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Florida Atlantic's red hot three point shooting spurted an 15-5 run early in the first half, that dusted UTEP 98-62 in Boca Raton Wednesday evening.
The huge FAU run was answered after a bucket from UTEP's Chrishauna Parker brought the Miners within one at 15-14 at the 14:23 mark, UTEP had fought back with a run of their own from being down 12-5.
Latavia Dempsy got the game killing run going with a triple following Parker's bucket, that would lead FAU to cash in on five three pointers which fueled the entire run, capped of by Takia Brooks sinking the final dagger in the run, putting FAU up 30-19 at the half way point of the first.
FAU's lead would swell to 35-21 thanks to another trifecta, this time Kimberly Smith rained one home, the lead was 49-32 at the halftime break with Kayla Thornton sitting five states away from her team.
The closest the Miners would sniff was 15 when Kelli Willingham gave the Miners a deuce early the second half, though UTEP gave up 16 offensive boards, and the basketball gods were very, very nice to the Owls on Senior night.
Huge credit, and respect to the Owls who broke a C-USA single game record with 20 three pointers on the night, they have also scored more than 80 points 15 times on the season with over 700 attempts from deep, and despite a 6-10 conference record, I would not want to see them in the tourney.
Leading the onslaught was Takia Brooks who poured in 24 points, she nailed five treys, also adding 10 rebounds,.
Depmsey made six three pointers, and finished with 24 points as well. Smith was 6 out of 14 from deep, adding in 19 points to the cause, FAU's largest margin was the final score.
In total, the Owls were 20/47 from deep, and 34/80 from field on the night, with an amazing 17/2 assist to turnover ratio, out rebounding the Miners in the process 50-44.
Kristine Vitola, and Willingham lead UTEP with 11 points each, Stacie Telles added 10 points, and 5 rebounds with a couple of three pointers, though the Miners shot 36.1 percent from field, going scoreless the last 3:46 of the game.
UTEP finishes the regular season 23-6 overall, and 12-4 in C-USA play, placing UTEP third in the upcoming C-USA tournament.
The loss certainly hurts the Miners chance at an large bid to the big dance, though we all know the C-USA tournament crown it going the be hard for any team not named UTEP, men or women, in the west Texas town of El Paso.