UTEP women pull away late to top Louisiana Tech
The UTEP women's basketball team closed its Conference USA opener with Louisiana Tech on a 13-4 run and pulled away for a 62-54 victory.
Trailing 50-49, N'yah Boyd made a layup with 4:19 remaining to give UTEP a lead it would not relinquish. Adhele Tac and Arine Erike then made baskets around back-to-back stops to push the lead to five points as the Miners moved to 7-2.
More:C-USA women's basketball standings
Jazion Jackson had her biggest game as a Miner with 17 points, one of four players in double figures. Tac finished with 12 while Avery Crouse and Boyd each had 11.
La. Tech outshot UTEP 51% to 36% but the Miners took 64 shots to the Techsters' 39 because of a 36-29 advantage on the boards — 17-3 on offensive rebounds — and a 20-11 advantage in turnovers forced.
"We faced a lot of adversity in our travels to Ruston," coach Kevin Baker said. "We handled that well and beat a very good La. Tech team. This is a difficult place to play and win but we were able to pull it off. We had a couple of great individual games from Jazion and Adhel. But make no mistake about it, this was a huge team win."
UTEP made 7-of-22 3-point shots and had 10 steals to Louisiana Tech's three.
It all added up to a nice afternoon for the Miners.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP women pull away late to top Louisiana Tech in C-USA opener
