The UTEP Miners play the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Wednesday in Frisco, Texas at the Ford Center in the opening round of the Conference-USA regular season ending tournament. UTEP won its final game of the regular season when defeating Middle Tennessee last Saturday 77-65, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Western Kentucky lost its final game of the regular season to North Texas 67-33. The Hilltoppers lost four of the last six. Mario McKinney Jr is out for UTEP, while Luke Frampton is out for Western Kentucky.
UTEP's offense averages just 68.5 points per game on 44.9% shooting overall and 29.2% shooting from three-point territory but that is due to a slowdown offense that is 191st in adjusted tempo at 67.4. UTEP's defense is holding opponents to an average of 68.4 points per game which is 130th in the nation. The Miners are allowing a field goal shooting percentage of 44.7% and a 3-point shooting percentage of 33.2%.
UTEP has just two players that average double figures in scoring with Tae Hardy leading the team with an average of 12.7 points per game but Hardy is shooting just 43.1% overall while second leading scorer Shamar Givance is averaging 10.8 points per game and shooting even less at 41.9%. Poor shooting also keeps UTEP from scoring many points as each of the top four scorers for the Miners shoots between 38.6 % and 46.0%. Calvin Solomon averages a team best 5.9 rebounds per game and Givance averages a team high 4.3 assists per game.
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