Through most of the Conference USA season, the UTEP women's basketball team has walked a tightrope, with its slow starts that it managed to rescue with a kick finish.
The Miners fell off that tightrope Thursday against Marshall in Huntington, W.Va.
Their 18-1 start disintegrated in every way imaginable for a half against the Thundering Herd. And, while a stellar third quarter kept them from getting embarrassed, it also exhausted them in what ended up a 79-64 loss. That snapped a 10-game winning streak and dropped the Miners into a tie for first in C-USA with Western Kentucky heading into Saturday's showdown in Bowling Green, Ky.