On a day where Knights fans were hoping to see head coach Kirk Speraw earn the school record for most wins at UCF, they Instead witnessed a school-record performance by UTEP junior guard Randy Culpepper, who hit nine 3-pointers to tie a Conference USA record as the Miners shot UCF out of their own arena 96-59 in front of 6,413.

Culpepper scored a career high 39 points, 25 coming in the second half as he seemingly could not miss while UCF was unable to make a shot. The Knights went 6-for-32 from the field in the second half and finished the game shooting 32-percent as Speraw was denied win No. 275, which would put him ahead of the late Torchy Clark for most in program history.

“I thought we had a really immature response to what happened in the second half,” said Speraw, whose Knights were outscored 52-18 in the second half to drop to 10-9 on the season and 2-3 in C-USA.

“We had five one-on-one games out there rather than one five-on-five game,” he said. “We didn’t execute well, which translated to us not scoring and them getting off to a great start. And then our lack of scoring affected our energy level on defense. And then it really popped.”

For Culpepper, the nine three’s he drained ties him with Robert Vaden of UAB and Charlotte’s Demon Brown and Brendan Plavich atop the C-USA single game list as he helped the Miners build on the momentum they brought into the game after winning at Memphis on Wednesday night. That win ended the 64-game conference win streak for the Tigers.

“I’ve never had a game like that since I’ve been at UTEP,” Culpepper said. “In the first half I came out and hit a couple of three’s, and something told me that I should keep shooting because it was going to be a good night.”

With the win UTEP improved to 13-5 overall and 4-1 in C-USA while the Knights must now regroup before heading to Dallas to take on SMU on Wednesday, where Speraw will coach his 500th game at UCF and take another shot at winning No. 275.