Nov. 15, 2006
Box Score
DENTON, Texas - UT Arlington center Jermaine Griffin floated a short, baseline jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the Mavericks an 83-81 win over North Texas in non-conference action Wednesday night.
UT Arlington (2-0) improves to 2-0 for the first time since 2000-01 and just the sixth time since 1959. North Texas falls to 2-1.
UT Arlington battled the outside shooting of UNT with a strong inside game.
The inside foursome of Griffin, Anthony Vereen, Larry Posey and Tommy Moffitt combined for 54 points and 22 rebounds. The Mavericks wore down the Eagles down with a constant barrage of passes into the low blocks, setting up the Mavs with short jumpers, lay ups and repeated trips to the foul line. UT Arlington made 19 of 22 free throws in the second half.
All five Mav starters scored in double figures. Griffin led all scorers with a career-high 24 points. Rodrick Epps (15), Ro'ger Guignard (12), Vereen (11) and Posey (10) also had double figures. North Texas was led by Kendrick Davis with 17. Keith Wooden (16), Quincy Williams (15) and Calvin Watson (14) also had double figures.
UNT, who had 13 3-pointers in an 18-point win over UNC-Charlotte last Sunday, canned 9-of-23 from long range in the game.
Griffin and Vereen each had double figures in the first 25 minutes of the game. Griffin had 15 in the first half, hitting 6-of-10 field goals. Vereen was whistled for two fouls in the first five minutes of the game, played without another foul until he was tagged with two fouls in a 3:00 span midway through the second half. Moffitt, a freshman from Irving, came off the bench to record his second double-figure game of his career.
North Texas scored the first basket of the second half, a jumper by Williams, to take a 40-39 lead. Guignard answered with a 3-pointer and Posey scored a three points off a put-back and free throw to lead 45-40 with 18:14 left in the game.
UT Arlington led 39-38 at halftime after building a 13-point lead and holding on after a 17-2 run by the Eagles trimmed the lead. The Mavericks hit 16 of 30 from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
Trailing 10-7 after a jumper by Williams with 15:16 to play, UTA went on a 16-0 run to lead 23-10 after a Posey jumper with 10:16 to play in the half.
UNT responded with 11 straight points to trim the lead to 23-21 after a Williams lay up.
UT Arlington travels to TCU on Saturday for a noon tip off.
