Dec. 21, 2011
Final Stats
UT Arlington at Utah State Photo Gallery
Logan, Utah - The UT Arlington men's basketball team made their first of what should be many visits to Logan, Utah to face Utah State Tuesday night and they showed their future WAC partner that it is a team that never gives up until the final buzzer sounds.
In the end, the Mavs dropped a 73-69 decision to the Aggies in the first game of the Athletes in Action Classic at Utah State's Spectrum.
A quick look at the stat sheet shows almost the same numbers in many categories such as field goals (27-25 in favor of UTA), free throws (13-9 in Utah State's favor and rebounding, which was equal at 32.
The difference in the game came from the three-point line as Utah State made 11-of-25 while UT Arlington was just 6-of-23 from beyond the arc.
"They were able to find their shooters early," UTA head coach Scott Cross said. "They are a well-coached team and you have to give them credit they were able to knock down some open shots."
Preston Medlin led the Utah State with 27 points as he made six 3-pointers while Danny Berger added four more for the Aggies as he finished with 12 points.
The contest was just a six-game at the half and stayed that way early in the second half before Medlin and Kyisean Reed headed a pair of 5-0 spurts by Utah State midway through the second half gave that broke open the game.
Medlin hit a three-pointer and then made a layup for one of the runs and that was followed a few minutes later by five points by Reed as they built a 16-point lead.
The Mavericks continued to fight after that point and made a valiant effort at the end as they finished the game on a 19-7 run over the final six and a half minutes.
Bo Ingram led UT Arlington with a season-high 21 points. LaMarcus Reed and Cameron added 11 points for the Mavericks while Jordan Reves had 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Ingram attempted 23 shots, 14 of which came from beyond the arc. Reed scored most of his points late in the contest after being held to just four free throws until that point.
The Mavericks did force Utah State into 17 turnovers and took advantage of those, turning them into 24 points. UT Arlington was also able to get the ball inside outscoring the Aggies 38-22 in points in the paint.
After being outrebounded at Tulsa in their last outing, the Mavericks held their own Tuesday as the rebounding was tied at 32 a piece. UTA also scored USU 19-11 on second chance points, making the most of their season-high 16 offensive rebounds. "It was good that we were better in rebounding tonight," Cross said. "It is something we have talked about over we did a good job of grabbing rebounds on the offensive end. We are going to need to do that to be successful."
Utah State finished the game shooting 49% from the field while UTA shot 44.3%.
The tournament continues Wednesday with the Mavericks facing Kent State who defeated Saint Peter's in the first game Tuesday 67-58.
Tipoff for that game is at 6:30 CT and can be heard on KVCE 1160 AM and kvceradio.com.
