Dec. 30, 2009

Final Stats

With 11 minutes to play in the game UT Arlington was down 59-51 to 11th-ranked Michigan State and thoughts of the biggest win in school history were starting to go through people's mind at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

But the upset was not to be as the Spartans used a strong run in the latter part of the second half to pull away and register an 87-68 victory.

The Spartans used a 23-8 run over the next seven minutes as the Mavericks record in games against nationally-ranked opponents fell to 0-17 all-time.

"I'm proud of the way we played tonight," UTA head coach Scott Cross said. "While I am never happy with a loss, and neither are our players, I thought we played with intensity and did what we ask the team to do."

During the run, Michigan State converted a number of offensive rebounds and took advantage of second chances as they held a 12-7 mark in second chance points and a lead 17-6 in points off turnovers.

A cold shooting second 20 minutes also hurt the Mavericks as they shot just 36% after going 15-for-30 in the first half. UTA finished the game shooting 44%.

Marquez Haynes led the Mavs with 20 points and Brandon Long added 16 but was just 6-of-19 from the field.

The game did not start out well for the Mavericks as they were down 10-0 at the first media time out and then found themselves down 18-2 just seven minutes into the game.

From there, the Mavericks offense hit its stride with Haynes scoring 13 points in the remainder of the half as UTA found themselves down by just six points at the break at 44-38. The Mavericks also got back into the game by making 6-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half.

The Mavericks shot 43.6 percent from the field and were just as accurate from long range, hitting 10 of 23 tries beyond the arc. But they committed 22 turnovers.

Michigan State shot 50.8 percent from the field, had a 39-29 advantage on the boards and 21-11 in assists.

Durrell Summers led four Michigan State players in double figures with 20 points.

The Mavericks are now 5-5 while Michigan State improved to 10-3.