampson’s nine rebounds led UTEP to a 44-28 edge on the boards.
New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens, who scored 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting, led a brief second-half rally that trimmed a 19-point UTEP lead to 61-47 with just over 12 minutes left. Miners guard Marvin Kilgore halted the run with a left-handed dunk after intercepting a Giddens pass near midcourt.
New Mexico got no closer than 15 the rest of the way and the final score matched the Miners’ biggest lead.
Giddens came in averaging 20.4 points a game and sporting a plastic mask to protect his nose, which caught an elbow in the Lobos’ 79-76 win over New Mexico State on Tuesday.
With the mask on, Giddens hit just 2 of 10 shots in the first half. He played without the mask in the second half, and for a while found his shot, hitting four of his first five after the break.
The Miners, who lost at home to Chicago State three days earlier, were a much more physical team against the previously undefeated Lobos. UTEP grabbed most of the loose balls and pounded the boards at both ends in the decisive first half that put the Miners in front 50-34.
Five Miners hit 3-pointers in the first half, three of them in a 17-5 run that turned a 15-13 UTEP lead into a 32-18 cushion with 8:07 left in the opening period. Jackson hit a pair of 3s and Kevin Henderson had the other.
UTEP’s shooters cooled off in the second half, hitting 10 of 28 shots. But it didn’t matter after the Miners hit 19 of 35 shots in the first half and 6-of-11 from 3-point range.
Tony Danridge, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half, and Giddens’ second half scoring carried the Lobos’ offense. On 3-pointers the Lobos were 5-of 23.