If UTEP had a magic wand, the Miners would wave it and erase seven minutes ... seven minutes of Saturday basketball disaster.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham ran away from the Miners in the final two minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half and then held off a late UTEP rally to take an 87-80 Conference USA win Saturday afternoon in Birmingham.
The Blazers won their 19th straight home game, their 10th straight game of the season and their third straight C-USA game, improving to 13-3 on the season, 3-0 in league play.