Caracter building performance

An electric night ended with a thunderous finish as the sellout crowd at the Don Haskins Center was rocking and wanting to see UTEP win and cut down the nets.

Despite a 10-point deficit at halftime, the grit, heart and determination UTEP to a thrilling 52-50 victory against the UAB Blazers March 6.After UAB's (23-7, 11-5 C-USA) Aaron Johnson made a running shot to tie the game with five seconds left, UTEP coach Tony Barbee called a timeout to chalk up one last play for the Miners.

Arnett Moultrie threw an inbound pass to Julyan Stone, who dribbled up the floor and dished it to a wide open Derrick Caracter for a thunderous slam dunk with less than a second left to play to give the Miners (24-5, 15-1 C-USA) the lead.

"There was some big plays made over the last two minutes and none bigger than Derrick finishing it off, but it was a play that we run a thousand times in practice," Barbee said. "The pressure is not on us to win, the pressure has been on us to prepare."
Moultrie finished off the game by tipping the inbound pass by UAB, which started the clock and did not allow the Blazers to get off a shot as the contest ended.

Caracter scored the Miners' last six points, including two clutch free throws to tie the game at 48. Caracter then scored on a bank shot before the amazing finish with the dunk to seal the victory. He finished with 13 points and all of those points were scored in the second half.

"That was ridiculous in there. To win a championship, be undefeated at home, and to win with those guys out there, my teammates. There is nothing better than that," Caracter said.
Myron Strong was UTEP's spark plug off the bench. He hit two big 3-point field goals in the first half to keep the Miners within striking distance. He finished as the leading scorer for the Miners with 15 points.

"I was due for a big game. I've been getting more comfortable and I've been staying healthy," Strong said. "They are going to watch film and really focus on the main players, so it would be a big opportunity for me to step up."

UAB's Johnson led all scorers in the game with 16 points, and made four of five shots from beyond the arc. Guard Eiljah Millsap added 12 points and 14 rebounds while center Kenneth Cooper finished with eight points.

It was UAB's defense that gave the Miners fits early in the game. UTEP was held to just one field goal through the game's first six and a half minutes as the Blazers built a six-point advantage.

Despite playing without Caracter and Randy Culpepper for most of the opening half due to foul trouble, the Miners came back to tie the game at 16 with 8:26 remaining behind eight straight points by Strong.

But the UAB defense again gave the UTEP offense trouble the rest of the half. The Blazers closed out the half on a 16-6 run, limiting the Miners to just two field goals in that span as UTEP trailed 32-22.
The second half started the same way the first one ended as UTEP fell behind by 14 points before chipping away at the UAB lead. Trailing 38-24 with 17 minutes remaining, UTEP began to turn the tables by having their defense stifle UAB.

UAB was held to just 12 points the rest of the contest as the Miners rallied. The Blazers scored three points over a nine-minute span as their lead was trimmed to 41-40 with 8:18 remaining.

The rest of the contest had UTEP trying to even the game and did so after Caracter's free throws squared the teams 48-48 with 2:35 to go. Caracter gave the Miners their first lead of the contest with 37 seconds remaining and then won the game in the final seconds.
While the Miners head to the Conference USA tournament without a loss since January, UAB is backing in. The Blazers are heading into the conference tournament as they blew an opportunity to secure the second seed. With losses to the Miners and Memphis Tigers earlier in the week, UAB will be the third seed and could face the Miners in the championship game March 13.

UTEP will ride their 14-game winning streak as they will play the winner between the SMU Mustangs and UCF Knights March 11 at 8 p.m. The game will be televised on CBS College Sports.

Alex Morales may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.