"We made it back from New Mexico. Two major observations.
One: the players from Idaho State are -- well, not that I'm saying that I'm gay, I just want to make that clear -- they're pretty. I thought we were playing a bunch of cheerleaders. It was a very whitebread team, everybody had long straight hair and looked fantastic. We looked like a bunch of bums next to these girls. They were fine. They even smelled good.
I'll get to the other observation later. We didn't have LaToya (Thomas) and Letell (Hanson), so we started the sisters, Brianna and Anna Neal. We got off to a slow start. I wasn't hitting anything, and Idaho State led 10-5 at one time. We caught up to them, and after we went up 14-12, we went on an 11-2 run to lead 25-14.
So we thought we had the game in hand, but they came back to within three points, 29-26. I was sitting on the bench with two fouls. We managed to take a nine point lead into halftime, 43-34.
We couldn't knock them out, though. We were up 56-44, and then Idaho State went on an 8-0 run. They got to within 56-52 and I was really wondering if we were going to blow this game.
It didn't happen. We were ahead 67-55, and Antonina Martynau hit a 3-pointer. Then I hit a 3-pointer, we were up 73-55, and it was smooth sailing. I think that pair of back-to-back threes snapped the back of Idaho State.
That leads to my second observation. I don't like not scoring. I just figured it out. I'm selfish. I would rather have the ball than not have it. Sitting on the bench when I get into foul trouble just kills me. I fouled out - again - so I'll hear it from Coach Ballard, who didn't seem too happy about our win and really took the joy out of our celebration.
I think that everyone knows about me, because I can tell by the way they defend me that they know my weaknesses. Okay...make that three observations...."
-- Brenda Dean
UTEP finally gets its 10th win as the last non-conference game of the regular season ends. After this, it's all CUSA teams, and then the CUSA tournament, and then (hopefully) a spot in one of the two postseason tournaments.
Yes, Idaho State had two players foul out, but only in the final part of the game. The Bengals lack of depth didn't seem to hurt them very much. As for the Miners, the points and rebounds were spread around quite nicely. Five players scored in double digits, and three players rebounded in double digits. Williamette Moss and Marta Jaworowski each had double-doubles.
A big help for Texas-El Paso was the fact that they only had four personal fouls in the last half. Then again, UTEP won by 26 points, so maybe even if UTEP had fouled 14 times they would have still won the game.
Here are the poll results, if polling were completed after this game:
AP Poll RPI: 52
Coaches Poll RPI: 41
UTEP's next game is a home game against Tulane. I have Tulane as 8-4; their real-life record was 8-5. Hopefully, a win over Tulane might get UTEP closer to a Top 25 spot, at least in the Coaches Poll.
The great thing about playing the conference part of the schedule: no longer will opposing schools need to be adjusted by strength of conference.
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