The UTEP women's basketball team defended well enough to give itself a chance against two-time defending Conference USA champions Rice Saturday afternoon.
The Miners' offense didn't provide enough to cash that in.
A day after scoring 68 points in a competitive loss, UTEP couldn't duplicate that in a 55-43 loss to the Owls that dropped the Miners to 2-2 in C-USA and 5-4 overall. Rice improved to 8-1, 4-0.
How it went
UTEP was within 26-24 nearing the midpoint of the third quarter, but Rice heated up first as it eased away on an 11-3 run.