It was a drive-thru game for a combo meal price. But though Miners fans have been looking for a gourmet meal from UTEP for a few years, sometimes food you can order by numbers more than hits the spot.
It was Stefon Jackson's and Tavaris Watts' last regular season game at home. It was an ugly shooting performance by UAB. It was ground beef, not filet mignon. And it was a Miners' win, 70-52.
UTEP keeps its hopes alive for their first first-round bye in the Conference USA tournament under Barbee, and that this team -- sometimes so close to the heat lamp, at others, to the soft-serve machine -- zeroed in on a goal like they did against the Blazers speaks well going into the season finale Saturday at Southern Miss.
UTEP athletic director Bob Stull's decision to sell tickets for the last home game for Happy Meal prices was risky seeing as El Paso has spoken loudly through its season-long silence. But on a Wednesday night the Miners drew an announced crowd of 10,359, sending Jackson, the program's all-time leading scorer, off fittingly.
Frankly, it was loud. Almost Memphis loud.
The team deserves credit. With head coach Tony Barbee gone to tend to his family in the wake of his father's passing, with a UAB team still determined to peer from behind Memphis' shadow for a glance from the NCAA Tournament selection committee, while the crowd chanted "U-TEP! U-TEP!" like it was 1989; the Miners wrested control of a game theirs for the taking.
Sure, it helped that the Blazer who torched UTEP for 44 points and a UAB win in the Don last season, Robert Vaden, was colder than closing time french fries.
His teammates were worse. Vaden scored "just" 17 but no one else cracked double-figures. The visitors shot a lousy 30.9-percent from the field in the face of a crowd-broiled UTEP defense.
But we've seen the Miners crumble before. Against UAB, too.
They did not Wednesday night against one of the teams that could have vanquished them from any hopes of a top four finish -- and that first-round bye -- heading into tournament play next week.
Credit assistant coaches Tony Madlock and Randall Dickey, who kept their team's defensive deep-fryer at just the right temperature through a couple of potential boiling points.
Midway through the second half with the Blazers threatening to go on a run, Jackson was whistled for a contentious technical foul after overreacting as UAB scratched and clawed for the ball while the senior was seated on the court trying to call time out.
It has taken less than this for a young UTEP team to lose its focus. Tempers flared, but did not spark. The Miners pleaded their case, but nobody tried to take more of a bite than they should. The Miners composed, survived, went on a run themselves and perhaps slew more than just UAB's dragon.
Perhaps they're beginning to show themselves ready for a menu without a speaker attached.
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