Hoops host North Texas Wednesday
11/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2009
Arlington, Texas - A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS UT Arlington hosts Metroplex rival North Texas in its second home game of the season Wednesday at Texas Hall...the Mavericks won their season-opener over Dallas Baptist 88-84 last Saturday...that win gave the Mavs a win in its last 4 season openers, which is a school record.
COVERAGE The North Texas game, and all UTA men's games home and away, will be carried live on utamavs.com...the "Voice of the Mavericks", Pete Tenney will be joined by Associate AD Gregg Elkin to call the action...Gametracker is also available via utamavs.com.
UTA - NORTH TEXAS SERIES These former Southland Conference rivals are meeting for the 50th time and North Texas leads the series 28-21 but the Mavs have won the last 5 meetings dating back to the 1995-96 season...UTA won last year's game 80-75 in Denton...the Mavs won the last game at Texas Hall 72-64 on 11/20/07...the last time the Mavericks lost to UNT was on 2/11/95 (80-71) in Denton...UTA leads the series in games played in Arlington 13-11...the 5-game winning streak over UNT is the longest in the series by UTA.
UTA vs. THE SUN BELT Tonight's game is the 183rd for UTA against a current member of the Sun Belt Conference...the Mavs are 56-127 against these teams...last year the Mavs went 1-1 vs. the Sun Belt losing to Denver and then defeating UNT...the 182 previous games against the Sun Belt are the most for the Mavs against any conference other than the Southland.
MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 4th season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 51-43 (.543)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 24-24 and 3-2 in the conference tournament...he is 3-0 vs. North Texas...Cross led the Mavericks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2008 after winning the Southland Conference Tournament...in 2008 he led his team to a school-record 21 victories and his team completed a school record 17-game home winning streak (3 games in `07 and the first 14 of `08)...Cross has reached 50 wins faster than any coach in school history (90th game)...a 1998 graduate of UT Arlington, Cross was a 2-time Academic All-American at his alma mater where he lettered 3 times from 1995-98.
LAST GAME - UTA 88, DALLAS BAPTIST 84 - Nov. 14, 2009 Marquez Haynes scored 30 points and had six assists as UTA won its season opener over Dallas Baptist 88-84 Saturday. Brandon Long supported Hayes with 14 points. Tommy Moffitt scored 12 points, but led the Mavericks with 15 rebounds. Junior guard Braxton Adamson was perfect from beyond the 3-point line in the second half, leading Dallas Baptist with 26 points. It was a sloppy game for both teams. Texas-Arlington shot only 6-for-26 on 3-pointers, and Dallas Baptist committed 19 turnovers. The Mavericks also committed 28 fouls, sending the Patriots to the line 40 times. LAST MEETING - UT ARLINGTON 80, NORTH TEXAS 75 - Dec. 29, 2008 Anthony Vereen scored 19 points and Tommy Moffitt had 17 to lead UT Arlington past North Texas 80-75. Vereen was 8-of-11 from the field for the Mavericks (5-6). Brandon Long scored 16, Marquez Haynes had 14 and Roge'r Guignard added 10 points. Collin Dennis led North Texas (8-4) with 21 points. Josh White had 16 and Eric Tramiel added 10. George Odufuwa had 10 rebounds. North Texas trailed 70-59 with four minutes left but used an 11-3 run to take a 73-70 lead on a 3-pointer by White. The Mavericks went up 77-73 and White cut the margin again to 77-75. North Texas had a chance to tie the game with seven seconds left, but Dominique Johnson's shot came up short. UTA then hit two free throws for the final margin. North Texas led 40-36 at the half.
SUCCESS NEVER RESTS The Mavericks (50) and UNT (61) have won more games than any other NCAA team in the Metroplex since the start of the 2006-07 season...they are also the only two DFW schools to make the NCAA Tournament since 1998.
30 FOR HAYNES Marquez Haynes got his season off to a great start with a 30-point night vs. DBU...that is the second consecutive game in which he has scored 30 or more points as he had a career-high 36 in the Mavs season finale last year vs. TAMU-CC...the senior from Irving also tied a career-high with 4 steals and 2 blocks vs. DBU.
A RARE FEAT Haynes' consecutive 30-point performances marked just the 3rd time in school history a player has accomplished this. The others to do so are listed below
30 or More Points in Consecutive Games in UTA History Cal Tate 31 at Pepperdine (12.9.77) 30 vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville (12.10.77) Sam Norton 36 at Oral Roberts (1.3.84) 32 at Missouri State (1.9.84) Marquez Haynes 36 vs. TAMU-Corpus Christi (3.12.09) 30 vs. Dallas Baptist (11.14.09)
DOUBLE YOUR FUN Senior Tommy Moffitt started his year off with his 5th career double-double with 12 points and a career-high tying 15 rebounds vs. DBU...it was his first double-double since a 19-10 game at UTSA last year.
BLOCK PARTY Trey Parker blocked 4 shots vs. DBU...that gives him 84 for his career...he needs just 2 more to move into 2nd place on the school's all-time block list...Jermaine Griffin (2004-08) leads the list with 145.
NEW HOME FOR MAVERICKS The UT System Board of Regents approved funding for UTA's Special Events Center on Feb. 12, 2009...the new home of the Mavericks men's, women's basketball and volleyball teams is expected to open for the 2012-13 season...the new arena is expected to seat 6,650 for basketball.
TEXAS HALL HAS BEEN GOOD FOR THE MAVS The Mavericks are now 1-0 at home this year after going 9-2 at Texas Hall last year...over the last 2+ seasons the Mavs are 24-5 at Texas Hall...UTA will play 16 home games this season after playing just 11 last year.
CROSS NETS 50TH WIN FASTER THAN ANY OTHER UTA COACH Mavericks head coach Scott Cross earned his 50th career victory with the win over Sam Houston on 2/28/09...it took Cross 90 games to earn his 50 wins and that is the fastest any UTA coach in history has reached this milestone...other UTA coaches to win at least 50 games won their 50th in the following game number - Eddie McCarter (121), Bob LeGrand (123), Barry Dowd (135), Mark Nixon (106) and Tom Tinker (154).
NEWEST MAVERICKS Head coach Scott Cross and his staff announced the signing of four players to National Letters of Intent earlier this week to begin playing for the Mavericks in 2010-11 season. They are freshmen -to-be guards Darius Richardson (Fort Bend Bush) and Shaquille White (Port Arthur Memorial) plus center Stuart Lagerson (Converse Judson). Guard Bradley Gay (Tyler JC) rounds out the signees.
PRESEASON PICKS UTA guard Marquez Haynes was named to the Southland Conference's preseason first team while forward Tommy Moffitt was named to the preseason second team, the league office announced in early November. The Southland Conference also announced its preseason basketball polls the same day and UT Arlington was ranked fourth in the Western Division by both the coaches and sports information directors. Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls were selected as the preseason favorites to win the Southland Conference men's basketball regular-season championship.
PLAYER HOOFPRINTS
#24 Ishmael Awange: 2 rebounds but did not score in 6 minutes vs. DBU...appeared in 18 games, playing 69 minutes last year ...scored 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on the season...
#25 Cameron Catlett: 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in 11 minutes in collegiate debut vs. DBU...led his Madison High School team to a 33-2 record as a senior and helped the Mavericks earn a No. 5 ranking in the nation during the year... a first team all-state Class 5A selection and the MVP of the Lone Star Invitational...McDonas All-American nominee...
#10 J.D. Davis: DNP-CD vs. DBU...appeared in 28 games, playing 250 minutes (9.0 mpg) last year...averaged 1.9 points and 1.4 rebounds per game on the season...played double figure minutes 11 times but did so only once in his last 11 appearances...
#2 Dwight Gentry II: 4 points (4-4 FTs) in 6 minutes vs. DBU...appeared in 18 games, playing 113 minutes last year...started once vs. Lamar on 1/14...averaged 2.4 points per game...played a career-high 23 minutes in final game of the season vs. TAMU-CC in Southland Conference Tournament...
#0 Marquez Haynes: Started year off with a 30-point, 6-assist, 5-rebound night vs, DBU...also tied career bests in the game with 4 steals and 2 blocks...first team preseason All-Southland Conference selection after being named a second team All-Southland Conference selection last year...played in all 30 games, starting 29...ranked among conference leaders in all games in scoring (3rd, 16.5), assists (9th, 3.4), free throw percentage (6th, 79%) and minutes played (4th, 32.2)...in conference games only ranked among league leaders in scoring (8th, 16.3), rebounding (21st, 5.3), assists (5th, 3.6), free throw percentage (5th, 80.9%), assist-to-turnover ratio (10th, 1.2) and minutes played (6th, 33.2)...
#23 Brandon Long: 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 29 minutes vs. DBU...appeared in 28 games and started 27 last year...team's 3rd-leading scorer at 12.7 and averaged 11.1 in conference games...ranked among conference leaders in scoring (14th), 3-point field goals (2.0) and minutes played (30.8)...his 57 3-point field goals tied for 17th and 181 attempts are eighth on UTA's all-time single season lists...
#1 Hungo Makor: A senior who is an invited walk-on to the program.
#12 Jon Miller: Career-high 6 points in 12 minutes vs. DBU...appeared in 4 games, playing 18 minutes before suffering a nose injury that required surgery that ended his season in 2008-09...granted a medical redshirt following his surgery
#4 Tommy Moffitt: 5th career dbl-dbl with 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds vs. DBU in 31 minutes...second team Capital One Bank/Southland Conference All-Academic selection for the second consecutive season last year ...appeared in all 30 games, starting 20...averaged 7.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game...finished second on the team in rebounding...
#5 Trey Parker: 2 points and one rebound in 21 minutes vs. DBU...also had 4 blocks...appeared in 27 games, starting 11 last year...blocked a career-high 44 shots which was 6th in the Southland Conference and his 36 blocks in conference play was 4th in the league...those 44 blocks was the 2nd-highest single season total in school history (58 by Jermaine Griffin in 2007)
#31 LaMarcus Reed III: 6 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds in 27 minutes vs. DBU...appeared in 28 games playing 266 minutes but averaged 15.5 mpg in his last 12 games played in 2008-09...finished the season averaging, 3.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game overall but in the last 12 games he played averaged 7.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg...
#55 Jordan Reves: Started at center in his first collegiate game and had 2 points in 6 minutes...named to All-District Regional team and was a honorable mention all-region selection following his senior year at Jeffersontown...averaged 13 points and 6 rebound per game as a senior...
#20 Armani Williams: Leading bench scorer with 8 points in 10 minutes vs. DBU...redshirted last year...underwent knee surgery at the beginning of the season...able to return during the season to practice with the team.
