Recap: Butler vs. Texas-El Paso
Sports Network | March 18, 2010
San Jose, CA (Sports Network) - Shelvin Mack made seven three-pointers and finished with 25 points, as fifth-seeded Butler pulled away in the second half to take a 77-59 win over UTEP in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Gordon Hayward sank 9-of-11 free throws on his way to 13 points, and Matt Howard added 11 points for the Horizon League-champion Bulldogs (29-4), who won their 21st consecutive game to extend the nation's longest winning streak.
They are in the tourney for the fourth consecutive year. Butler lost to LSU in the first round last year, but dominated the second half Thursday to take the victory and move into the second round in the West Region.
The Bulldogs will next face 13th-seeded Murray State, which upset Vanderbilt on a buzzer-beater earlier Thursday.
Derrick Caracter had 20 points and nine rebounds to pace UTEP (26-7), the regular season champion of Conference-USA, which was making its first tourney appearance since 2005.
Randy Culpepper added 16 points for the Miners, who held a 33-27 lead at halftime.
"Always tough to end your season on a loss, particularly like that," UTEP head coach Tony Barbee said. "But I'm not going to let these guys hang their heads. I told them be proud of the year they had. They've all gotten better. We had an outstanding year. Butler got hot at the right time and we went cold at the wrong time."
But Butler opened the second half with consecutive threes from Mack to pull even, and the game stayed close for the next several minutes until the Bulldogs gained some distance with a 13-0 run.
UTEP went scoreless for about six minutes as Butler made its run, which Willie Veasley ended with a layup for a 49-37 lead with under 12 minutes left. Caracter countered with a bucket, but Shawn Vanzant and Mack answered with back-to-back threes, making it a 55-39 contest with nine minutes to go.
The Miners never recovered as Butler cruised to the win.
"Coach [Brad Stevens] wrote up a great game plan for us and we kinda came out and -- I don't know if we came out and didn't follow it necessarily, but didn't execute it as well as we wanted to in the first half," Hayward said. "And then in the second half we came out with a little more energy and really executed the game plan they wrote up and it was all about guarding them."
UTEP played in front for much of the first half, and used a seven-point run to take a 17-10 advantage with a little over nine minutes left. Butler scored the next nine, but the Miners edged back in front later in the period.
A three-point play from Jeremy Williams put UTEP ahead 29-24 with two minutes to go, and Caracter's layup at the buzzer sent the Miners into the break with a six-point edge.
UTEP has lost in the first round in its last three trips to the NCAA Tournament (2004, '05)...Butler finished 13-of-31 from beyond the arc overall...UTEP was 4-of-18 from three-point range...Julyan Stone had eight points, seven assists and five boards for UTEP...Veasley ended with eight points and nine rebounds...Butler improved to 9-9 all-time in the tourney, while UTEP fell to 14-16.
