Jan. 24, 2009
UTA-Sam Houston State Box Score 
HUNTSVILLE, Tx. - The UTA men's basketball team came into Saturday's game at Sam Houston State on a three-game winning streak and having not been outrebounded in their last seven games.
Both of those streaks came to a halt as the Mavericks lost 78-44 in front of 1,174 at Johnson Coliseum on the SHS campus.
The Mavericks were outrebounded 43-33 and allowed Sam Houston to grab 17 on the offensive end that the Bearkats turned into 15 second chance points.
"Rebounding cost us the game," said UTA head coach Scott Cross. "They had 15 second chance points and we are not going to win a lot of games when that happens. It's hard to win as well when you give up 17 offensive rebounds."
The Mavericks made just 10-of-32 (31.3%) from the field in the first half and but found themselves just down by four at 34-30 at the break. It didn't take long for the Mavs to take the lead in the second half as they found their shooting touch and opened up a seven-point lead at 53-46 with 11:17 to go.
Sam Houston tied the game at 56 a few minutes later and after the eighth tie of the game with 8:15 to play at 57 all, took the lead for good on the second free throw by Barkley Falkner.
Sam Houston increased the lead to seven at 69-62 on a 3-pointer by Corey Allmond with 3:16 to play before Lance Pevehouse hit another 3-pointer for an eight-point lead.
Mitchell then made 5-of-6 from the foul line in the last two minutes of the game. The Mavericks did have one last chance with the score at 77-74 and SHS's Josten Crow at the line. He missed the first one but made the second for the final margin in the game.
Marquez Haynes led the Mavericks again in scoring with a career-high tying 26 points. Senior Anthony Vereen added 20, Roge'r Guignard had 14. UTA's third-leading scorer Brandon Long, who came into the game averaging 15.4 points a contest was 0-for-8 from the field and did not score. Jeremy Smith had a season-high eight assists.
After that cold-shooting first half, the Mavs did recover to post one of their best shooting halves of the season making 16-of-24 from the field including 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
Besides the eight ties, the lead changed hands nine different times. The Bearkats also converted 10 UTA turnovers into 15 points.
The loss was the first of the season for UTA when holding their opponents below 46% as Sam Houston shot just 37.5% from the field (21-of-56). The loss was the 10th consecutive in Huntsville for the Mavericks.
The loss dropped the Mavericks to 10-8 overall and 3-2 in Southland Conference play. Sam Houston improved to 9-8 overall and 3-1 in conference games.
