With a chance to move into first place in Conference USA Thursday night, UTEP went through a highly frustrating evening at Louisiana Tech. The Miners saw their best player, Vince Hunter, get into first-half foul trouble and that contributed to their 77-60 loss to the Bulldogs.
Hunter picked up two fouls before the first media timeout, and he committed his third foul with 5:08 remaining in the first half. Cedrick Lang scored 18 points and grabbed ten rebounds to lead the way for UTEP. Also of note from the game was the fact that UTEP head coach Tim Floyd was ejected from the game with 10:05 remaining.
In the eyes of Conference USA Floyd failed to leave the court in a timely manner, and on Friday the conference announced that it has suspended Floyd for one game.
As a result of the suspension Floyd will miss UTEP’s game at Southern Miss on Saturday. UTEP (11-4 Conference USA), which had won seven straight games prior to Thursday’s defeat, is tied for second in C-USA with UAB and trails Louisiana Tech (13-3) by a game in the loss column.