Southeastern Drops Exhibition at UTEP

Box Score EL PASO, Texas – Southeastern put three players in double-figures for the game and trailed by seven at halftime, but a late second-half push would propel Texas-El Paso to a 91-63 win over the Savage Storm on Saturday night in El Paso, Texas.
 
The loss is the second in-a-row in SE's exhibition season, but the Storm will have a final chance to recover before beginning the season proper when it faces North Texas at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 in Denton, Texas.
 
Urald King turned in another double-double, this time with 13 points and 12 rebounds to pace SE in both categories.
 
Quinton Threadgill matched King's 13 points, while Taylor Smaller added 11 in the effort.  Darius Harris added nine while playing just 11 minutes.
 
The Storm shot 32.1 percent from the field in the first half and remained with three possessions of the Miners in spite of that effort, while the second half would improve to 44 percent, but they would finish at 37.7 percent for the contests overall.
 
Kings 12 boards led all rebounders in the game, while Trevor Jackson was the nest best rebounder for the Storm at seven.
 
UTEP held the advantage in the specialty stats across the board, outscoring SE 48-26 in the paint, 34-6 off turnovers, 22-10 on second chance and 17-2 In transition.
 
Southeastern committed 22 turnovers, 13 of which were turned into Miner steals, while the SE defense forced just 12 turnovers and only three were steals.
 
UTEP shot 50.8 percent for the contest, clearing the 50 percent mark in each half.
 
The contest got off to a relatively slow start with the Storm forcing three early ties before taking a lead on a pair of Randy Peters free throws that made the score 17-15 with 8:16 to play in the first half.
 
UTEP would regain the lead, but the Storm would tie the game two more times, the last coming on an Anton Cook three with 3:36 left that made the score 30-30.  UTEP, however, would score the final seven points of the half to take a 37-30 lead into the locker room.

The Miners pushed their lead out to double-digits early in the second half, but the Storm would chip away, getting the score as close as seven points, the last time coming when Smaller hit a three with 10:30 to play that made the score 57-50.
 
UTEP's offense would explode over the final 10 minutes, outscoring SE 34-6 over that span to pull away to the 91-63 final score.