Dec. 23, 2008

UTA-Tulsa Box Score

TULSA, Ok. - Maybe the road is starting to get to the UTA men's basketball team.

Playing a stretch of 10 games away from home, the Mavs dropped their fifth consecutive game 88-79 at Tulsa Tuesday.

Defense was the primary issue Tuesday as Tulsa shot 60% from the field and outrebounded the Mavs by 15 as UTA dropped to 4-6 and Tulsa improved to 8-4.

The Mavericks trailed 43-40 at the break but the Golden Hurricane increased that lead to 11 within the first four minutes of the second half.

Tulsa led by at least eight over the next eight minutes before UTA made the game interesting. The Mavs cut the lead to four at 63-59 with 7:09 to play on a three-point play by Marquez Haynes. From that point Tulsa went on a 15-8 run to increase the lead back up to 11 to seal the victory.

"Our defense was not very good tonight," said UTA head coach Scott Cross. "We need to do a better job on the defensive end and in rebounding."

UTA was able to get Tulsa's big man - 7-0 center Jerome Jordan into foul trouble in the second half, but shortly after he picked up his fourth foul, UTA's Anthony Vereen did so as well.

The Mavericks shot 43.8% for the game and were led by Brandon Long who had a season-high 22 points. Vereen added 19 points and led the team with five rebounds.

UTA was basically without the services of Tommy Moffitt, who was originally going to miss the game due to a bruised back suffered in the Baylor game. Moffitt then tried to play in the second half but was unable to play more than five minutes due to the injury.

Tulsa's Ben Uzoh led the Golden Hurricane in the first half as he scored 16 of his 25 points in the first 20 minutes. Glenn Andrews then scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half to help Tulsa register the victory.

While the Mavs were outrebounded by a season-low 15, they did manage to score more points in the paint - 34-32 and committed just a season-low seven turnovers.

UTA returns to action Monday, Dec. 29 at North Texas.