Feb. 16, 2008
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - - The UT Arlington men's basketball team couldn't overcome a hot-shooting night by McNeese State and senior guard John Ford in a 74-69 loss in a Southland Conference game Saturday at Texas Hall.
Ford scored a career-high 32 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the field. He was 6-for-10 from the 3-point line. As a team, UTA allowed the Cowboys to record a blistering 12-for-21 afternoon from the 3-point line. The Mavericks got 19 points from sophomore guard Rog'er Guignard and 10 points each from senior center Jermaine Griffin and freshman guard Jeremy Smith. Anthony Vereen added nine rebounds.
The loss drops the Mavericks (16-8, 4-5) below .500 in conference play for the first time since a two-game road trip to open the SLC season.
McNeese State (10-12, 4-6) has now won consecutive conference games for the first time this year.
"The bottom line is that they shot the ball extremely well," UT Arlington coach Scott Cross said. "They hit 12 3-pointers, and when a team does that, it makes it very difficult. John Ford had 32 points. He had a career-game for them and scored almost half of their points. He was the difference in the game."
The deciding stretch started at the 14-minute mark of the second half.
McNeese State turned a 45-43 lead into a 10-point advantage with 10:07 left, and the Mavericks couldn't stop the Cowboys offense long enough to mount a comeback. In that 15-7 Cowboys run, Ford and McNeese leading scorer Jarvis Bradley had four points each. Ford added an assist in the spurt.
UTA cut the Cowboys lead to six points on four occasions over the following seven minutes. A Larry Posey layup made it 68-62 with with 1:43 left. But three consecutive empty UTA possessions - mixed with a Bradley layup - made it 70-62 with 39 seconds left.
UTA returns to the hardwood at 7 p.m. Wednesday night against UTSA at the Convocation Center in San Antonio.
The next chance to the see the Mavericks at home is next Saturday, Feb. 23 when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi travels to Arlington for a 4 p.m. game at Texas Hall.
