Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
UTEP
UTEP Runs By Men's Basketball 72-58
1/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2004
FRESNO, Calif. - John Tofi scored scored 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting as UTEP led from start to finish in beating Fresno State 72-58 Saturday night.
Omar Thomas added 15 points and Chris Craig had 14 for the Miners (12-3, 3-2 WAC), who won for third time in their last four games. Filiberto Rivera added eight points and eight assists.
Terry Pettis led Fresno State (9-6, 5-1) with 18 points, but he was only 4-of-16 from the field. Shantay Legans scored 11 points and Francis Koffi added 10 for the Bulldogs.
The loss snapped the Bulldogs' seven-game winning streak, the team's longest since the 1993-94 season. It also ended a string of defensive success Fresno State had been enjoying. The Bulldogs had allowed 70-plus points on only three other occasions this year, and UTEP's shooting percentage of 50.9 was the highest since Princeton hit 53.2 percent on Dec. 6.
"UTEP outplayed and out-toughed us tonight, and that was the difference," head coach Ray Lopes said. "I give them a lot of credit. [Head coach] Billy Gillespie has done a great job with that team. They played well tonight and are going to be a factor in the conference down the stretch. We just didn't have enough guys play well tonight."
The Miners started slowly but used two big runs to put the game away.
They went on an 11-4 run to take a 30-23 halftime lead, then used a 14-3 run midway through the second half to take a 62-42 lead with 5:54 left.
UTEP then hit 67 percent from the field in the second half and 51 percent for the game. Fresno State wound up shooting 40 percent.
