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Sports

Hot Cougars to meet cold Miners

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

Texas-El Paso dropped to seventh place in the conference standings after losing its last three contests in Conference USA action. 

UH is the second hottest team in C-USA, after perennial conference powerhouse Memphis (11-9, 5-2 in C-USA). The Cougars have won six of their last seven games, and are finally starting to buy into UH head coach Tom Penders' defensive philosophy.

Penders said his team would not sink into complacency in their 8:05 p.m. Saturday game at UTEP.

"We've got to remember how it felt to lose and how hard practice was when we lost," junior guard Marcus Malone said. "We've just got to keep that mindframe of working hard. We're going to have to focus, stick to the game-plan and control the tempo in a hostile environment like UTEP."

Malone, who has emerged as one of Houston's most reliable defensive stoppers, will have his hands full for the second consecutive game. He and the Cougars managed to hold Rice guard Morris Almond, the nation's third-leading scorer, to 21 points in a critical conference win Wednesday at Hofheinz Pavilion. 

In El Paso, UH will meet another dangerous scorer in Stefon Jackson. The sophomore guard leads the Miners with 18.8 points per game.

Jackson put up 22 points against Southern Miss Wednesday night in a losing effort, which did not come as a surprise to Malone.

"He can dribble really well. He can shoot. He has an all around ballgame," Malone said. "I just have another tough challenge, and I'll be ready to face it."

Junior guard and UH leading scorer Robert "Fluff" McKiver said his team would attack Jackson and the Miners as they would any other team.

"I think we're just going to play aggressive on defense," McKiver said. "We're not just going to focus on one guy. When we just play on a regular night we're just going to play hard defense, help and rotate."

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