The Lady Miners basketball team will close out the season on the road when they visit the University of North Texas and Rice University on Thursday March 5, and Saturday March 7, respectively.

The Miners, who are 12th in the conference, will look to finish this season with two wins and some momentum going into the Conference USA tournament.

After a two-game win streak, the Miners have gone 1-3 in their last four games, putting them at a 6-10 record in conference and eliminating them from any possibilities of winning the regular season conference title. UTEP has rallied late in games, but have not been able to win them.

Though the Miners have had a bad season so far, the Miners have a chance to end the season on a high note.

UNT is 4-12 and has lost two straight games, both of them as a rout. The Mean Green was soundly handled by Charlotte, with a final score of 71-46. Old Dominion repeated the dose, handing UNT its 22nd loss of the season by a score of 70-48.

UTEP will continue to rely on junior guard Cameasha Turner, who has been the engine behind the Miners. On Senior Night, when the rest of the team seemed to have played flat, she rallied them in the six-point loss versus Southern Miss and got a double-double.

“I need to sometimes gather myself,” Turner said. “My teammates look at me, and if I’m not calm, I can’t help them.”

Turner is not only the leader in the Miner locker room–she also has the complete trust of head coach Keitha Adams.

“I know I can count on number two, the rest of the team rallies on her and I don’t have to tell her what to do,” Adams said.

The Miners will travel to Houston after their meeting with UNT to end the regular season playing Rice.

Rice, much like UTEP, has not had the best season.

Rice, 3-13 in conference, has lost three consecutive games, and all three of them by a difference of at least 10 points.

Rice is ranked second to last in the conference and offers UTEP an opportunity to end the season with a win. Although their focus is not on the opponent, but on themselves.

“These past games have hurt because we have been close,” Adams said. “We did not make all the shots we had to–if we did we would of won some of them.”

The game will hold little to no importance for the Owls, but it will be important for the Miners as they look to secure the final spot among the 12 teams that qualify for the conference post-season tournament. The players can see this as a chance to show the coach what they have for next season.

“We have to keep the team motivated because we are a good team–we need to keep everyone feeling like we can win,” Adams said.

Turner leads the Miners in scoring, averaging 15.7 points per game—good enough for ninth in Conference USA. She is also among the top five in the conference in steals with an average of 2.1 takeaways per game.

The only other Miner to average in double figures is sophomore guard Sparkle Taylor, who has an average of 10.2 points per contest. Freshman guard Lulu McKinney is in the top 10 of the conference when it comes to assists. McKinney has set up her teammates for the score an average of 3.2 times per game.

With little more than pride on the line for the Miners, UTEP can use these games as preparation for the conference tournament. UTEP will try to gather steam for the tournament off two less-competitive rivals and hopefully get the team strong before the tournament begins.

The belief that this team can be more than what its record shows is alive in the Miner locker room. Coach Adams will lean on the hopes of another magical post-season run.

“We have been playing and losing close games. We have not been beaten down,” Adams said. “Most games we lost were close and we need to keep that (in mind) and keep pushing this team.”

Juan Carlos Navarrete may be reached at [email protected].