Miners face road test at The Pit

After playing three games in six days, and winning them handedly, the Miners will be looking to start a school-best 8-0 when they face a road test in New Mexico at 2 p.m. Dec. 2 in Albuquerque.

"I think the girls are really thrilled to get back out and play again. (Dec. 7), we got up and down and let them go having the time off and with the finals and everything going on, we let them get up and play just to get them back in rhythm," head coach Keitha Adams said.

UTEP's last game came Dec. 1 when they completed a five-game home stand by defeating Lamar 81-52. The game was one of the best the Miners played all year when they shot a season-high 46 percent from the field and tied a season-best +22 rebounding margin. The 52 points allowed was the fifth time in a row that UTEP had given up 53 points or fewer.

"Really it's been an intense groove, playing the games the way we were playing and really we switched gears quickly from being in an intense week with our finals and practicing for a good team in UNM," Adams said.

But that momentum was stopped for a while, as the team took nine days off to prepare for finals from Dec. 5-9 at UTEP. The team practiced every day during finals week, taking just Dec. 6 off.

"It's been a little stressful but when we come to the gym, we kind of forget about everything else and just focus on the game," junior forward Kristine Vitola said. "I think it's going to be good for us just to get that game feeling back again and just get out there and do our best."

The Miners will now have to regain their composure to take on a Lobo team inside a difficult arena to win at. New Mexico holds a 20-3 record at The Pit against UTEP and is averaging over 6,700 fans a game this season. They have struggled this year at home, with a record of 3-3 but the three losses have come by a combined eight points.

"I remember it was a tough environment, a fun environment," senior guard Briana Green said. "It had a lot of energy, a lot of fans. I remember them shooting the lights out."

At 3-5 overall, the Lobos' offense has been held to 56 or fewer points in seven of their eight games this season but the team can score. Two players are averaging double-digit points while the entire team is shooting 41 percent from the field. Junior guard Caroline Durbin is the leading scorer, averaging 15.4 points per game while shooting 57.7 percent from the three.

As for the defense, New Mexico has not allowed a team to score more than 69 points, more than five points below the Miners' scoring average. The Lobos are holding their opponents to 33 percent from the field and from three-point range.

New Mexico's most recent game came Dec. 4 at The Pit when they beat NMSU 54-53, a team UTEP beat in overtime 76-72 Nov. 16 in Las Cruces and 63-27 Nov. 29 at home. They allowed NMSU to shoot 48.8 percent from the field while hitting 44.4 percent of their own shots.

Adams is not taking the game as an indication of how the Lobos are and is instead looking to duplicate the team's success from last year, when they defeated New Mexico off a buzzer beater Dec. 20, 2010 at the Don Haskins Center.

"Obviously, our returning players have experience from last year's game, a lot of close games so we should take that experience, it should help us," Adams said. "We're looking for them to step up big and for our newcomers, it'll be a new experience. It'll be a good challenge for us."

William Vega may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.