Through the earliest parts of the season, the UTEP women's basketball team's strategy has been to dig a big hole with bad free-throw shooting and worse offense, then claw out with grit and a sense of the moment.
As a 69-65 loss to rival New Mexico State on Saturday showed, that's not the most sustainable road to success. It's a particular problem against a veteran opponent that has honed its sense of the moment in runs to the NCAA tournament, and in the final three minutes when UTEP was on the verge of finishing off a big comeback, the Aggies were the team that made all the plays.