UTEP clips UAB to finish season on 14-game win streak

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/06/2010 - El Paso, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derrick Caracter scored UTEP's final six points and finished with 13 to lead the 24th ranked Miners to a 52-50 win over the UAB Blazers at Don Haskins Center in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Myron Strong led the Miners with 15 points, and Caracter chipped in with six rebounds. The team will now head into postseason play riding an impressive 14- game win streak.

UTEP (24-5, 15-1) will be seeded first in its conference tournament when it plays in next week's C-USA Championship in Tulsa. The Miners will face the winner of Wednesday's game between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams in the tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.

Aaron Johnson provided 16 points to lead UAB (23-7, 11-5), who locked up the third seed despite losing its last two games. Elijah Millsap added 12 points and 14 rebounds in defeat.

UAB extended its lead to 38-24 early in the second half on a Kenneth Cooper jumper, but UTEP roared back with a 16-3 spurt, as a Christian Polk three- pointer with 8:18 left brought the hosts to within 41-40.

The Miners finally pulled even, 48-48, on Caracter's two free throws with 2:35 to go, and he gave the team the lead with 37 ticks left on a jumper after the Blazers had missed a pair of shots.

Jamarr Sanders came right back for UAB with a three-point attempt, but the shot was off the mark; however, Julyan Stone missed the front end of a 1-and-1 for UTEP, giving the Blazers new life.

Johnson tied the game with six seconds left on a jumper, but Caracter came out of the ensuing UTEP timeout and threw down a dunk with two seconds left for a two-point Miners advantage.

The Blazers never got off a final shot.

UAB jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the opening half. The Miners fought back to tie the game at 14-14 with nine minutes left in the half.

The Blazers regrouped and used a 10-1 burst to take an 11-point lead. Three- pointers by Dexter Fields and Johnson made it 30-19 with 2:35 left. It was 32-22 at halftime.

Game Notes

UTEP leads the all-time series between these two schools, 6-5...UTEP won in double-overtime, 74-65, when these two teams met on January 30...UTEP is only the third school in C-USA history to post 15 league wins or more, joining Cincinnati in 1999-00 (16-0) and Memphis, which went 16-0 in each of the past three seasons.

Wwwnyra NCAA Basketball Betting News

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.