UTEP women’s basketball game with Utah State canceled after another positive COVID test

The UTEP women’s basketball team canceled a game for the second time this week, as Saturday’s afternoon tip against Utah State was called off Friday afternoon after the Aggies arrived in El Paso.

The Miners were going to be without leading scorer Destiny Thurman and coach Kevin Baker, who had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday after the team returned from a tournament in Las Vegas. Both are vaccinated.

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The program had 11 of its 13 players at practice on Thursday but subsequently had another positive test. Unvaccinated players, reportedly three, who had contact with any of the positives would have been unavailable Saturday.

The Miners postponed Wednesday’s game at New Mexico State for the same reason.

UTEP delayed issuing a press release on Saturday’s cancellation until it was able to contact Utah State, which spent much of Friday in transit from Logan, Utah to El Paso.

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Last season the UTEP women’s team was the only one of the 28 basketball programs in Conference USA, men’s and women’s, to play a full 18-game schedule and didn’t have a positive test all season.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP women’s game with Utah St. canceled after positive COVID