Nov. 2, 2006

Box Score

The Scott Cross era began with a bang Thursday night as a stingy defense and a balanced offensive attack gave the UT Arlington men's basketball team an 80-52 win over defending NAIA national champion Texas Wesleyan at Texas Hall.

Junior forward Larry Posey (Houston, Texas) led UT Arlington with 18 points. Sophomore forward Anthony Vereen (Houston, Texas) scored 14 points and junior post Jermaine Griffin (Houston, Texas) and freshman guard Ro'ger Guidnard (Mesquite, Texas) added 12 each.

Texas Wesleyan, who finished 25-9 a year ago, was led in scoring by Sam Houston State transfer Kelvin Williams with 25 points. C.J. Higginbotham added 13 for the Rams.

"I am extremely please with the intensity and effort we gave tonight," said Cross. "I thought we played well together and I thought we did a good job of rebounding the ball. I think our older players are learning from the mistakes of the past and hopefully we can continue to improve every day."

The Mavericks jumped out to a 22-4 lead in the opening 9:40 of the game and TWU never threatened in front of a crowd of 480. UTA's stifling defense held Texas Wesleyan to four field goals in the 14 minutes of the game.

Griffin scored the Mavs' first four points and back-to-back 3-pointers by Guidnard gave UT Arlington a quick 10-2 lead with 15:43 to play in the first half.

The large lead was enough for Cross to freely substitute his entire bench. Nine players saw 10 or more minutes of playing time in the game and nine different players scored.

"If we can get the energy and intensity from our bench like we did tonight, I think we can keep people fresh and we won't see guys playing 30-35 minutes a game," said Cross.

The Mavericks out-rebounded TWU, 45-25, with Griffin and sophomore forward Terrell Henry leading with seven boards each.

UT Arlington will play their final exhibition game before the Nov. 11 season-opener against UT-Tyler when they host Angelo State Monday night at 5 p.m.

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