Jan. 22, 2007
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Two teams desperate for a win meet as UT Arlington faces Texas-San Antonio in a Southland Conference men's basketball game Monday night at the Convocation Center.
Both teams are mired in losing streaks - UTSA has dropped seven straight games while the Mavericks have lost four straight after an 89-63 setback to league-leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday night at Texas Hall.
UT Arlington will play five games over an 11-day span beginning the last Saturday's TAMU-CC game. UTA will host Sam Houston State on Thursday, travel to Stephen F., Austin on Saturday and return home to meet Austin College in a make-up game next Tuesday at Texas Hall.
UT Arlington has been led by junior center Jermaine Griffin. The Houston native is averaging 17.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during SLC play. He had his streak of three consecutive games with 20-or-more points and nine straight double figure scoring games snapped when he was limited to 3-of-6 field-goal shooting and nine points in the loss to TAMU-Corpus Christi.
Junior guard Rodrick Epps snapped out of a cold spell with a career-high tying 19 points. Freshman Matt Read had a career-high nine points and also grabbed four rebounds in 16 minutes against TAMU-CC.
THE SERIES
UTSA leads the all-time series, 29-22. The Roadrunners have won 16 of 25 meetings at the Convocation Center, including a 98-76 decision in February 2005. UT Arlington has dropped the last three meetings with UTSA.
ROAD WINS RARE FOR MAVS
UT Arlington looks for its third road win of the season at UTSA on Jan. 22. UTA has not won more than six away games since the 1990-91 season when the Mavs went 8-7. UT Arlington has posted a winning records on away games twice in program history - 1980-81 and 1990-91.
SCOUTING THE ROAD RUNNERS
Texas-San Antonio (4-13, 0-4) has lost seven straight games, including a 67-63 setback at Texas State Saturday.
University of Houston transfer Andrew Francis is averaging 10.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game since being eligible seven games ago. Melvin Smith is the leading scorer on the team at 13.1 points per game.
