November 13, 2007
Stefon Jackson scored 27 points to lead Texas-El Paso to a 77-62 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-off on Tuesday night.
Randy Culpepper added 17, including five 3-pointers, for the Miners (2-0). He also had four assists and three steals.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (0-2) cut the lead to 50-47 on a 3-pointer by Chris Daniels midway through the second half but would get no closer. UTEP went on a 9-3 run over the next 2 1/2 minutes, capped by a 3 by Jackson that made it 59-50.
The Miners scored seven straight points late in the half to push their lead to 73-55 with about two minutes remaining.
The game was tied at 24-all with 2:49 left in the first half before UTEP scored six straight points, half of them coming from Julyan Stone, to lead 30-24 at the break.
The Islanders were led by Daniels, who had 30 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Kevin Perkins and Tim Green added eight each.
Postgame Quotes
UTEP HEAD COACH TONY BARBEE: "I thought it was a good win for us tonight. They (Texas A&M Corpus Christi) are a very good, well coached team. We are a very different team from last year, I think we are much more resilient. All our guys are committed to one thing, and that's winning."
"We guarded well in the first half. I thought we could get some pressure on them and we did, forcing 26 turnovers."
"Our guys have been very good about accepting their roles, no matter how small they might be. Everyone is very committed to the big picture."
A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI COACH PERRY CLARK: "UTEP did a good job of staying focused for the whole game. Their pressure distracted us, made us loose focus and caused us to turn over the ball. I think that is just the difference between a young team and a mature team. We have a lot of freshman, and you put pressure on freshman, and tonight it was almost to the point were we were more concerned with getting the ball up the floor than running our offense."