NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : West Regional at Pauley Pavilion : Bryant Carries the Weight for Seton Hall

When push comes to shove, as it did in Seton Hall’s basketball game against Texas El Paso Friday, Seton Hall wants Mark Bryant to have the basketball. And so does Bryant.

Although the Pirates were facing a UTEP team that was ending its season with just eight players available, they were far from home free with 12 minutes left to play, when UTEP narrowed what was once an 11-point gap to just 46-45.

But after a timeout, Bryant scored 6 points in a 10-1 run that put Seton Hall on its way to an 80-64 victory in a first-round game of the NCAA West Regional at Pauley Pavilion.

Why the 10-1 run? “That’s when I started yelling,” Bryant said. “I said, ‘Give me the ball.’ ”

John Morton, a Seton Hall guard who scored 18 points, making 12 of 12 free throws, backed up Bryant’s claim, kind of.

“Mark always hollers for the ball,” he said.

Bryant, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound forward, finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds, including 6 offensive rebounds. He made 13 of 18 shots, 4 of 5 free throws.

And that was enough to impress Wayne Campbell, the 6-7 UTEP forward who drew the task of guarding Bryant.

“He’s a very tough player,” Campbell said. “He knows how to use his body. He deserves the name physical. He did a good job today.”

Chris Sandle, a senior from Long Beach Poly High School, led UTEP with 28 points.

Seton Hall (22-12), making its first NCAA tournament appearance, was tied for last in the Big East Conference at the end of January. But the Pirates came on strong late in the season, beating Pittsburgh twice, Villanova once and Georgetown twice, including a quarterfinal victory over the Hoyas in the Big East tournament.

Now, in their second NCAA game ever, the Pirates must play top-seeded Arizona Sunday in the second round.

“We’ve got to play great ball to win,” Bryant said.

UTEP (23-10), has had a season full of troubles, culminating in the loss of two starters recently. After Chris Blocker was declared academically ineligible this month and Antonio Davis broke an ankle in the Western Athletic Conference tournament last week, the UTEP squad was down to eight players.

On the UTEP bench Friday, coaches and support staff outnumbered players, 9-3. On Seton Hall’s bench, there were eight substitutes.

“I thought we were very fortunate to be able to take advantage of the difficult situation Texas El Paso was in,” said P.J. Carlesimo, Seton Hall coach. “They came at us with as much pressure defensively and caused us as much trouble as anyone all year. That can wear on you against a normal team, but in the situation they were in, it was very different. We felt that as the game went on, we would be able to wear them down. I felt they hung in there and made it difficult.”

UTEP trailed by just four at halftime, but fatigue won out.

“We go in not worrying about fatigue and foul trouble,” said Campbell, who scored nine points. “Even if we’re down to five players, all the guys we have have heart. . . . All we have is what we have today. We went out and played our hearts out.”

Don Haskins, UTEP coach, wondered aloud whether his team should have slowed the tempo more.

“Even with three guys left on the bench, we wanted to win,” Haskins said. “I wish we could have given you a better ball game today. I’m sorry about that.”