North Texas Outlasts UTEP In OT, 80-72

[Jonnyeagle]

EL PASO, Texas – Tae Hardy (18 points, six rebounds), Shamar Givance (16 points, two steals), Ze'Rik Onyema (14 points, four boards) and Calvin Solomon (12 points, four assists, three rebounds) all had quality nights and UTEP nailed a season-high 78.3 percent (25-32) at the charity stripe, but second-place North Texas held off the Miners in overtime, 80-72.
 
It was a wild game with nine ties and nine lead changes. That included the Miners (12-15, 5-11 C-USA tying the tilt with 4.7 seconds left after Solomon cleaned up Otis Frazier III's (five points, six rebounds) intentional miss on a second free throw attempt with a lay-up to send it to a UTEP regular-season record-setting fifth OT of the campaign with the contest knotted at 63.
 
The Mean Green (23-5, 14-3 C-USA) built a seven-point lead in OT (73-66, 1:29 OT). The Miners whittled it to as few as three (73-70, 55 seconds OT) before UNT staved off the rally.
 
UTEP connected on 42.3 percent from the floor and recorded 14 offensive rebounds to secure a 19-5 advantage in second-chance points. It also forced 17 turnovers that resulted in 20 points, but the visitors had a strong shooting night to survive. UNT connected on 54.2 percent (26-48), including 68.8 percent (11-16) in the second half and 83.3 percent (5-6) in OT. UTEP was 3-15 (20 percent) in the extra period.
 
The Miners led for nearly double the amount (25:43-13:02) of North Texas, including being up by 11 (48-37) with 10:20 to play before UNT rallied to regain the lead. It was back-and-forth down the stretch before Frazier III and Solomon teamed up for the wild play late in regulation.
 
North Texas was led by Tylor Perry's 20-point effort while Kai Huntsberry added 19 points.
 
"It was kind of a wild and crazy game," UTEP head coach Joe Golding said. "We had two tough teams competing that value the same things. When that happens it sometimes looks ugly, but there's a lot of beauty in that too. We're fighting for that inch, and we've been fighting for it all year.
 
"We made our run until about the eight-minute mark of the second half when they hit some big shots," Golding said. "I thought they were the more aggressive team down the stretch, and we just ran out of juice and ran out of bodies. We competed, you just have to give them (North Texas) credit."
 
Link: https://utepminers.com/news/2023/2/18/mens-basketball-north-texas-outlasts-utep-in-ot-80-72.aspx