Nov. 30, 2009
UTA-HBU BOX SCORE 
Final Stats
Houston, Texas - Monday's UTA men's basketball game at Houston Baptist was a tale of two halves but a combination of strong defense and a lot of Brandon Long in the second 20 minutes turned into an 80-75 victory for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks found themselves down by one at the half 43-42 after HBU displayed a shooting touch they had not shown in their first five games. A team that had shot just 15% from 3-point range in those contests made 6-of-8 from beyond the arc and shot 53% overall from the field to take the halftime advantage.
Wendell Preadom was 0-of-13 in the first five games from 3-point range, but he made all four of his attempts in the first half and had 14 points while Andrew Gonzalez added 12 for the Huskies.
It didn't stop there as the Huskies came out strong in the second half taking a 56-46 lead just four minutes into the half.
From there it was a combination of the Mavericks defense and Long as the Mavs went on a 24-5 run over the next six minutes to take command of the game.
Long scored 10 points over a three minute stretch as the Mavs made their comeback.
"Brandon was on fire during that stretch," UTA head coach Scott Cross said. "He put us on his back and carried us during our comeback."
The Mavericks defense also stiffened and basically took HBU out of their offense. The Huskies were just 2-of-8 from the field during that span while the Mavs went 8-of-12.
"Our defense was outstanding during that stretch," Cross said. "All of them really stepped it up and that was the difference in the game."
One of those players was 6-8 junior forward Trey Parker, who grabbed five rebounds and had two blocked shots during the run.
"Trey had a big night for us," Cross said. "His interior defense really helped us."
HBU scored just 32 points in the second half and the Mavs held them to 44% from the field. After going 6-of-8 in the first half, the Huskies made only 2-of-5 from three-point range in the second half. UTA finished the game shooting 42% from the field.
Besides Parker, J.D. Davis helped the Mavs with eight points and five rebounds, four of which came on the offensive boards.
Davis had a key put back after a missed free throw with 1:33 to play after HBU had cut the lead to four. The play gave the Mavs a six-point advantage and sealed the victory.
"It is always good to win and especially win on the road," Cross said. "We need to be ready for this weekend as we head back out to the tournament at Drake."
Marquez Haynes added 18 for the Mavericks while LaMarcus Reed had 10. Preadom led Houston Baptist with 19.
UT Arlington is now 3-2 while HBU drops to 0-6.
UTA next plays North Dakota at the Drake Hy-Vee Challenge in Des Moines Friday. Tipoff is at 5 pm CT and can be heard on utamavs.com.
