Nov. 9, 2005
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - Freshman Anthony Vereen was impressive with 11 points and eight rebounds as Texas-Arlington defeated Incarnate Word, 74-52, Wednesday evening in exhibition play at Texas Hall.
The Mavericks used a 30-19 run to open the second half and increase the lead to 63-44 with 7:41 remaining in the game. UTA had the hot hand as they opened, shooting 10-of-13 from the floor. Senior Steven Thomas tallied five points and sophomore Larry Posey added four during the span.
From there, Texas-Arlington closed the game out with two layups each from freshman Brandon Long and Vereen to take the game, 74-52.
"I thought the freshman played well for the most part," UTA head coach Eddie McCarter said. "Anthony Vereen played great tonight, but he and the rest of the team still have a lot to work on."
In the first half, Texas-Arlington raced out to a 10-4 lead at the 15:55 mark of the opening half. Thomas showed off his speed converting two layups and a free throw in the opening minutes to spark the Mavericks.
Incarnate Word cut the lead to 10-8 with 14:31 remaining on a jumper by Paul Connolly and layup by Eric Nuncio, but UTA Sophomore Rodrick Epps and Long both hit three-pointers to increase the Maverick lead to 17-10, just three minutes later.
Vereen, then went to work in the middle, grabbing two offensive rebounds and putbacks to ignite a 16-11 run over the next 10 minutes to give UTA a 33-21 lead with 2:13 remaining.
The Cardinals closed the gap over the final two minutes with two jumpers by Connolly to go into the break down only, 33-25. Connolly had a game-high 11 points in the first half, while Vereen led the Mavericks with seven points to go along with his game-high seven rebounds.
The Mavericks outrebounded the Cardinals, 38-24, and forced them into 19 turnovers.
Texas-Arlington was 28-58 (48.3 percent) from the floor and 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) from the charity stripe. The Mavericks were also 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) from behind the arc. They held Incarnate Word to 19-of-45 (42.2 percent) shooting on the evening.
Thomas and Long both finished in double-figures in scoring with 10 points each, while sophomore Jermaine Griffin and senior Jarrett Howell added nine and eight points respectively.
Connolly led the Cardinals with 16 points, while Ray Peterson added nine points and a team-high six rebounds. Demareon Johnson finished with four assists.
"We shot the ball great and our chemistry was pretty good," McCarter said. "It is tough to have chemistry when you are playing a lot of guys, but I thought it was good throughout the game. One thing we really need to work on is playing defense off of the dribble. That is something we are definitely going to work on in practice these next two days."
The Mavericks will open up regular-season play this Sunday when they take on Miami (Fla.) in the opening round of the Black Coaches Association Classic. The BCA Classic a three-day tournament hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash.
