Dec. 6, 2008
MISSOULA, Mt. - Big Sky Country has not been a welcome place during the early stages of 2008-09 for the UT Arlington men's basketball team.
The Mavericks have lost all three of their games this season - by a total of seven points - in the region after dropping a 67-65 decision to Montana Saturday in the final game of the Grizzly Basketball Classic in Missoula.
UTA lost at Eastern Washington two weeks ago and then lost by the identical score of Saturday's game to Denver in their first game of this tournament Friday.
As with Friday's game, this one came right down to the wire. Down by two, the Mavericks forced a Montana turnover to have a chance to either win or tie the game. UTA had three shots to tie the game but Tommy Moffitt's shot at the buzzer was blocked by Kyle Sharp and the Mavs once again lost by two.
"Tonight's game was a hard-fought battle," said Mavericks head coach Scott Cross. "I'm proud that we were able to come back again and had a chance at the end."
The loss overshadowed the performance by the Mavs' Anthony Vereen who tied his career-high with 27 points, including 18 in the first half. Vereen should his versatility by tying a career-high as he made three three-pointers, all of which came in the first half.
"Anthony was fantastic tonight," said Cross. "He used his inside and outside game and we tried to get the ball to him as much as possible."
Vereen and his teammates had to adjust to playing without Brandon Long who strained a muscle in his left leg in pregame warm-ups and was unable to play.
"Our guys played hard in Brandon's absence," said Cross. "I'm proud of them for doing that. They executed the game plan well, but we still lost a tough one."
Without one of their top scoring threats, the Mavericks had just four players score in the game. Besides Vereen's performance, Marquez Haynes added a career-high 20 and Roge'r Guignard added a season-high tying 16 points. The only other player to score was Jeremy Smith who had two points.
UTA appeared poised to take the game into their control when they scored the first seven points of the second half to break the 34-34 halftime tie. The Mavs continued to hold that lead at 46-39 before the Grizzlies went on a 24-9 run to take a 63-55 lead with 3:20 to play.
The Mavs cut that lead to one a minute later when Haynes converted a four-point play after being fouled while making a three-point field goal. But that was as close as the Mavericks would get the remainder of the way.
Anthony Johnson led Montana with 16 points off the bench while Jordan Hasquet added 13. For their play in the tournament, Vereen and Haynes were named to the all-tournament team.
The game got off to a slow start as it was tied at 2-2 almost five minutes into the contest. From that point, the teams picked up the intensity on both ends of the floor and the half ended even at 34.
The Mavericks missed their first 10 field goals but finished the half making 12 of their last 17 from the floor. The largest lead UTA had in the first 20 minutes was three while the biggest for the Grizzlies was five.
UTA, who drops to 4-3, has the week off from competition for final exams before playing at Marshall next Saturday. Montana improved to 5-4 with the victory.
