March 4, 2009
UTA-NICHOLLS BOX SCORE 
THIBODAUX, La. - A late rally by the short-handed UTA basketball team fell short Wednesday as they lost 79-77 at Nicholls State in their final regular season road game.
The Mavericks trailed by that score after Brandon Long with a turnaround 15-foot jump shot with 14 seconds remaining.
Nicholls inbounded the ball and made a pass to Ryan Bathie who turned and ran over a well-positioned Anthony Vereen who drew the charging call with just 8.6 seconds to go to give the Mavs one last chance.
Marquez Haynes brought up the ball and found Long open on the right wing. Long got a good look at the basket but his 3-pointer bounced out and the Mavs chances at grabbing a better seed at next week's Southland Conference Tournament vanished.
UTA hung around late in the game and had that chance to either tie or win after being down by six with just 32 seconds to play.
"We kept fighting and that is one positive that we can take away from tonight," UTA head coach Scott Cross said.
The Mavericks found themselves in an even bigger hole earlier in the second half after their eight-point lead at 41-33 turned into a 53-45 deficit with just eight minutes to play.
During that 20-4 run, UTA turned the ball over on 10 consecutive possessions. For the game, the Mavs turned the ball over 19 times which Nicholls turned into 22 points.
"Turnovers really hurt us tonight," Cross said. "We cannot do that if we are going to win games."
UTA played without its third-leading scorer Roge'r Guignard who sat out the game with a case of the flu.
Things looked good for the Mavericks early on as they led 13-4 before the Colonels went on a 21-7 run to take a 25-20 lead with 6:30 to play in the half. UTA answered that spurt with a 17-6 run of their own to hold a six point advantage at the half.
In the first half, the Mavericks shot 60% but cooled off to 48% in the second half. Nicholls shot 54% in the game including making 12-of-21 field goals in the second half.
UTA kept Nicholls from having second chances in the first half as the Colonels were held to zero offensive rebounds. However it was a different story in the second half, as Nicholls grabbed five offensive boards which all came at key points in the game.
"They got some key offensive rebounds in the second half at critical times," Cross said. "We did a good job of keeping them off the boards in the first half but they made the most of those chances in the second half."
Vereen led the Mavericks with 22 and Marquez Haynes added 18. LaMarcus Reed continued his good play with 10 first half points but was held scoreless in the second half.
Anatoly Bose scored 27 points and Bathie added 20 to lead Nicholls. Bose made three 3-pointers in the second half and scored 16 of his points after halftime. Those two combined to go 12-of-14 from the foul line.
The Mavericks, now 16-12 overall and 9-6 in the Southland, play their final regular season game Saturday at Texas Hall against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.
