Jan. 29, 2004
Final Stats
Texas-Arlington scored 25 points off Nicholls State turnovers and connected on 27-of-34 at the free throw line to defeat the Colonels 80-69 in a Southland Conference contest at Texas Hall Thursday night.
UTA (8-9, 3-3) won for the seventh time in eight games at Texas Hall. Nicholls State falls to 5-13 and 0-7 in the SLC.
UTA was led in scoring by Keith Howell's season-high 20 points. Steven Thomas canned 19 points and senior forward Derrick Obasohan moved into ninth place on the all-time scoring list with 14 points. He has 1,083 career points, surpassing former Maverick Anthony Durham (1,072).
Nicholls State was led by Jason Wilkins' 18. Willie Depron scored 16 and Dominique Geason added 13.
"I thought we did a better job of pressuring the ball tonight," said UTA head coach Eddie McCarter after the Mavericks tied a season best with 14 steals in the game. "They have good outside shooters and I thought our half-court defense was good enough to keep them off their rhythm."
UTA made 9-of-9 free throws in the final 3:24 of the game to seal the victory.
Back-to-back lay ups off turnovers by Keith Howell and Thomas gave UTA its largest lead of the game, 54-41, with 10:07 to play in the game.
UTA went on an 11-2 run to break an 18-18 tie in the first half. Lay ups by Roy Johnson and Keith Howell gave UTA a 22-18 lead with 5:19 to play. A pair of Howell free throws made it 24-18 with 3:23 left in the half. A lay up by Stefan Blaszczynski lay up cut the lead to 24-20 with 3:37 to go, but a Donny Beacham free throw, a lay up by Obasohan and dunk by Steven Thomas gave UTA a 29-20 lead with 2:02 to play.
UTA returns to action Saturday when they travel to Lamar. Nicholls State is at Texas-San Antonio.
Texas-Arlington 80, Nicholls State 69
Nicholls State (5-13, 0-7) - Veal 0-2 0-0 0, Wilkins 4-14 6-6 18, Gleeson 2-4 0-0 4, King 3-6 2-2 9, Depron 6-14 2-4 16, Blaszczynski 2-4 0-0 4, Brown 2-4 0-0 5, Geason 6-8 1-3 13. Totals 25-56, 8-26, 11-15 69.
Texas-Arlington (8-9, 3-3) - Obasohan 5-9 4-5 14, Thomas 4-10 11-14, Johnson 1-7 0-1 2, Beacham 2-3 3-4 7, K. Howell 6-8 8-8 20, J. Howell 2-4 1-2 5, Dawkins 3-4 0-0 9, Floyd 2-5 0-0 4. Totals: 25-50 27-34 80.
Halftime: UTA 33, NSU 24. Three-point field goals: NSU 8-26 (Wilkins 4-13, Depron 2-5, Brown 1-3, Blaszczynski 0-1, King 1-4, UTA 3-7 Dawkins 3-4, J. Howell 0-1, Floyd 0-2). Rebounds: NSU 35 (Wilkins, GEason 7), UTA 27 (Obasohan, Thomas 5), Assists: NSU 14 (Depron 5), UTA 12 (K. Howell, Thomas 3), Turnoves: NSU 23 (King 5), UTA 12 (K. Howell 4). Blocks: NSU 4 (Gleeson 2), UTA 3 (Obasohan, Johnson, Beacham), Steals: NSU 3 (Geason, Wilkins, Depron), UTA 14 (Obasohan, Dawkins, K. Howell). Total fouls: NSU 26, UTA 17. Fouled out: Veal, Gleeson. Technical fouls: UTA- McCarter. Att. 912.
