By Jeff Walker | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

UTEP 96, Texas Tech 78

Pat Knight was asked on Dec. 3 if a 10-day layoff was good for a team that won seven of its first eight games.

Texas Tech's Mike Singletary, right, grabs a rebound in front of UTEP's Claude Britten during UTEP's win on Wednesday in El Paso.

Knight said he’d have to wait to see how the team responded.

Two games and two road losses later, Knight said he thinks the time off might have hurt the Red Raiders.

“There’s something wrong,” Knight said following Wednesday’s 96-78 loss at Texas-El Paso. “This is not the same team that won seven games before the break.”

Knight went on to say that he didn’t want to make excuses, but the losses of Nick Okorie and Michael Prince clearly have had an impact on the team.

“We lost two huge energy guys that actually did some things on defense,” Knight said. “We just have not been the same without Okorie and Prince. They haven’t been able to practice, they’re not around the team, they didn’t travel on this trip and we’re just dead in the water right now from a defensive standpoint.”

Prince injured his foot in Tech’s last game before the break, a 72-69 victory over Wichita State. He sustained the injury during the game, but managed to play after receiving treatment on the sidelines from trainer Jon Murray.

Murray said the team is trying different ways to get Prince healed quickly, but his return is uncertain.

Okorie sprained his ankle in practice the day after the Wichita State game. Murray said Okorie has rehabilitated the ankle in the swimming pool, but has yet to test it on land. His return also is uncertain.

The lack of energy was evident even prior to the game at UTEP.

Mike Singletary, who at times has been more mature than his sophomore status as a vocal leader, didn’t say much during pre-game warmups. He’s usually the one leading the vocal charge, but Knight said the problem wasn’t limited to one person.

“He got killed,” Knight said. “The whole game, right from the get-go, guys weren’t running back on defense. You can sprint, it’s easy to sprint back. (UTEP) got us down and you can’t recover from that.”

The Red Raiders fell behind early but managed to close the deficit to two points, 27-25.

Tech then committed five turnovers in the final five minutes as the Miners opened up a 43-34 halftime lead.

“We make dumb plays, we cut it to within two and then a guy just throws the ball away and give them a layup,” Knight said. “The second half, they just jumped on us early and that was it. … Guys say the right stuff, but they don’t do it physically.”

By the 11:58 mark of the second half, UTEP had opened up its lead to 65-52. The next six minutes epitomized the Red Raiders the last two games – Tech scored 16 points in the six-minute span, almost equalling what it had to that point in the second half. The Red Raiders allowed 26 points in that span, however, and the Miners led 91-68 with 5:11 to play.

“It’s one thing if they’ve shown they couldn’t do it, but we’ve had good halves of defense,” Knight said. “We’ve even had games where we’ve played good defense, but these last two games, this has been a totally different team than before the break.”

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TEXAS TECH 78

FG FT REB

Min. M-A M-A O T PF A TP

Craig 8 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 1 0

Graham 14 2-4 0-0 1 2 1 0 4

Ray 6 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 0 2

Roberts 26 3-4 1-2 1 2 3 0 7

Dunn 4 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 0

Lewandowski 11 3-3 1-4 2 5 3 1 7

Voskuil 34 1-10 1-2 1 5 2 2 3

Roberson 32 10-18 9-9 1 4 4 9 33

Cook 6 2-2 0-0 0 0 3 0 4

Cohadarevic 8 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0

Singletary 20 1-3 6-9 0 4 2 2 8

Suljagic 31 4-7 2-2 0 8 2 1 10

0 2 Totals 200 27-55 20-28 6 32 24 17 78

UTEP 96

FG FT REB

Min. M-A M-A O T PF A TP

Moultrie 23 6-7 3-5 3 5 3 1 15

Cooper 9 1-2 0-0 0 3 4 1 2

Culpepper 30 8-18 8-10 0 2 2 2 27

Stone 36 1-1 0-0 1 7 2 11 3

Jackson 31 8-16 10-12 3 7 3 2 28

Jones 13 4-6 0-2 0 1 0 2 9

Ffrench 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0

Portalatin 15 1-2 0-0 1 2 3 0 2

Gordon 8 0-3 0-0 0 0 1 2 0

McCulley 20 3-8 1-1 2 7 1 2 8

Munoz 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0

Britten 12 1-1 0-0 1 1 3 0 2

0 0 Totals 200 33-64 22-30 11 35 22 23 96

Records: Texas Tech 7-3, UTEP 5-4. Shooting percentages: UTEP 51.6% FG, 34.8% 3-pt. FG, 73.3% FT; Texas Tech 49.1% FG, 25% 3-pt. FG, 71.4% FT. 3-point goals: UTEP 8-23 (Moultrie 0-1, Culpepper 3-8, Stone 1-1, Jackson 2-4, Jones 1-2, Gordon 0-3, McCulley 1-4); Texas Tech 4-16 (Dunn 0-1, Voskuil 0-6, Roberson 4-8, Cohadarevic 0-1). Steals: UTEP 9 (Culpepper 2, Stone 2, Jones 2, Moultrie, Jackson, McCulley); Texas Tech 4 (Craig, Roberts, Voskuil, Roberson). Blocked shots: UTEP 4 (Britten 3, Portalatin). Turnovers: UTEP 14, Texas Tech 18. Total fouls: UTEP 22, Texas Tech 24. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None. Officials: David Hall, Rick Hartzell, Terry Moore. Attendance: 8,812.

Texas Tech 34 44 – 78

UTEP 43 53 – 96