College Basketball Roundup : Texas El Paso Defeats San Diego State, 79-73

Texas El Paso Coach Don Haskins completed his 700th college game and his Miners stayed close to the Western Athletic Conference lead with a 79-73 victory over San Diego State Friday night at El Paso.

But Haskins said his Miners, a half-game behind Wyoming in the conference, won’t win a fifth straight WAC championship the way they played against the Aztecs.

“We won’t get it done with this type of effort,” Haskins said. “We won’t win the WAC with this kind of game and I think that catches up with you somewhere later down the line. Maybe next week at Air Force, maybe tomorrow night against Hawaii.”

Chris Blocker scored 17 points to lead UTEP, and Quintan Gates and Hernell Jackson each had 14 to help raise UTEP’s record to 19-5 overall and 9-3 in WAC play.

San Diego State, which has a 15-game losing streak, dropped to 2-21 and 0-11. Tony Ross scored 19 points for the Aztecs.

The Miners never trailed and led at the half, 41-34.

New Mexico 110, Hawaii 92--Hunter Greene scored 31 points and Kelvin Scarborough had a conference-record 21 assists as New Mexico beat Hawaii in a WAC game at Albuquerque, N.M.

Scarborough’s 21 assists broke the conference mark of 16, set by Jeff Jonas of Utah in 1974. Scarborough also scored 13 points.

New Mexico (18-8, 7-5) held an 82-78 lead with 8:30 remaining when Greene took control of the game. In the final eight minutes, he scored 15 points.

Chris Gaines led Hawaii (7-15, 3-8) with 25 points.

Cornell 83, Brown 59--Greg Gilda scored 17 points and James Paul had 14 in leading Cornell over Brown in an Ivy League game at Ithaca, N.Y.

Cornell won its fifth straight game to improve to 13-8 overall and 7-2 in the Ivy League. Cornell, now alone in first place in the Ivy League, has won 37 of its last 41 games at Barton Hall.

Patrick Lynch led Brown (8-14, 3-6) with 23 points.

Columbia 81, Yale 72--At New York, Sean Couch scored 29 points to lead Columbia to an upset of Yale that knocked the Elis out of a first-place tie in the Ivy League.

Yale, 13-8 overall, fell to 6-3 in Ivy League play.

Columbia (8-12, 3-6) burst to a 38-17 lead at halftime after scoring 17 of the game’s first 21 points.

Yale’s Chris Dudley, the nation’s second-leading rebounder, had 25 points and 13 rebounds.