Feb. 9, 2008
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - - UT Arlington men's basketball coach Scott Cross says his team has three starters at the power forward and center positions, despite that only two spots are vacant.
"It just so happens that Jermaine is the one coming off the bench right now," Cross said. "It's not a big deal. I consider all of those guys to be starters."
Griffin helped prove the point in Saturday afternoon's 99-81 Southland Conference victory against Texas State at Texas Hall. Griffin came off the bench and narrowly missed his career high with 26 points on 9 of 13 shooting as UTA raced to a 23-point halftime lead and held on for the victory. Griffin, a senior from Houston and preseason, First-Team All-SLC pick, also pulled down 13 rebounds.
It was his sixth double-double of the season, his first since Dec. 22.
The inside-outside combination of Griffin and sophomore guard Rog'er Guignard proved too much for the visiting Bobcats (11-11, 4-5 in the SLC), who cut the Mavericks advantage to 10 in the final two minutes but could get no closer. Guignard scored 19 points and was 8-for-13 from the field. He was 3-for-7 from the 3-point line.
"Texas State is a scary team because they're athletic and press the whole game - and they were tied with us in the standings - so to get a win like this is huge for us," Cross said. "All of our guys played well. Our bench came in a gave us some great minutes - Jeremy Smith had 13 points. And when Jermaine plays like he played today, we're one of the best teams in the conference."
UTA (16-6, 5-4), which shot 52.5 percent from the field, also got eight points and 12 rebounds from senior forward Larry Posey. Sophomore forward Anthony Vereen chipped in 11 points.
Guards Cardell Hunter and Rod Epps had four assists each.
UTA's 16 victories ties for the fourth-most in school history.
The Mavericks jumped to the insurmountable lead behind Guignard's hot shooting. At the 13:40 mark of the first half, UTA held a 19-10 advantage and Guignard had hit his second three-pointer and fifth field goal for 12 of the Mavericks' 19 points.
That, coupled with 23 percent shooting from the field for the Bobcats, was a recipe for a huge first-half advantage. UTA had a 10-point advantage at the 5:57 mark, then went on a 15-3 run to blow the game open. In that run, UTA got points from five different players.
When the Bobcats made a run late in the game to cut UTA's lead to 10 again, the Mavericks made their free throws to seal the victory. The 99 points scored ties for the highest-scoring out since a 99-66 victory Nov. 26 at home against Schreiner.
The Mavericks are back in action at 7 p.m. Thursday on the road against Lamar.
