Texas-El Paso used superior quickness to eliminate the University of Richmond Spiders 81-69 tonight in the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.
UR coach Chris Mooney wasn't around for the ending at the Robins Center. He drew a pair of technical fouls. Mooney picked up his first technical late in the first half. The second meant ejection with 4:44 left in the game and UTEP ahead by seven.
In Mooney's absence, associate head coach Kevin McGeehan directed the Spiders.
The UTEP Miners (22-12) of Conference USA, move on to the best-of-three CBI championship series against Oregon State (16-17), 65-62 winner over Stanford last night in the other semifinal.
UR closes at 20-16, a fairly successful season given the knee injury suffered by Dan Geriot. During the 2007-08 season, the 6-9 center led the Spiders in scoring and rebounding, but during a summer-league game in Philadelphia he was hurt and missed this season.
Tonight, Richmond never led. UTEP guards Stefon Jackson (34 points) and Randy Culpepper (19) consistently got through UR's defense with quickness. The Spiders cut the UTEP lead to 58-56 with 8:00 left, but the Miners went to a zone defense that slowed Richmond. UTEP pulled away.
Sophomore guard Kevin Anderson, a quick six-footer who's most effective as a driver, regularly reached the 20-point plateau in the past few weeks for the Spiders, but came up short tonight, scoring 10 against the Miners.
UTEP muffled Anderson with the 6-0 Culpepper -- every bit as quick as Anderson -- and a helping defense that concentrated on cutting off Anderson's penetration.
Anderson's running mate at guard, David Gonzalvez, led Richmond with 24 points.
Richmond scored consistently during the first half, but failed to control UTEP. The Miners featured senior wing Stefon Jackson, the leading scorer in the history of Conference USA and Division I's fifth-leading scorer (24.3 ppg). He gave UR fits out of UTEP's spread offense that jabbed, jabbed, jabbed with dribble-drive penetration, scoring 18 first-half points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Jackson, 6-5 and quick, provided match-up problems for the Spiders, who also struggled to deal with UTEP's defensive quickness. Ten first-half turnovers by UR led to a 42-33 UTEP lead at the break, and UR coach Chris Mooney,s first-half technical compounded Richmond's problems.
The Spiders were not quick enough to stay in front of UTEP's dribblers. Though they played in El Paso, Texas, Monday night and spent Tuesday on the road getting here, the Miners didn't appear fatigued. In fact, they routinely beat the Spiders to loose balls and rebounds.
The Spiders eliminated St. John's and the College of Charleston on the way to this meeting with the fourth-place finisher in Conference USA. The Miners knocked out Nevada and Northeastern. UTEP and UR had not met previously in basketball.
UTEP is a program to watch next season. The Miners lose Jackson, but they started two sophomores and two freshmen with him.
Contact John O'Connor at joconnor@timesdispatch.com
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement