March 8, 2007

Box Score

HOUSTON - McNeese State used an 8-0 run in the final 3:00 of the game to erase a five-point deficit and knock off UT Arlington 77-76 in the opening round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Southland Conference Basketball Tournament at the Campbell Center Thursday night.

UT Arlington ends the season at 13-17. McNeese State (15-16) won for the sixth time in seven games and will face top-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (24-6) in the semifinals on Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Anthony Vereen scored a career-high 24 points to lead UTA. Ro'ger Guignard had 18 points and Jermaine Griffin added 10. McNeese State was led by Jarvis Bradley with 23 points and nine rebounds. Troy Aaron had 15 points and Quentin Gonzales added 15 for the Cowboys.

UT Arlington led 71-66 after Griffin scored on a inbounds pass with 2:27 to play in the game. After Gonzales score a basket to trim the lead to 71-68 with 2:17 left, Anthony Vereen was whistled for an offensive foul while going up for a shot. Instead of Vereen going to the line, Bradley made one of two free throws to trim the Mav lead to 71-69 with 1:56 left in the game.

"I thought that call was the turning point of the game," said UT Arlington head Men's Basketball Coach Scott Cross. "Anthony was 8-of-8 at the line and instead they go to the line. I don't think we every completely recovered from that call.

"We made a couple of turnovers down the stretch that hurt us, but I can't fault our guys effort. They left it all on the floor tonight. McNeese State is a good defensive team and it was a hard-fought game for both teams."

MSU's Rorey Lawrence canned his only 3-pointer of the game with 1:00 to play to give the Cowboys the lead for good, 72-71. From there the Mavericks had to foul the get the ball back. John Ford, Bradley and Aaron combined to make 5-of-6 free throws in the final 27 seconds to seal the win.

Rod Epps canned a 3-pointer with 0.1 second left in the game to cut the lead to 77-76 and the Cowboys inbounded the ball for the win.

McNeese State used an 18-4 run midway through the first half to rally from a 12-9 deficit to a 28-16 lead after two free throws from Quentin Gonzales with 8:22 left in the first half.

The Mavs clawed themselves back into the game. A 6-0 run, including a 3-pointer from Long to cut the lead to 28-22 with 5:34.

UT Arlington kept pounding the ball inside and picked up two fouls on Bradley in the final 49 seconds of the half. UTA made 6-of-7 free throws in the final five minutes to stay close. bucket by Vereen with :04 to play in the half cut the lead to 40-37 at intermission.

MAV NOTES: Guignard became the second player to make 70 3-pointers in a single season when he canned a long-range jumper with 5:00 to play in the first half... UTA fell to 0-5 against the Cowboys in SLC Tournament play.