Texas-El Paso 59, Tulsa 56

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ John Tofi scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Texas-El Paso beat Tulsa 59-56 in a Western Athletic Conference game Thursday night. <br><br>Tofi, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound sophomore,

Friday, January 9th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ John Tofi scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Texas-El Paso beat Tulsa 59-56 in a Western Athletic Conference game Thursday night.

Tofi, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound sophomore, overpowered his Tulsa counterparts all night. His last basket gave UTEP a 57-54 lead with 2:20 to play.

Tulsa guard Kenneth Kelley missed a 3-pointer on Tulsa's next possession and UTEP (10-2, 1-1) ran the clock down to 42 seconds by virtue of offensive rebounds.

The Golden Hurricane (4-8, 0-3 WAC) pulled within 57-56 on a tip-in by Jarius Glenn with 18 seconds left, but Filiberto Rivera made two free throws with at 15.4 seconds.

TU's Guilherme Teichmann missed a potential tying 3-pointer with 1 second left.

Rivera and Omar Thomas each added 14 points for UTEP, while Jason Williams had 11 rebounds as the Miners outrebounded Tulsa 42-37.

UTEP held Tulsa to 34.8 percent shooting and had a large advantage at the free throw line, making 18 of 29 while Tulsa hit just 5 of 11.

Jason Parker had 19 points to lead Tulsa but made just 7 of 19 field goals.