MTSU men’s basketball (14-14,  8-9 CUSA) strung together back-to-back wins for the first time since the start of Conference USA play with a 77-67 win over the University of Texas at El Paso (10-18, 6-11 CUSA).  

The win did not help much in the full CUSA standings as Middle Tennessee only moved up one spot to seventh place with just over a week left in the regular season.  

The Blue Raiders scored at all three levels of the court with three players in double digits. Paired with capitalizing on UTEP’s foul troubles, MTSU led for 38 minutes.  

The Miners’ Jamal West Jr. and KJ Thomas fouled out of the game, along with UTEP committing an intentional and technical foul.  

That situation opened the floor for UTEP’s shooters, Kaseem Watson and Elijah Jones, who could play more freely, causing problems for MTSU late, head coach Nick McDevitt said.  

“It puts guys like Chris Loof and Luka [Jovanovic]…where they guarding shooters coming off flare screens and pin downs, and they’re used to guarding somebody coming off a cross screen for a post up,” McDevitt said.  

UTEP closed the gap in the second half from down 24 points to eight with under four minutes to play before the Blue Raiders went on a 6-0 run to finish the game.  

The Miners used the deep ball to cut the lead with four three-pointers in a row along with two trips to the free throw line mixed in.  

“It’s hard to catch back up and having to make a whole bunch of twos,” McDevitt said. “And they were there for a long stretch, they were just banging in threes. We didn’t get stops.” 

The Blue Raiders switched to a zone defense, and the Miners found a corner shot opportunity that MTSU fouled on.  

The first half saw MTSU play solid defense , holding UTEP to 26 points on only 10 made baskets.  

“We’ve been scoring the ball well and transition everything, but the main key we’ve been focusing on is different defense,” guard Alec Oglesby said. “I think when we play defense at high level, it’ll give us a chance to win.” 

Kamari Lands led Middle Tennessee with 22 points, along with Torey Alston and Oglesby in double digits.  

Alston scored all 15 points in the paint or at the free throw line, while Oglesby was the complete opposite, scoring 12-of-17 points from behind the arc.  

The home matchup was a 180 from the teams’ meeting in El Paso, Texas, earlier in the year. UTEP won 83-80 in overtime, handing Middle Tennessee its first conference loss of the year.  

MTSU plays its final home game of the regular season against New Mexico State University (13-14, 6-0 CUSA) on Saturday with tip off at 12 p.m. CDT.