The UTEP women's basketball team needs to find a way to win in the final minutes. Bret Bloomquist/El Paso Times
Throughout his team's eight-game losing streak, UTEP women's basketball coach Kevin Baker insisted he had a good team, that his Miners just needed a break and a shot of confidence to reverse the course.
Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas against Western Illinois, the party line became a party.
In a 84-72 victory that was its first in more than a month, UTEP shot the ball about as well as it can, crushed the Leathernecks on the boards, defended solidly and the player who should be their best player, Zuzanna Puc, was in fact their best player with 24 points and 11 rebounds.