UTEP dominates Southern Miss 73-44

In their most complete game of the season, UTEP led and dominated from wire-to-wire, drubbing Southern Miss 73-44 Saturday night in the Don.

Evan Gilyard was stellar scoring 22 points, and going a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. In his final home game as a Miner, Omega Harris chipped in 18 points, four rebounds, and three assists.

UTEP moved the ball very well early on, building an early 16-8 lead while Southern Miss started 3-for-14 from the field.

The Miners made seven of their first 12 from the field, but went into a five minute scoring drought, as the Golden Eagles also went on an almost four minute scoring drought with UTEP leading 16-10 with 7:20 left until halftime.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Kobe Magee, and Isiah Osborne, then an Evan Gilyard fast break layup pushed UTEP ahead 25-12 with 3:35 left during a 9-2 UTEP run.

Gilyard scored 14 first half points and UTEP finished the half on a 22-5 run in the final seven minutes of the half to take a 38-15 halftime edge.

Southern Miss went an ice cold 5-for-31 from the field in the opening half, and the Miners continued to pour it on in the second half.

Jake Flaggert knocked down a corner three-pointer at the 11:56 mark of the second half giving UTEP their largest lead 54-28 to that point.

UTEP led by as much as 29 points in the final two minutes, and finished the game shooting 46.2 percent from the floor. UTEP went 9-for-26 from long distance and 16-for-19 from the free throw line.

Matt Willms added eight points, and eight rebounds, while Osborne scored 15 points.

Southern Miss ended the night shooting 29.6 percent from the field, and were out rebounded 40-30.

UTEP improves to 5-11 overall giving them a two game lead on Rice for the 12th and final seed in the C-USA Tournament.