Dec. 2, 2009

UTA GAME NOTES

Arlington, Texas -

A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS UT Arlington takes on North Dakota Friday in Des Moines, Iowa in the first round of the Drake Hy-Vee Challenge...the Mavericks will play either Drake or SIU-Edwardsville Saturday depending on the outcome of Friday's game...UTA comes into the game with a 3-2 mark after winning 80-75 at Houston Baptist Monday...the Mavs have also won consecutive games for the first time this season...tonight's game is the 2nd of 4 consecutive on the road and the 2nd of 3 games in 6 nights right before Finals Week.

COVERAGE The UND game, and all UTA men's games home and away, will be carried live on utamavs.com...the "Voice of the Mavericks", Pete Tenney will be joined by Associate AD Gregg Elkin on the broadcast...Gametracker is also available via utamavs.com.

UTA - UND SERIES Tonight's game is the first-ever meeting between the schools.

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 4th season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 53-45 (.541)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 24-24 and 3-2 in the conference tournament...he is 0-0 vs. UND...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)...Cross has reached 50 wins faster than any coach in school history (90th game)...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.

LAST GAME - UT ARLINGTON 80, HOUSTON BAPTIST 75 - Nov. 30, 2009 Brandon Long scored 27 points and UTA used a 22-3 run midway through the second half to beat Houston Baptist 80-75 Monday. Long scored 19 in the second half for the Mavericks (3-2), who were severely tested in their first road game of the season. Marquez Haynes added 18 points and LaMarcus Reed 10. The Huskies (0-6) expanded a 43-42 halftime lead to 58-48 on Miles Dixon's jump shot with 14:14 left. But then UTA went on its run to go ahead 70-61 with 7:42 left.HBU trimmed the deficit to 72-69 on Mario Flaherty's free throw with 2:40 to go. But that was as close as the Huskies got. Wendell Preadom led Houston Baptist with 19 points and a game-high seven rebounds.

CROSS TO HIT CENTURY MARK THIS WEEKEND UTA head coach Scott Cross will coach his 99th and 100th games at UTA this weekend at the Drake Hy-Vee Challenge.

LONG BACK ON TRACK AND NEARING 1,000 After being held to a season-low 3 points vs. Eastern Washington, Brandon Long has scored 19 and 27 in the last two games...during this stretch he has shot 62% (16-26) from the field and made 8-15 3FGs (53.3%)...his 27 points against Houston Baptist gave him 977 for his career...he needs just 23 to become just the 20th player in UTA history to reach 1,000 career points...his 10 field goals in the HBU game were a career-high and the 27 points was just one off his career-high set earlier this season vs. North Texas.

HAYNES SLOWED FOR FIRST TIME THIS SEASON After starting the season averaging 30.3 ppg in the first 3 games, Marquez Haynes has averaged "just" 18.5 ppg in the last two contests...during this span he has made just 13-31 (41%) from the field but has made up for that by making 13-21 3's (62%)...he missed by one point of becoming the first player in UTA history to score 30 or more points in 3 consecutive games as he had a team-high 29 against North Texas...he did become just the 3rd player in school history to register consecutive 30+ games with those efforts.

COLD SHOULDER FROM THE FIELD The Mavericks were one of the better shooting teams in the Southland Conference last year at 47.1% from the field...however this season the Mavs are at 42.7%...the 42.2% night at HBU marked the 3rd time in the last 4 games the Mavs have shot that low...the best shooting mark of the season was 47.2% vs. UT Permian Basin.

NOT FROM 3-POINT RANGE While their overall shooting has been down, UTA has increased its 3-point shooting in each game...the season started with a 23.1% (6-26) effort vs. DBU and has increased each game to a season best 10-24 (41.7%) against HBU.

STARTERS PROVIDING SCORING LOAD UTA starters have scored 320 of the Mavs 405 points this season...that comes to 79% of the team's scoring...Haynes and Long have accounted for 54% of the team's scoring total themselves.

ON THE BOARDS The Mavericks were outrebounded in the first 3 games of the season but have had a +3 margin in the last two games...UTA comes into tonight's contest at a -3.2 margin on the season...last year UTA held a +1.4 margin in rebounding.

BLOCK PARTY Trey Parker had 2 blocks at HBU and now has 87 for his career...he is now in 2nd place on the school's all-time block list, trailing only Jermaine Griffin (2004-08) leads the list with 145.

NEW HOME FOR MAVERICKS The UT System Board of Regents approved funding for UTA's Special Events Center on Feb. 12, 2009...the new home of the Mavericks men's, women's basketball and volleyball teams is expected to open for the 2012-13 season...the new arena is expected to seat 6,650 for basketball.

TEXAS HALL HAS BEEN GOOD FOR THE MAVS The Mavericks are 2-2 at home this year after going 9-2 at Texas Hall last year...over the last 2+ seasons the Mavs are 25-7 at Texas Hall...UTA will play 16 home games this season after playing just 11 last year.

CROSS NETS 50TH WIN FASTER THAN ANY OTHER UTA COACH Mavericks head coach Scott Cross earned his 50th career victory with the win over Sam Houston on 2/28/09...it took Cross 90 games to earn his 50 wins and that is the fastest any UTA coach in history has reached this milestone...other UTA coaches to win at least 50 games won their 50th in the following game number - Eddie McCarter (121), Bob LeGrand (123), Barry Dowd (135), Mark Nixon (106) and Tom Tinker (154).

NEWEST MAVERICKS Head coach Scott Cross and his staff announced the signing of four players to National Letters of Intent earlier this week to begin playing for the Mavericks in 2010-11 season. They are freshmen -to-be guards Darius Richardson (Fort Bend Bush) and Shaquille White (Port Arthur Memorial) plus center Stuart Lagerson (Converse Judson). Guard Bradley Gay (Tyler JC) rounds out the signees.