Feb. 15, 2003

Box Score

El Paso, Texas - UTEP's Kia Dowell scored a game-high 30 points and Dragana Zoric added 20 points and a game-best 15 rebounds to lead the Miners to an 86-60 victory over Tulsa at the Don Haskins Center.

Tulsa (12-11, 7-5 WAC) suffered its third straight loss and fifth consecutive defeat on the road and suffered its worse Western Athletic Conference loss since a 77-46 loss to 8th-ranked Louisiana Tech on Jan. 24, 2002. TU senior Allison Curtin led the Hurricane with 21 points, while sophomore Alison Carney grabbed a team-best nine rebounds. Senior Alyssa Shriver chipped in 16 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots, while freshman Kara Pongonis added 15 points.

UTEP (10-13, 5-8) captured its first win over Tulsa since the 1996-97 campaign and snapped a seven-game skid against TU. Romie DeAnda was the third Miner to reach double figures with 17 points. The Miners out rebounded the Golden Hurricane, 49-38, and out shot TU, 47.9 percent to 32.4 percent.

Tulsa began the game with a 7-0 run and held UTEP scoreless for the first 4:49. Dowell then came off the bench and nailed a lay-up to spark a 17-7 Miner run. TU tied the game at 19-19 and against 21-21, but a Zoric lay-up gave the Miners a two-point advantage and the lead for good. UTEP closed out the contest on a 17-7 run and led 38-28 at intermission.

Aside from a poor first half for Tulsa, the Hurricane lost both junior Kayla Elliott and sophomore LeAnn Upshaw to unspecified injuries in the opening period. Neither player returned for the second period.

A three-pointer by Pongonis pulled TU to within three-points at the 19:03 mark, but UTEP answered with a trey of its own and the Hurricane managed to cut the deficit to nine points on four different occasions, but never got any closer.