Feb. 6, 2009

UT ARLINGTON GAME NOTES

ARLINGTON, Tx. - A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS The UTA Mavericks play their 2nd road game of the week at Northwestern State...the Mavs come into today's game on a 3-game losing streak after losing 82-75 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi...the Mavericks enter today's game 10-10 overall and 3-4 in the West Division of the Southland Conference...UTA has now lost 3 consecutive after winning 3 in a row...the Mavericks had won 6 of their previous 7 games before this current losing skid...with all the traveling the Mavericks have done this season it would seem normal they are playing out of state but this is the first time in 9 games to be playing outside of Texas (last game was on 1/3 at Utah Valley).

COVERAGE The game can be listened to, viewed and tracked via the Northwestern State website at nsudemons.com.

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 3rd season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 44-39 (.530)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 18-20 and 3-1 in the conference tournament...he has a career record of 1-2 vs. Northwestern State...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)...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.

UT ARLINGTON - NORTHWESTERN STATE SERIES Today's game is he 47th meeting between the schools...UTA leads the series 26-20...the series stands at 11-11 in games played in Natchitoches...last year the teams played twice with NSU winning in Arlington 86-82 on 1/5/08 and then UTA defeating the Demons 82-79 to win the Southland Conference Tournament Championship...before that win, UTA had lost 5 consecutive games to NSU.

VEREEN ON A TEAR Senior Anthony Vereen has been arguably his best basketball of the season over the last week and a half...he scored a career-high 29 points at TAMU-CC...it was his 3rd consecutive game to score 20 or more points which is a first in his career (he did score 20+ in 3 of 4 games earlier this season)...he leads the conference in scoring at 17.8 per game and during this current span he has averaged 24.7 ppg and has shot 70.5% (24-34) from the field which includes making 16-20 in the last 2 games and 80.6% (25-31) from the line...in each of the last 2 games he has made 11-13 free throws...earlier this season he became the 18th player in school history to score 1,000 career points...he now has 1,300 and is in 6th place on the all-time list...Derrick Obasohan is 4th with 1,308 points while Jeffrey Stewart is 5th with 1,302.

VEREEN A MEMBER OF THE 1000/500 CLUB Anthony Vereen also recently became the 18th player in UTA history to register 500 or more rebounds and now has 520 career boards (T16th)...he is now just the 9th player in school history to have 1000 points and 500 rebounds.

DAY TRIPPIN' Today's game is just the 3rd daytime contest of the season...the Mavs have lost both of their previous day contests - both to Texas State...UTA needs to get used to waking up early as they have day games on each of the next 4 Saturdays.

OTHER SIDE OF THE CONFERENCE Today's contest is just the 2nd of the season for the Mavs against a team from the Southland's East Division...in the their only previous game they defeated SFA 67-52...4 of UTA's next 5 games are against East Division opponents and 5 of their final 9 conference games are as well.

ROAD WORK Today's game is the 15th game away from home for the Mavericks...the Mavs are 5-8 in road games (5-9 overall away from home)...the 5 road wins is tied with UTSA for the most in the Southland Conference...the Mavericks won 4 non-conference road games this season against Division I opponents which is the first time in school history this has happened...UTA won 5 non-conference road games in 1965-66 and 1966-67 but some of the opponents were not D-I...the Mavs also won 4 in 1980-81 but one of the wins was a non D-I victory...the school record for road wins in a season against Division I opponents is 8 set in 1980-81 and 1990-91...the 1980-81 team holds the school record for most road victories with 11.

LAST GAME - TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 82, UT ARLINGTON 75 Kevin Palmer scored 17 points and Justin Reynolds added 16 to help lead Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to an 82-75 victory over UTA. Horace Bond and Tim Green each had 14 points for the Islanders (11-10, 5-1 Southland). Anthony Vereen led UTA (10-10, 3-4) with a career-high 29 points. Roge'r Guignard added 14 and Marquez Haynes had 11. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi used a 28-7 run to start the second half. Texas-Arlington went on a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 62-55. After Vereen missed two free throws that would have cut the Islander lead to five, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi controlled the game the rest of the way, scoring 17 of their final 19 points off free throws.

THESE STATS NOT IN THE MAVS FAVOR During this current 3-game skid there have been 2 stats that have stood out in each game...the Mavs have allowed 41 offensive rebounds which have turned into 48 2nd chance points...these opponents have also taken advantage of UTA miscues as they have converted 45 UTA turnovers into 61 points.

ONLY ONE IN THESE FOUR The Mavericks are the only team in the Southland Conference to be ranked in the top 3 in scoring (78.2, 2nd), field goal percentage (47.1%, 3rd), 3-point field goals percentage (35.4, 3rd) and free throw percentage (73.7%, 2nd).

LOSSES BY SMALL MARGINS; WINS BY LARGE MARGINS This 3-game losing streak has come by a mere 13 points (4, 2 and 7)...6 of UTA's 10 losses this season have come by 4 points or less...the Mavericks have posted double-digit wins in 4 of the last 5 wins (only exception was 3-point win at UTSA)...7 of the Mavericks 10 wins have been by at least 10 points...UTA average winning margin this season is 13.9 ppg...other than the 15-point win over SFA, 4 of the Mavs last 5 games have been decided by 7 points or less.

WINS AND LOSSES There are some notable differences in the Mavericks wins and losses...the opponents are shooting 42.2% from the field and 30.3% from 3-point range in UTA wins but those numbers increase to 49.4% and 37.5% in the Mavs losses...rebounding also tells the story as the Mavs average 38.3 pg in the victories but just 31.6 in the losses...in the wins the Mavs are averaging 83.7 points per game but in the losses that average drops to 72.6 a contest.

TEAM NOTES The Mavericks have been a consistent scoring team all season...they have scored at least 74 points in 11 of the last 12 games...UTA is 6-0 when scoring 80 or more points and 14-3 when dating back to last year...UTA's conference scoring average of 80.6 is 2nd the Southland as its overall scoring average of 78.2 ppg.

UTA shot 44.8% at TAMU-CC which tied for the 2nd-lowest mark in conference play...the Mavs have shot 50% just once in conference play (7 games) after doing so in 4 of 5 previous games...UTA has outshot its opponent in 8 of the last 10 games...the Mavs have shot 50% or better 7 times in `08-'09 and have won all of those games...UTA has won 11 of its last 12 games dating back to last year in which they have shot at least 50% from the field...the Mavs are 3rd in the Southland Conference at 47.1% from the field.

UTA's 3-point shooting has been on the decline in the last 4 games going from 45% vs. SFA to just 33% at TAMU-CC...the Mavericks have made just 15-41 (36%) in the last 2 games after making 16-36 (44%) in the 2 previous games...its 21 3FGA in the last 2 games are the 2nd-highest total of the conference season...UTA is 0-3 in games when they have shot less than 30% from 3-point range...the team is 3-2 when they make at least 10 3's and 7-3 dating back to last year when doing so...the Mavericks average 7.3 3's per game which is 4th in the Southland.

The Mavericks free throw shooting percentage has increased in each of the last 3 games as they have made 53-69 (76%)...UTA made 16-20 (80%) which was the highest mark in SLC play...UTA has shot at least 20 free throws in 6 of the last 7 and at least 25 in 4 of those games...last year the Mavs shot just 65.5 from the line but are shooting 73.7% which is the 2nd best mark in the Southland.

The Mavs outrebounded TAMU-CC by one (37-36) and have outrebounded 8 of their last 10 opponents...the 37 rebounds in the last game was the most in the last 3 games...UTA had averaged just 31.5 in the 2 previous games...UTA's margin on the season is +0.8.

The Mavericks rank first in SLC games only at 16.0 assists per game (3rd all games, 15.7)...the Mavs had just 12 at TAMU-CC after averaging 18 in the 3 previous games...the 12 was the 2nd-lowest total of the conference season (11 at TSU).

UTA's 18 turnovers at TAMU-CC was the most in the last 13 games...the team has committed 35 turnovers in the last 2 games...prior to these last 2 games the team had fewer than 14 in 7 of 10 games...UTA is 3rd in fewest turnovers in the Southland at 14.0...the Mavericks had a conference season-high 9 steals at TAMU-CC and have 17 in the last 2 games...the Mavs have just one block in the last 2 games after recording 11 in the 3 previous games...the Mavericks are 5-2 when holding opponents to less than 70 points...last year the team was 17-1 when doing so...UTA has played 7 games decided by 3 points or less (2-5)...last year UTA was 2-2 in games decided by 3 points or less and 7-1 in games decided by 20 or more.