11/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UT Arlington (3-2) at Montana State (0-4)
Friday | 8:05 p.m. CT | Breeden Fieldhouse
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By Art Garcia | UTAMavs.com
BOZEMAN, Montana - Surprisingly, safe passage across the country wasn't at the top of the thankful list for UT Arlington men's basketball this Thanksgiving. Family, friends and, in this case, team were top of mind for the Mavericks.
"I'm thankful to be here," UT Arlington coach Scott Cross said. "If you can't be at home with your wife and kids, there is no other place I rather be than with our team. I'm thankful we have a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow."
UTA men's basketball spent Thanksgiving together at the base of the Bridger, Tobacco Root and Big Belt Mountains. Practice, a full Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings at Best Western made possible by head athletic trainer Roy "Rudy V" Rudewick, plus plenty of football on TV made for a filling day.
The day prior to Turkey Day was more of a lesson in geography. The Mavericks endured nearly 20 hours of travel starting Wednesday morning to trek from Lexington, Kentucky to Bozeman, Montana. The team bused to Louisville, Kentucky, flew to Atlanta, flew to Salt Lake City before busing more than seven hours to arrive southwest Montana at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
The journey to go from losing at Kentucky to facing Montana State might appear daunting, as the Mavericks traveled 2,782 miles between destinations, but in a way it served as another bonding experience.
"Being with each other for almost 20 hours, we had a lot of down time to talk and bond," senior guard Jamel Outler said. "We had a lot of funny moments together. Never would we have thought we would have traveled together so long."
UT Arlington is facing Montana State for the first time. The Mavericks are 2-1 on the road this season and 3-2 overall.
Senior guard Lonnie McClanahan is the team's leading scorer averaging 12.0 points, despite coming off the bench in all five games. Freshman forward Kevin Hervey is pulling down a team-high 9.2 rebounds per game.
