Nov. 26, 2011
Final Stats
Arlington, Texas - The UT Arlington men's basketball fought back from an early deficit only to see a last second shot fall short as they lost to Samford 71-69 Saturday night at Texas Hall.
The game came down to the last seconds as UTA's Shaquille White-Miller had a chance to tie the game with a pair of free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining after a miss by Samford's Raijon Kelly.
White-Miller missed the first one and then deliberately missed the second and the rebound was knocked out of bounds by a Samford player with 0.6 seconds to play.
After a timeout, the Mavericks (3-2) threw the ball into Jordan Reves who was able to get a shot off but it bounced out and UTA lost its second consecutive game.
"It was the look we were trying to get," UTA head coach Scott Cross said. "It looked like Jordan may have been fouled at the end."
The game started with Samford (1-3) making 12 of its first 16 field goals which included 8-of-11 on three-pointers as they took a 37-15 lead with eight minutes to play in the half.
"I wish we didn't find ourselves in that position but we did tonight," Cross said. "Samford did a great job and it was one of those nights where we got down early and had to fight our way back."
And fight back the Mavericks did. UTA finished the half on a 17-3 run of its own to cut the lead to eight at the break at 40-32.
The Mavericks tied the game at 45, after a 30-8 run, and then took the lead for the first time with 8:45 to play on a Kevin Butler layup at 54-52. The game then became a back-and-forth affair as there were 10 lead changes and the game was four more times as it came to its finish.
Kelly was the hero for Samford as he made a three-pointer with 1:13 to play to give Samford the final margin of victory. He finished with seven points.
Drew Windler led Samford with 16 points while Jeffrey Merritt added 15 and Will Cook 11. Merritt and Cook each had seven rebounds to lead the Bulldogs.
LaMarcus Reed led UT Arlington with 17 points while Butler added 14.
The Bulldogs shot 60.9% in the first half and finished the game at 51.1% while the Mavericks shot 40.4% for the game.
The Mavericks outrebounded Samford 33-31 and scored 18 second chance points after grabbing 13 offensive rebounds.
UTA also had its best game of the season from the foul line as they made 20-of-25. "It was nice to see us shoot foul shots well tonight," Cross added.
The Mavericks have just a day off before they host UT Pan American at Texas Hall on Monday at 7 p.m.
