UTEP Women's Basketball: Miners hold off ODU, clinch share of C-USA regular season title

It was a physical slug fest of a ball game, but UTEP was able to deliver the final blows from three throw line to hold off ODU 70-64.

The win locked up a number one seed in the C-USA Tournament and a share of the C-USA regular season title.

Cameasha Turner scored 18 points, and added eight rebounds, Starr Breedlove added 16 points to help UTEP improve to 24-2 overall, and 15-1 in Conference USA.

Scoring and free flow offense weren't easy for either side as UTEP shot 37.1 percent from the field, while ODU was held to 34.5 percent shooting in the game.  Both teams employed multiple tough defensive looks that were difficult to figure out throughout the contest.

The Lady Monarchs out rebounded UTEP 46-39 and cashed in on 20 second chance points in the ball game, but turned it over 19 times, and went 1-of-7 from behind the three point arch.

The Miners would only turn it over just once in the first half, and turned an early 4-4 tussle into a 20-11 lead after the first quarter.

ODU would hang around in the first half via a 27-19 rebounding margin, but UTEP led 35-25 at halftime thanks to nine points off nine ODU turnovers in the first half.

Sparkle Taylor shot 5-of-9 from the field in the first half, scoring all of her 14 points in the opening twenty minutes.

UTEP continued the strong play into the second half, using a two minute ODU scoring drought to hold a 45-33 lead after back-to-back buckets by Tamara Seda at the 3:05 mark of the third quarter.

Then ODU would go on a 9-1 run to trim the UTEP lead to 49-44 with 12 seconds left, but Jenzel Nash would race down the court for a layup, and-one with four seconds left to push UTEP back in front 52-44 at the end of the third quarter.

Seda would put UTEP ahead 61-50 with 6:08 left via another deuce, but ODU chipped away and made things interesting down the stretch.

ODU would out score UTEP 10-4 over the next four minutes, with a pair of free throws from Destinee Young cutting UTEP's lead to just one possession at 65-62 with 48 seconds left.

Breedlove would go 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final 22 seconds to close out the win as ODU came up empty on their last two possessions.

Seda was huge off the bench scoring nine points, and hauling in eight rebounds, also matching ODU's size and physicality. Despite a 2-of-18 shooting mark from three point land, UTEP took care of the ball, and went 8-of-12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to stave off the Monarchs.

UTEP will have a shot at cutting down the nets to celebrate an outright C-USA regular season title on Saturday with win over Charlotte at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time.