No. 3 UT Arlington (22-9) vs. No. 7 Texas State (15-15)
Friday | 7:30 p.m. CT | Lakefront Arena
Game Notes | KKGM 1630 AM | Live Stats | WatchESPN

UTA Championship Central| Sun Belt Championship Page

By Art Garcia | @ArtGarcia92

NEW ORLEANS -- The postseason is now for the UT Arlington Mavericks, and they're ready.

After earning a bye through the first day of Sun Belt Championship play, No. 3 UTA opens up the tournament Friday night against No. 7 Texas State in the quarterfinals. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. from Lakefront Arena, with broadcasts on ESPN3 and KKGM 1630 AM.

The Mavs are 2-0 season against the Bobcats, which beat No. 6 Georgia State 63-61 in the first round Thursday night.

The Mavericks (22-9) ended the regular season with a four-game winning streak to finish third in the Sun Belt and earn the coinciding seed for the league tourney. It's UTA's highest finish since joining the conference three years ago.

The Mavs haven't played since Saturday's 90-55 win over Troy to wrap up a week that featured three home games. UT Arlington coach Scott Cross isn't worried about rust setting in during the break.

"It'll be just one day longer than what we normally do," he said. "That won't have much of an effect on us. We probably could use an extra day. With the last week of three games, our guys probably need an extra day of recovery, so it'll be a positive thing for our guys."

The Mavericks, currently two wins shy of the program record for victories in a season, lost leading scorer and rebounder Kevin Hervey to injury five game into the conference season.

"I'm very pleased with what our team has accomplished this year," Cross said. "After losing Kevin Hervey, it threw us into a bit of turmoil, but we have a resilient group of guys and they kept battling. We had to make some adjustments, but we found something that works and we're starting to play great basketball again. I'm excited to go down to the tournament and see what we can do."

Several Mavs have picked up their play down the stretch. Point guard Erick Neal earned first-team all-conference after leading the league in assists during the season and in Sun Belt play. Since Hervey went down, Jalen Jones and Kaelon Wilson have averaged 14.1 and 11.7 points, respectively.

"We've had a number of guys step up," Cross said. "That's definitely something you have to do by committee. When Kevin was here, we ran about 50 percent of the offense through him, 50 percent through Erick Neal. Now we have to run almost everything through Erick.

"He's our one playmaker out there, but Jalen Jones has stepped up. Kaelon Wilson has been really awesome down the stretch for us. Drew Charles has been a lockdown defender for us that can knock down open shots. [Jorge Bilbao] is that steady, tough guy that plays great post defense and does everything you ask. We have a number of guys that come off the bench that fill their role well."

WATCH PARTY
The Grease Monkey (200 N Mesquite St) is hosting Watch Parties for all Sun Belt Championship games. Food and drink specials available, along with prizes for UTA fans.