Dec. 5, 2008
MISSOULA, Mt. - A late UT Arlington rally fell short and the Mavericks lost to Denver 67-65 at the Grizzly Basketball Classic in Missoula, Mont.
The Mavericks battled back from a 13-point second half deficit to tie the game at 65 on a pair of Anthony Vereen free throws with 12 seconds remaining.
After a timeout by Denver, the Pioneers Kyle Lewis made a 12-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds to play to give the Pioneers their first win of the season and drop UTA to 4-2.
"I'm proud of our guys that they continued to compete and come back after we got down in the second half," said UTA head coach Scott Cross. "Denver is a tough team to come back against because of their style of play but we continued to play and had a chance at the end to come away with a victory."
The Mavericks found themselves down by 11 at 56-45 with just over seven minutes to play. From that point UTA cut the lead to three over the next three minutes and then cut it to two at 59-57 on a three-point play by Vereen.
After Denver went up four, Marquez Haynes converted a three-point play with 1:39 to shave the lead down to 63-62. Another Denver basket made it a three-point contest and Haynes then made one of two free throws to reduce the lead to two.
Lewis then missed two free throws and the Mavs took advantage of those misses to tie the game as Vereen made the two foul shots.
Vereen finished with a season-high 21 points for UTA while the Mavs leading scorer Brandon Long was held to just four points and did not score his first point of the game until he made a free throw with seven minutes to play in the game.
UTA had made at least 10 three-pointers in each of its last two games, but the long range shooting touch was not to be Friday. The Mavericks made just 5-of-13 from long range.
Denver never trailed in the game, as they jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half, leading by as many as 13 and led at halftime by 10 at 35-25.
As in their last two games, the Mavericks did not play their best in the first half. Denver controlled the first 20 minutes, leading by as much as 13. UTA committed 10 turnovers in the first half and the Pioneers converted those into 13 points.
The Mavericks play tomorrow night in the final game of the Grizzly Basketball Classic against host Montana.
