ASSOCIATED PRESS Texas-El Paso coach Doc Sadler celebrated with his players after they beat Boise State in the WAC tournament final yesterday.

UTEP captures WAC
championship

Rivera’s 32-point game sends the
Miners to the NCAA Tournament

RENO, Nev. » The best piece of advice Texas-El Paso coach Doc Sadler received going into last night's WAC tournament championship game came from the legend known simply as "The Bear."

"When I talked to Coach (Don) Haskins, he told me this morning, 'Don't start coaching now,'" said Sadler, a few hours before his Miners basketball team dismantled upstart Boise State, 91-78, at the Lawlor Events Center.

It was good advice from the man who led UTEP, then called Texas Western, to the national championship in 1966.

Sadler's real work was done long before yesterday. At this point, conference rivals know everything there is to know about each other, from which way they prefer to dribble to the brand of deodorant they use.

Plus, you don't have to coach that much when you have point guard Filiberto Rivera on your team.

Rivera, normally the conductor of the UTEP symphony, also took the stage to provide some breathtaking solos last night. He scored a career-high 32 points on slashing drives and outside jumpers and was voted the tournament's MVP.

"He's the best there is," Sadler said. "Fili doesn't score unless we need him to score. We were struggling. But you look over to the right (on the stat sheet), and he still has eight assists."

Rivera, who made nine of 16 shots, said he had an idea it would be a special night for him in the scoring column.

"I was feeling it in the shoot-around. When we need a basket, I just shoot it," Rivera said.

Center John Tofi also came up big. He's one of the Miners' seemingly endless supply of role players who are capable of excellence in any given game. Tofi, who struggled with a broken foot all season, scored a season-high 21 points.

"That hurt a lot," Boise State forward Jason Ellis said. "We didn't plan for that to happen. Their role players stepped up."

Forward Omar Thomas added 15 and guard Giovanni St. Amant got 13.

No. 2 seed UTEP (27-7) captured the WAC's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Miners lost in the WAC title game last year to Nevada and went to the NCAAs as an at-large entry.

No. 8 seed Boise State (16-18) got to the final with victories over Tulsa, top seed and defending champion Nevada, and Fresno State -- the latter two through late-game drama. Last night, the Broncos fell behind gradually in the first half and faced a 61-41 deficit after Tofi hit a layup with 12:34 left in the game.

BSU fought back to 76-67 on Coby Karl's 3-pointer with 4:01 remaining, but Thomas' free throws and Rivera's trey ended the rally.

"We felt magic this tournament," said Karl, who scored a team-high 24 points. "Unfortunately we couldn't make the plays."

Playing three games instead of four probably helped UTEP.

"Last year in the finals we got tired," Sadler said. "Tonight I thought we were a little bit more fresh."

It is the fifth and final WAC championship for the Miners. UTEP, along with Rice, SMU and Tulsa, leaves the league for Conference USA on July 1.

After losing to the Miners by double-digits for the third time this year, Boise State coach Greg Graham said the Miners will be a tough matchup in the NCAA Tournament.

"Their biggest plus is they can play any style. They can play fast, or play half court. They take care of the ball. Fili's one of the best point guards in the country. He has it under control. If you want to bang they can bang; you want to play small, they can play small."

Ellis finished with 16 points for Boise State and Eric Lane and Jermaine Blackburn added 12 each.