GAME NOTES: The Texas-El Paso Miners look to keep their Conference USA title hopes alive on Saturday night when they hit the road to face Southern Miss at Reed Green Coliseum.

UTEP enters the contest in second place in the C-USA standings, 1.5 games behind Louisiana Tech with three games left in the regular season. Those teams battled for first place two nights ago in Ruston, where the Miners were overwhelmed in a 77-60 loss, as their seven-game win streak came to a screeching halt. This marks their final road game of 2014-15.

Head coach Tim Floyd will be suspended for Saturday's game for violating Conference USA's sportsmanship policy in the loss to Louisiana Tech on Thursday. Floyd was issued a pair of technical fouls for walking onto the court to argue a call, and was handed a suspension by the conference for failing to leave the court following his ejection in a timely fashion.

Meanwhile, it is the home finale for Southern Miss in what has been a long season. The Golden Eagles have lost 13-of-16 since league play began a couple of months ago. However, they have won two of their last four outings and are coming off Thursday's 70-66 triumph over Texas-San Antonio.

UTEP dismantled the Golden Eagles in the first meeting, 74-40, back on Jan. 10 in El Paso. Southern Miss had won the previous four meetings, although UTEP still leads the all-time series, 13-9.

Louisiana Tech was simply too much for UTEP to handle on Thursday night, as the Bulldogs drained eight 3-pointers in the first half, then attacked the rim in the second stanza. The Miners never led, and they trailed by as many as 22 thanks to a 37-percent effort from the floor and that aforementioned leaky perimeter defense in the opening frame.

Cedrick Lang held his own down low, notching a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but UTEP connected on just 3-of-17 threes (.176) for the game. Earvin Morris was the team's only other player in double figures and went 0-for-5 from distance. Forward Vince Hunter, UTEP's top scorer and rebounder (15.1 ppg, 9.3 rpg), managed only four points on 2-of-8 shooting.

On the other end of the floor, the Golden Eagles have had little reason to celebrate throughout the 2014-15 campaign. They are putting up only 59.9 ppg and are -8.4 in scoring margin and -4.6 on the glass. Still, they have a few players who can make an opponent pay for sleeping on them. Chip Armelin leads the way with 16.0 ppg and has knocked down 59 threes this season. Matt Bingaya is averaging 14.2 points and a team-best 5.9 boards, while Norville Carey averages 10.6 points and 5.6 caroms, while shooting 55 percent from the field.

In Thursday's win over UTSA, Armelin and Bingaya scored 18 of Southern Miss' 20 points in the final five minutes. Armelin finished with a game-high 21 points, and Bingaya notched his fourth double-double with 17 points and a career-high 10 assists.

In sweeping the season series against UTEP with two double-digit victories, Louisiana Tech left little doubt as to who is the class of the conference this season. Still, the Miners have an outside shot at the C-USA regular-season crown, so expect a determined effort here by the visitors after getting humbled two nights ago, even if they don't have their coach on the bench.