Dominic Artis’ near triple-double fuels UTEP’s 88-54 rout of Louisiana College

Dominic Artis flirted with a near triple-double, Terry Winn was dominant with 15 points, and eight rebounds, while Omega Harris scored a game high 24 points to fuel an opening season rout of Louisiana College.

UTEP shot percent 54.8 percent from the field in the game, dominated the glass with a 52-29 advantage, and looked sharp in a crisp run before the competition thickens next week.

Things were close early as the lead change hands seven times in the first 12 minutes, but the Miners opened things up with a late first half run fueled by some forced turnovers, and easy baskets.

UTEP would score six straight from inside the paint to break up a 24-24 draw, the third bucket was an alley-oop from a driving Dominic Artis who went up top to Terry Winn who was crashing the baseline for the easy two-hand slam.

The run would stretch to 12-2 after Artis threw it inside to Matt Willms who got free for an easy two-handed slam, then Harris got an open floor layup after an Artis steal as UTEP led 36-26 with 3:28 left until halftime.

UTEP closed the half on a 21-5 run in the final 6:43 to take a 45-29 lead into the halftime break. Harris scored 16 first half points on 7-of-9 shooting including four easy layups.

The Miners came out swinging in the second half to stretch the lead for good.

A Winn tip in followed by a wide open layup by Artis off an assists from Paul Thomas, then a Trey Touchet 3-pointer capped off a 7-3 UTEP spurt as the Miners jumped ahead 54-34 at the 17:34 mark of the second half.

UTEP outscored the Wildcats 18-5 in the first six minutes of the second half as the Miner coasted the rest of the way for the season opening win.

Artis totaled eight points, nine rebounds, 13 assists, and four steals to complete his stat line. Paul Thomas grabbed 11 rebounds, and Trey Touchet and Matt Willms each scored nine points.

Deon Barrett had a great floor game off the bench adding six points, and six assists in four minutes with just one turnover.

UTEP was an efficient 8-of-15 from 3-point land, and shot 12-for-18 at the charity stripe. They also handed out 29 assists on their 34 field goals, but turnover it over 22 times despite the great ball movement.

The Miners improve to 51-5 all-time in season openers, and will face Wake Forest in the opening round of the Charleston Classic next Thursday.