Dec. 2, 2015

UT Arlington (5-2) vs. North Texas (2-4)
Thursday | 7 p.m. | College Park Center

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By Art Garcia | @ArtGarcia92

ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington and North Texas resume an old rivalry after a two-year hiatus Thursday night at College Park Center. The Mavericks and Mean Green are squaring off for the 48th time in a series that began in 1974.

The two programs played every season from 2006-07 to 2012-13, with the Mavericks going 5-2 over that span under UTA coach Scott Cross. UTA and North Texas were also in the Southland Conference together from 1983 to 1996.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. with the Dallas-Fort Worth radio broadcast starting at 6:45 on KKGM 1630 AM.

"It sounds like we're going to have a great crowd," Cross said. "It is the biggest rival we have, so I would expect the atmosphere will be off the charts."

In the last meeting, UT Arlington defeated the Mean Green 72-59 during the 2012-13 season. Junior guard Drew Charles is the only current Maverick to have faced North Texas. Despite the lack of recent history, Charles said his teammates still consider UNT a rival.

"Our guys have played with guys that go to school there," he said. "They have some local kids and we're local kids, so it's battle of local kids."

The Mavericks (5-2) are coming off a heartbreaking 80-73 overtime loss at Texas on Tuesday night. UTA led at halftime and had the final shot in regulation, albeit a desperation 3-pointer from sophomore point guard Erick Neal. Sophomore forward Kevin Hervey tallied his fourth consecutive double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Even though UTA's four-game winning streak came to an end, battling the Longhorns down to the wire impressed Cross.

"I felt like we did go toe-to-toe with them," he said. "We did an unbelievable job on the boards to beat them by 10-plus on the boards after last year they out-rebounded us by 25. That show that these guys are a special rebounding group, and hopefully we can continue to do that.

"Watching the video I felt like we made the hustle plays. We were diving on the floor, grabbing loose balls. We just have to do a better job offensively with our ball movement, our player movement and just spill the ball a little bit more."

Single game, season tickets or All Sport Passes are available at UTATickets.com or by contacting the College Park Center Box Office at (817) 272-9595.