The UTEP Miners Women’s Basketball team ended a four game losing streak by beating the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in a thrilling overtime game 86-79 Saturday afternoon at the Don Haskins Center.
It was the Miners last home game of the regular season and they got off to a fast start as they scored 27 points in the quarter. That was the second most points they have scored in the first quarter this season. The Miners were sparked by Mahri Petree’s 12 points in the quarter as she made four 3 point attempts.
In the second quarter they Miners continued to keep making three pointers as Avery Crouse and Katia Gallegos made a couple allowing the Miners to have a 21 point lead with about 4:30 left to go until halftime.
But that’s when Southern Miss (led by Dominique Davis), went on a 13-2 run to end the quarter. And that gave the Miners a 10 point lead at halftime.
In the third quarter both teams went back and forth and the Golden Eagles outscored the Miners in quarter but UTEP still had a nine point lead going into the fourth.
Southern Miss showed why they are in first place in the Western Division of C-USA as they mounted a big comeback in the fourth quarter and they actually outscored the Miners 24-15 to send the game into overtime. The reason why they went on the big run is because Fess Hawkins scored 10 points in the quarter along with Davis hitting some big shots at the end of it.
But once the game went into overtime, the Miners who have played in four overtime games this season, kept their composure and dominated the fourth quarter. They started OT with a 4-0 run and they never looked back. They ended up out scoring Southern Miss 18-11 in the extra period giving them the much needed 86-79 victory.
UTEP had five players in double figures as Petree had a career high 23 points, including 6 career high three point shots made. Katia Gallegos had 18 points, Elina Arike scored 16, Avery Crouse had 10 and Brenda Fontana had a career high 13 points off the bench.
With the win the Miners are now 14-11 overall and 6-9 in C-USA. They will play the last three games of the regular season on the road and first up for them will be UAB next Saturday at 1 p.m. Mando Medina will have the call on the free UTEP App.