By Canadian Press on January 22, 2026.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Jamal West’s 28 points helped UTEP defeat Florida International 83-77 on Thursday night. West also had seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals for the Miners (7-12, 3-5 Conference USA). Elijah Jones scored 14 points, going 5 of 6 (4 for 4 from 3-point range). LA Hayes went 4 of 6 from the field (2 for 3 from 3-point range) to finish with 12 points. Larry Olayinka led the way for the Panthers (9-10, 2-6) with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Julian Mackey added 14 points and Corey Stephenson finished with 12 points. UTEP went into halftime ahead of Florida International 47-39. West put up 14 points in the half. UTEP took the lead for good with 8:08 left in the second half on a 3-pointer from West to make it 69-67. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. The Associated Press 9