A school that was in the Western Athletic Conference when UTEP made consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, Louisiana Tech in Conference USA has made for a fun and competitive renewed series.

Saturday night was one of those contests; after building a 7-point lead with over three minutes to play, the Miners went scoreless through the next 3:19 as Louisiana Tech scored 10 -- giving the Bulldogs a 64-61 win at a semi-roaring Haskins Center.

Amorie Archibald fittingly scored 14, while Jean Derric followed with 13 points (5 rebounds), and DaQuan Bracey scored 12. Mubarak Muhammed had a 13-rebound presence in the paint.

UTEP had another elite night from free throw, going 20/23 (87 percent) as Bryson Williams scored 17 (5/5 free throw), Souley Boum put up 12 points (2/9 field goals). Jordan Lathon led the team with 9 rebounds.

WIth both Deon Stroud and Anthony Tarke not getting on the court, UTEP had an 11:17 assist-to-turnover ratio as Bryson Williams (38) and Daryl Edwards (35) both played over 30 minutes and combined for 6 turnovers.

After exchanging baskets for two lead changes through the first 1:27, Louisiana Tech held leads as high as 8 points in the first half (32-24) -- which grew to a game-high of 10 (38-28) as the second-half clock read 19:13.

With the Bulldogs having led for the past 19:17, a Daryl Edwards 3-pointer ignited a 20-3 sprint that put UTEP up by 7 (48-41) with 10:59 on the clock.

Louisiana Tech responded with a 9-2 run to tie the game 50-50 at 7:17, then UTEP played to a 54-52 lead -- 5:35 on the clock -- after two lead changes and another tie (52-52),

The Miners took a 9-2 run of their own through the next 2:16 -- putting them up 61-54 at 3:19 -- but finished the game scoreless while allowing 10 points.