MAVERICKS LOOK TO GET BACK ON TRACK AT CORPUS CHRISTI

Feb. 3, 2009

ARLINGTON, Tx. - A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS UT Arlington is back in action as they play the first of 2 road games this week at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi...the Mavericks enter tonight's game 10-9 overall and 3-3 in the West Division of the Southland Conference (4th in the division) after losing 80-78 to Texas State at home Saturday...UTA has dropped its last 2 games after posting a season-high tying 3-game win streak...the Mavericks have still won 6 of their last 9.

COVERAGE The game can viewed and followed via the TAMU-CC website at goislanders.com.

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 3rd season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 44-38 (.537)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 18-19 and 3-1 in the conference tournament...he has a career record of 2-2 vs. TAMU-CC...Cross led the Mavericks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2008 after winning the Southland Conference Tournament...in 2008 he led his team to a school-record 21 victories and his team completed a school record 17-game home winning streak (3 games in `07 and the first 14 of `08)...a 1998 graduate of UT Arlington, Cross was a 2-time Academic All-American at his alma mater where he lettered 3 times from 1995-98.

UTA - TAMU-CC SERIES This is just the 9th meeting between the schools and TAMU-CC leads the series 5-3 which includes a 3-1 edge in games played in Corpus Christi...since the Islanders joined the conference 2 years ago, the teams have split 4 games with TAMU-CC winning both games in 2007 and the Mavericks winning twice last year - 57-55 at TAMU-CC (1/26/08) and 82-69 at UTA (2/23/08)...the teams play for the 2nd time this season on March 7 at UTA.

MAVERICKS DAILY DOUBLE Marquez Haynes leads the Southland Conference in scoring at 19.2 points per game...he is followed by teammate Anthony Vereen who is tied for 2nd at 19.0 ppg...Haynes is also 2nd in 3FG% (55.6%) and 5th in assists (4.0) and minutes (34.0).

ROAD WORK The Mavericks are back on the road tonight in Corpus Christi...the Mavs are 5-7 in road games (5-8 overall away from home)...the 5 road wins is tied with UTSA for the most in the Southland Conference...the Mavericks won 4 non-conference road games this season against Division I opponents which is the first time in school history this has happened...UTA won 5 non-conference road games in 1965-66 and 1966-67 but some of the opponents were not D-I...the Mavs also won 4 in 1980-81 but one of the wins was a non D-I victory...the school record for road wins in a season against Division I opponents is 8 set in 1980-81 and 1990-91...the 1980-81 team holds the school record for most road victories with 11.

LAST GAME - TEXAS STATE 80, UT ARLINGTON 78 Brent Benson hit a 10-foot floater in the lane with 15 seconds left to give Texas State an 80-78 victory against UTA. Benson, Texas State's leading scorer this season, had just six points when he grabbed an offensive rebound, dribbled to his right and hit the winning shot. Brandon Bush led the Bobcats (9-11, 2-5 Southland) with 19 points and nine rebounds, and John Rybak scored 18. Anthony Vereen led the Mavericks (10-9, 3-3) with 25 points. Marquez Haynes scored 19. Vereen put UTA ahead 78-76 on a three-point play with 1:32 remaining, before Texas State's Corey Jefferson tied the score by hitting two free throws with 1:16 to go.

MORE OF THE SAME UTA has lost its last 2 games and there have been 2 deciding factors in each contest...the Mavs have been outrebounded in each game and the opponents have grabbed a combined 29 offensive rebounds (17 at SHS, 12 vs. TSU) which they have turned into 33 2nd chance points (15 at SHS and 18 vs. TSU)...those 2 opponents have also taken advantage of the Mavs miscues as SHS converted 10 UTA turnovers into 15 points and TSU scored 25 points off of 17 UTA turnovers.

OTHER STATS DON'T TELL THE STORY While those 2 areas have hurt the Mavs in the last 2 games, the team has been playing consistently...other than in rebounding where the Mavs were a +4.0 during their 3-game win streak as opposed to a -7.5 margin average in the last 2 games, there has been little difference in some other key stat areas...FG% (47.7 - 3-game win streak, 47.2 - 2-game losing streak); 3FG% (41%, 40.5%), FT% (69.7%, 75.5%), assists (17.3, 18.5), turnovers (13.0, 13.5), steals (5.0, 6.5) and points (87.0, 76.0).

DEFENSIVE PERCENTAGE After holding its 2 previous opponents to just 37.6% (41-109) from the field, Texas State shot 46.6%...that was the highest percentage since TSU shot 55.4% in the conference season-opening game...Texas State is the only team to have shot better than 46% against the Mavs in the last 9 games...UTA is 9-1 when holding their opponents to less than 46% from the field...the Mavs have lost all 5 games in which the opponents have shot better than 50% from the field and are 0-7 over the last 2 years when that has happened.

ONLY ONE IN THESE FOUR The Mavericks are the only team in the Southland Conference to be ranked in the top 3 in scoring (78.3, 2nd), field goal percentage (47.2%, 3rd), 3-point field goals percentage (35.5, 3rd) and free throw percentage (73.4%, 2nd).

LOSSES BY SMALL MARGINS; WINS BY LARGE MARGINS These last 2 UTA losses have come by a combined 6 points (4 at SHS, 2 vs. TSU)...6 of UTA's 9 losses this season have come by 4 points or less...the Mavericks have posted double-digit wins in 4 of the last 5 wins (only exception was 3-point win at UTSA)...7 of the Mavericks 10 wins have been by at least 10 points...UTA average winning margin this season is 13.9 ppg...other than the 15-point win over SFA, 3 of the Mavs last 4 games have been decided by 4 points or less.

WINS AND LOSSES There are some notable differences in the Mavericks 10 wins and 9 losses...the opponents are shooting 42.2% from the field and 30.3% from 3-point range in UTA wins but those numbers increase to 49.8% and 37.2% in the Mavs losses...rebounding also tells the story as the Mavs average 38.3 pg in the victories but just 31.0 in the losses...in the wins the Mavs are averaging 83.7 points per game but in the losses that average drops to 72.3 a contest.

Anthony Vereen MOVING UP THE CHARTS Earlier this season Anthony Vereen became the 18th player in school history to score 1,000 career points...he now has 1,271 and is in 6th place on the all-time list...Jeffrey Stewart is 5th with 1,302 points.

TEAM NOTES The Mavericks have been a consistent scoring team all season...they have scored at least 74 points in 10 of the last 11 games...the 78 vs. Texas State was the 2nd-highest total in a loss this year (79 at Tulsa)...UTA is 6-0 when scoring 80 or more points and 14-3 when dating back to last year...UTA's conference scoring average of 81.5 leads the Southland and overall scoring average of 78.3 ppg is 2nd in the Southland.

UTA's 48% (24-50) effort from the field vs. Texas State was its 2nd-highest of the conference season (50% at UTSA)...the Mavericks have shot at least 46.4% in the last 5 games...UTA has outshot its opponent in 8 of the last 9 games...the Mavs have shot 50% or better 7 times in `08-'09 and have won all of those games...UTA has won 11 of its last 12 games dating back to last year in which they have shot at least 50% from the field...the Mavs are 3rd in the Southland Conference at 47.2% from the field.

UTA has shot at least 38% from 3-point range in 4 of the last 5 games...the Mavs made 8-21 (38.1%) vs. TSU after going 16-36, 44.4% in the 2 previous games...UTA is 0-3 in games when they have shot less than 30% from 3-point range...the team is 3-2 when they make at least 10 3's and 7-3 dating back to last year when doing so...the Mavericks average 7.3 3's per game which is 4thin the Southland.

The Mavericks posted season-highs from the line with a 22-29 (75.9%) effort vs. TSU...UTA has shot at least 73% in 4 of the last 5 games...UTA has shot at least 20 free throws in 5 of the last 6 and at least 25 in 4 of those games...last year the Mavs shot just 65.5 from the line but are shooting 73.4% which is the 2nd best mark in the Southland.

The Mavs have been outrebounded in the last 2 games (-10 at SHS and -5 vs. TSU)...the team had gone 8 consecutive games prior to this without this happening...the Mavs have averaged just 31.5 rpg in the last 2 games after posting an average of 43.5 in the 2 previous games...UTA's margin on the season is +0.7.

The Mavericks rank first in SLC games only at 16.7 assists per game (3rd all games, 15.8)...the Mavs have averaged 18 per game in the last 3 and have at least 17 in 4 of the last 5 games.

UTA's 17 turnovers vs. TSU was the most in the last 12 games as the team had fewer than 14 7 of the previous 10 games...UTA is 3rd for the fewest turnovers in the Southland at 13.7...the Mavericks tied a conference season-high with 8 steals vs. TSU...the Mavs did not have a block vs. TSU (3rd time this season)...the Mavericks are 5-2 when holding opponents to less than 70 points...last year the team was 17-1 when doing so...UTA has played 7 games decided by 3 points or less (2-5)...last year UTA was 2-2 in games decided by 3 points or less and 7-1 in games decided by 20 or more.