UTEP men’s basketball (6-3, 0-0 Conference USA) traveled to Chicago, Ill. to take on Big East affiliate DePaul University (6-4, 0-1 Big East) Saturday, Dec. 10. The Miners lost to DePaul with a final score of 91-70.  

UTEP scored the first four points of the game as DePaul later went on a five-straight run to lead the Miners by one. UTEP won the lead back with a three-point shot from junior forward Jon Dos Anjos. The Miners went on a seven-straight run which gave the team an early double-digit advantage over DePaul, 16-6 with 13:17 in the first half.  

The Miners had an edge over DePaul in the first half leading by 11, DePaul answered back with a run of its own to cut the lead down to two with 8:58 in the first half. UTEP prevailed and scored seven consecutive points to get the lead back. Before the half, DePaul came back by going on a 30-13 run over the Miners. DePaul led UTEP 39-33 at halftime.  

DePaul got off to a strong start in the beginning of the second half with an 18-point lead over UTEP. After two timeouts, the Miners reduced the deficit to 13 with a three-pointer by junior guard Tae Hardy and a steal for a score from senior guard Shamar Givance. UTEP was able to cut the deficit to 11, but DePaul went on a nine straight run that brought the deficit back up to 20 with 11:05 left in the game. The Miners continued to put up the fight but were unable to make a comeback.  

The final score was 91-70. 

UTEP was able to connect 48.1 percent from the floor and finished 14-27 from the three-point line. The Miners had two players hit double-digits as Hardy recorded 16 points and junior guard Mario McKinney Jr. recorded 12 points. Anjos recorded seven points and Givance six points and a game-high of five assists. Sophomore guard Kevin Kalu and junior forward Calvin Soloman each registered eight points for the Miners. 

Leading the scoring for DePaul was former North Texas and Oklahoma graduate student guard Umoja Gibson with 22 points and graduate student forward Javan Johnson with 23 points. 

UTEP Head Coach Joe Golding explains that the Miners were able to turn DePaul over eight times in the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes of the game. DePaul outscored UTEP by 14 from the three-point line. 

“It wasn’t a good night, we’ve got some things we’ve got to figure out,” Golding said. “Obviously, were struggling on the road. Something just isn’t right. We’ve got to keep grinding and keep working, we’ve got a good team. We’re gonna keep learning the lesson until we get it figured out.” 

The Miners will kick off conference play against Louisiana Tech University at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17 at the Don Haskins Center 

Katrina Villarreal is a staff reporter and may be reached at [email protected]