Since absolutely no one was on the edge of the seat during the Runnin' Utes drubbing of San Diego State, the Miners of Texas-El Paso and the Colorado State Rams spiced up the evening with a little suspense, battling down to the final seconds for the honor of being Utah's next foe.
With 31.2 seconds remaining, the Rams, trailing 67-65, had a chance to either tie or gain the lead before the opportunity slipped through their hands . . . actually the hands of CSU forward Aaron Atkinson, who mishandled a pass from guard Ryan Yoder. UTEP took possession, polishing the Rams off with clutch free throw shooting for a 70-65 victory.The Miners will now face the Utes Friday night at the Delta Center for a 9 o'clock tilt, but getting there wasn't easy.
"Earlier this week, somebody told me they won't go away, and they wouldn't go away," UTEP coach Don Haskins said of Colorado State's tenacious effort. The Rams erased an eight-point UTEP lead toward the end of the first half, and then came back to tie from five down on three separate occasions in the second half.
The play that misfired for CSU was a play coach Stew Morril calls the rover, and it almost worked. The pass-that-almost-was found Atkinson all alone on the base line with a clear lane to the hoop. "We see if we can penetrate behind the zone, and we did, but then we threw the ball away," Morril said.
The "Big Man" for the Miners was 5'8" senior point guard Eddie Rivera, who scored 21 points and dished off five assists; junior forward Ralph Davis also had a good effort with 16 points and six boards. Senior center Doug Larson led all Rams with 15 points.
As for beating Utah, Haskins knows he'll need a strong effort from his team. "I've said all year long that if (Utah) was playing back east, they would've been in the Top 10 all year . . . when we beat them we played one of our better games all year; they came out a little flat against us because they knew they already had the number one seed.
"For us to win, we'll have to play better than we did tonight, and I don't think we played all that badly."