Feb. 15, 2010

For the fourth straight week, UTEP has had either a Conference USA Player or the Week or Rookie of the Week as junior guard Randy Culpepper was tabbed the league's Player of the Week on Monday.

Culpepper scored 45 points to tie for the second-top total in UTEP and Conference USA history as the Miners blew past East Carolina, 100-76, on Saturday at the Don Haskins Center. Culpepper was 14-for-18 from the field, 9-for-12 from three-point range and 8-for-12 from the charity stripe against the Pirates. He also established UTEP and C-USA standards for points in a half (31) over the first 20 minutes versus ECU. His 45 points against East Carolina were the fifth-most by an NCAA Division I player this year. Culpepper tied his own school record for three pointers made in a game (nine) versus the Pirates. He also moved into fifth place on UTEP's all-time scoring list with 1,494 points, passing NBA Hall of Famer Nate Archibald. Culpepper is the fourth player in UTEP history to have a 40-point game. Earlier in the week, he scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half as UTEP erased a 24-22 halftime deficit to win at SMU, 62-51. For the week, Culpepper averaged 31.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals while shooting 61.3 percent (19-for-31) from the field, 57.9 percent (11-for-19) from outside and 73.7 percent (14-for-19) from the charity stripe.

This is Culpepper's second C-USA Player of the Week honor this season and third of his career.

League-leading UTEP has now had the C-USA Player of the Week in three of the last four weeks. Culpepper was also honored on Jan. 25, and Derrick Caracter was honored on Feb. 1. Caracter was appointed the C-USA Rookie of the Week on Feb. 8.