The UTEP men's basketball team's pivotal 67-63 loss to New Mexico State looked like so many of their road heartbreakers this year.
The Miners dug a hole with a long dry spell, fought their way back, but ultimately saw their opponent, in this case their arch-rival Aggies they are fighting with to make the Conference USA tournament, make the key shots.
That last part was a reversal of UTEP's overtime win in the Don Haskins Center two weeks ago, but was par for the course on a CUSA road that has mostly been unkind to the Miners, and most other teams in the league for that matter.
After the game ended the teams had a shoving match at midcourt, security was called, but both teams were cleared with no apparent punches thrown.
With the result, both teams went to 6-10 in league play and are now in a three-way tie with Florida International for the final two tournament spots with four games to play.
NMSU built its lead in the last 11 minutes of the first half when it turned a five-point deficit into a 35-25 halftime lead, a stretch where the Miners closed the half on a 3-of-14 shooting slump, then clung to it the rest of the way.
UTEP got within 46-44 midway through the second half, but from there the Aggies hit big shot after big shot. At the center of that was guard Jemel Jones (21 points), who hit a 3 down the stretch but also was one of several NMSU players to hit tough, contested shots off the dribble in and around the lane.
The Miners' defense down the stretch seemed solid, but New Mexico State's offense was better.
After a Kaseem Watson 3 drew the Miners within 59-56 with 3:19 left, Anthony Wrzeszcz somehow powered in a layup over two Miners to push the lead to five, then Jamal West missed a pair of free throws (he was 6-of-6 from the line before that and finished with 22 points).
On the other end NMSU's Augustine Ekwe made a contested layup and the Aggies were back up 63-56.
Caleb Blackwell then got the Miners back in it with a 3 with 1:29 to play (he finished with 18 points) and UTEP managed a stop before getting two more West free throws to pull within 63-61 with 51 seconds to play.
Not surprisingly Jones stuck his nose back in and made a 15-footer with 24.6 seconds remaining to restore the lead. Blackwell answered with 15 seconds left, but the Aggies got Jones back to the free-throw line for a one-and-one and he saw it home.
Aggies up 10 at half
New Mexico State used an 11-3 advantage in second-chance points, part of a 24-17 rebounding edge, to take a 35-25 lead into the intermission.
UTEP got off to a good start before going cold, as their 17-12 lead at the midpoint of the half gave way to a 23-7 NMSU charge in the rest of the half.
After starting 7-15 from the field, UTEP was 3-of-14 the rest of the way as it hit one of those offensive slumps that has plagued it this season.
Caleb Blackwell scored UTEP's first eight points in the first 3:08 and led the Miners to intermission with 11 points.
Up next
The UTEP and New Mexico State men's basketball teams go on their Middle Tennessee-Western Kentucky road trip this coming week. The Miners are at Middle Tennessee Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. MT tip that will be streamed on ESPN+ and carried on 600 ESPN El Paso.
NMSU is at Western Kentucky Thursday, also for a 5:30 p.m. MT tip, that will be streamed on ESPN+ and carried on Radio: 99.5 FM KXPZ.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP Miners men's basketball can't find way past New Mexico State