Nov. 23, 2009

UT ARLINGTON GAME NOTES

Arlington, Texas -

A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS UT Arlington continues its 4-game season-opening homestand Tuesday as its hosts UT Permian Basin at 7 p.m....the game will be preceded by the UTA women's team taking on UMKC at 4 p.m....the Mavericks will be looking to snap a 2-game losing streak after dropping a 72-68 decision to Eastern Washington Saturday...UTA is now 1-2 after that loss.

COVERAGE The UTPB 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 on the broadcast...Gametracker is also available via utamavs.com.

UTA - UTPB SERIES This is the 5th meeting between the schools that started in the 2003-04 season and the Mavericks own a 4-0 series record...the last time the teams met was on 1.2.08 and the Mavs won that game 85-59...the average margin of victory in the 4 games is 24.0 ppg with the largest being a 43-point win (96-53) on 12.5.03.

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 51-45 (.531)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 24-24 and 3-2 in the conference tournament...he is 1-0 vs. UTPB...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 - EASTERN WASHINGTON 72, UT ARLINGTON 68 - Nov. 21, 2009 Jeffrey Forbes 24 points helped lead the Eastern Washington Eagles to a 72-68 victory over UTA. Forbes was 10-of-16 from the field and grabbed 4 rebounds. Alden Gibbs and Mark Dunn each added 11 points in the winning effort for the Eagles (2-2). Gibbs also had a game high 3 steals. Marquez Haynes scored 32 points for the Mavericks (1-2). He was 12-for-17 from the field including a 5-for-6 performance from the 3-point line. He also committed 9 turnovers. LaMarcus Reed added 13 points for the Mavericks. Eastern Washington recorded 14 assists in the game while the Mavericks were only able to get six.

HAYNES CONTINUES TORRID SCORING PACE Marquez Haynes had his second 30+-point game of the young season as he had a season-high 32 vs. Eastern Washington...he has now scored 30 or more points in 2 of the 3 games this season and in 3 of his last 4 games overall...he missed by one point of becoming the first player in UTA history to score 30 or more points in 3 consecutive games as he had a team-high 29 against North Texas...he did become just the 3rd player in school history to register consecutive 30+ games with those efforts...if he were to score reach 30 points tonight he would be the first player in school history to score 30 or more in consecutive games more than once.

NEAR THE TOP OF THE CHARTS As of Sunday, Nov. 22, Marquez Haynes was 2nd in the nation in scoring at 30.3 points per game trailing only Aubrey Coleman of Houston who is at 32.5 per game.

COLD SHOULDER The Mavericks were one of the better shooting teams in the Southland Conference last year at 47.1% from the field...this year that has not been the case as UTA is shooting just 41.8%...the same is holding true in other areas as the Mavs are shooting just 29.2% from 3-point range after shooting 33.8% last year and 67.5% from the line (75% last year)...on the defensive end, UTA's opponents are shooting 46.3% this season after being held to 44% a year ago.

BENCH HELP UTA starters have scored 208 of the Mavs 255 points this season...that comes to 82.5% of the team's scoring...Haynes himself has accounted for 36% of the team's scoring.

ON THE BOARDS The Mavericks have been outrebounded in each of the first 3 games and come into tonight's contest at a -6.3 margin on the season...last year UTA held a +1.4 margin in rebounding.

BLOCK PARTY Trey Parker has 5 blocks on the season and that gives him 85 in his career...he needs just one 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 1-2 at home this year after going 9-2 at Texas Hall last year...over the last 2+ seasons the Mavs are 24-7 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.