UTEP men's free-throw woes continue in overtime loss to Rice

If the UTEP men's basketball team were merely bad at free throws instead of terrible, they would be on top of Conference USA right now.

Instead, the Miners are 1-2 in C-USA after a second consecutive overtime loss, this one 72-67 to Rice on Saturday in a game they could have won at the line with 1.1 seconds to go in regulation.

More:C-USA men's basketball standings

Trailing 62-61, Calvin Solomon made the front end of a one-and-one to tie it and take some pressure off, but he missed the back end, missed two free throws to start overtime and everything else shook out from there.

The Miners, who came in 347th out of 352 teams nationally in free throw shooting, made 10-of-20 from the line to Rice's 16-of-23 and the third consecutive loss was the result. UTEP fell to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in Conference USA, while Rice moved to 11-3, 2-1.

What they said

"Finishing the game, free throws at the end of the game are killing us," Otis Frazier said. "We get to the rim a lot, we get to the free-throw line, it's finishing free throws. We make our free throws, we're up by ... how much? ... Just finishing the game."

The upshot was another loss after the Miners dug out of a 15-point hole with an inspired final 11 minutes of regulation. UTEP never led after the 6:02 mark of the first half, but closed regulation with a 14-2 run that could have been 15-2 with one more made free throw.

"Frustrating night for us overall," coach Joe Golding said. "We couldn't really get anything going. ... If we're going to be in close games, we've got to get better at a lot of stuff. I've got to look in the mirror on late-game stuff, too.

"We've got to take care of the basketball. We had 18 turnovers, way too many. We've got to rebound. We went even on the glass, it shouldn't be an even game, we should beat them on the glass. Then we've got to make free throws.

"It's hard to win games when you do those things. You're playing with fire. It's burned us now, Kent State, UAB, then this game."

As for the overtime, "The more aggressive team wins in overtime. They were the most aggressive team," Golding said.

How it went

Trailing 60-48 in the final 3:10, a Miners team that had been struggling to make shots most of the night heated up, with a 3-pointer from Jamari Sibley, a three-point play from Mario McKinney (he scored a team-best 17 points) and a pair of slump-busting free throws from Shamar Givance got UTEP within 60-56 with 2:00 remaining.

Rice, which won second-chance points 14-7, then got a follow tip, but Givance hit a 3 and McKinney made a layup as the Miners moved to within 62-61 at the 43-second mark.

A Kevin Kalu block gave UTEP the ball with 13 seconds to play and Solomon (nine points, eight rebounds) got to the line, where he made one of two.

In the overtime, UTEP was within 67-66 after a Frazier tip with 2:14 left, but the Miners missed their final three shots, including a potential game-tying 3-point attempt from Givance with 18 seconds to play.

"The last three games were overtime games," Frazier said. "We're getting tired of having to fight back. We have to get better as a team finishing off. We started off slow the first half. We brought it back, we had a little energy, but it was too late. Having to fight back in games is killing us."

That all started with a 16-0 Rice run in the first half that gave it an 11-point lead that lasted it until the final 1.1 seconds of regulation. The Miners were running uphill all afternoon and could have reached the summit if it could have made one more free throw.

That wasn't to be.

Up next

The Miners take a week off before returning to action next Saturday at Louisiana Tech. Tip is set for 1 p.m. in Ruston and will be broadcast on 600 ESPN El Paso and streamed on CUSAtv.

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

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Free-throw woes continue for UTEP men in overtime loss to Rice