EL PASO, Tex. – The Western Michigan women's basketball team opened the Thanksgiving Classic with a 76-46 loss versus the University of Texas at El Paso on Friday, Nov. 29 inside the Don Haskins Center.
The Broncos struggled on shooting from the field, converting a season-low 18 field goals off 64 attempts. Both teams were troubled by turnovers, the Broncos accumulating 18 and the Miners 21 total. WMU scored 14 points off UTEP turnovers and tallied 12 steals. The Miners out-rebounded Western Michigan 47-32 while shooting 49.2 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Breanna Mobley led WMU with 11 points, shooting 4-for-12 from the field with 10 rebounds, good for her fourth straight double-double.
Leighah-Amori Wool assisted for the Broncos with six rebounds and 11 points. Fellow starter
Jordan Walker tied the two with 11 points plus four rebounds.
Despite WMU drawing first with a layup from Wool, UTEP led 18-7 after a tough first quarter in which the Broncos and the Miners accumulated seven fouls and five turnovers each.
UTEP opened the second stanza on a 10-0 run to take a 30-9 lead, broken up by a layup from Mobley. The Miners led by as many as 23 in the first half while taking a 38-15 advantage into the halftime break. The Broncos closed out the half with a buzzer-beating three from
Maddie Watters, the team's first of the contest.
The Broncos doubled their second quarter total and then some in the third frame, outscoring the Miners 19-18. Walker and
Kamrin Reed came out of the gate with back-to-back threes on the way to a 6-0 run for the Brown & Gold. Assisted by seven points from Wool and six from Mobley, WMU held the Miners to their lowest scoring frame of the contest.
UTEP opened the fourth quarter on a 4-0 run. A jumper from Walker and layups from Reed and
Jillian Fletcher narrowed the gap, but the Miners responded and outscored the Broncos 14-7 as time ran out to secure the 76-46 win.
Western Michigan, now 2-3 overall, concludes competition at the Thanksgiving Classic tomorrow, Nov. 30. Tip-off against New Mexico State University is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at UTEP.
