Nov. 17, 2008

Texas Wesleyan Game Notes

ARLINGTON, Texas - TEXAS WESLEYAN (1-1) vs. UT ARLINGTON (1-0)
Game #2 - Home Game #2
Tuesday, November 18 - 7 p.m. CT
Texas Hall - Arlington, Texas

A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS
UT Arlington plays their 2nd game of the season tonight as they host Texas Wesleyan...the Mavericks began their 2008-09 season with a 84-64 victory over Hardin Simmons Saturday.

UTA - TWU SERIES
Tonight's game is the 52nd meeting between the schools...UTA leads the series 38-13 which includes a 26-4 mark in games played in Arlington...the teams last met on 11/29/07 with UTA winning 71-49 at Texas Hall...the Mavericks have won the last 11 meetings with the last loss coming on 12/6/82 at TWU (79-78).

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross
Cross is in his 3rd season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 35-29...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.

SEASON OPENING BEST
UTA's victory over Hardin-Simmons was its 3rd consecutive opening game victory...this is the first time in school history the Mavericks have won their first game in 3 consecutive seasons - defeated UC Riverside in 2008 (79-58) and UT Tyler in 2007 (87-59)...prior to this span, the Mavericks had lost 10 of 11 season openers with the only win coming at the start of the 2000-01 season when they defeated Texas Wesleyan (86-78)...UTA is now 13-37 in season openers in school history.

LAST GAME - UTA 84, HSU 64
UT Arlington opened its season with an 84-64 victory over Hardin-Simmons on 11/15 at Texas Hall. The Mavericks had 5 players score in double figures - led by junior guard Brandon Long's 18 - while using a 57 percent shooting effort in the second half to win a school record 3rd consecutive season-opener...the Mavs (1-0) jumped out to a 20-point lead, 31-11, at the 8:51 mark in the first half after an 11-0 run during a five minute span which gave UT Arlington its largest lead in the first half...UTA quickly stretched its lead to 22 points (57-35) early in the second half as Long and Anthony Vereen scored back-to-back buckets...the Mavericks shot 52 percent (31-for-60) from the field, including 6-of-19 from long range...Long led the Mavs with three 3-pointers and a game-high 18 points.

A HOME RARITY
Last Saturday's and tonight's game are the first of only 2 times this season in which UTA will be playing consecutive home games...the next and only other time this will happen is on Feb. 11 and 14 when they host McNeese State and UTSA...the Mavericks are starting the season playing 3 of 4 at home before embarking on a stretch where they will play 10 consecutive games away from Texas Hall....that span is the longest away from home in UTA history.

THE LONG ROAD BACK
Brandon Long, who had his 2007-08 season cut short to 9 games with a thumb injury, picked up right where he left off as he led the Mavericks with 18 points in the season-opener...Long scored in double figures in 7 of his 9 games last year and had more than 18 points only once (19 vs. Texas Southern on 11/14/07).

FROM THE FIELD
The Mavericks started the season with a 51.7% (31-60) shooting effort from the field against HSU...UTA finished the `07-'08 season by shooting at least 50% in 5 of the last 6 games.

FOR THE NOTEBOOK
The Mavericks had 22 assists on 31 baskets in the Hardin-Simmons game...one of the keys of a good team is making more free throws than their opponents attempt and Saturday's season-opener was no exception for UTA...the Mavericks went 16-24 from the line while HSU was just 5-7...UTA committed just 13 fouls in the game.