Just a few quick observations from Sunday afternoon’s basketball game between UT-Arlington (3-1) vs. UC Davis (1-4):

• Final score: UTA 68, UC Davis 59
• Another balanced offensive attack with four players in double digits in scoring: Brian Warren 18 points, Radshad Davis 12, DJ Bryant 11, Edrick Dennis 11
• Great effort for 40:00 from the Mavericks today. Good passes, 8 steals and getting lots of deflections and put a lot of pressure on UC Davis shooters
• UT Arlington continues to defended the 3-point line very well (UC Davis only 6-23, 26%)

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UTA, who looked impressive Tuesday night against a NAIA opponent, used a hot-shooting second half and a strong team defensive effort to defeat mid-major power University of Northern Iowa in front of a vocal College Park Center Homecoming Night crowd of 3,789.

An elite mid-major basketball program in recent years, Northern Iowa has been in the NCAA Tournament seven times in the last 15 years, and defeated top seed Kansas in 2010. UNI–who defeated UTA in Cedar Falls in the first game of a good home-and-home series–has had back-to-back seasons under. 500 and came to Arlington Saturday night with a young, talented, tall team featuring superstar guard A.J. Green, a four-star recruit ranked in ESPN’s top 100. Continue reading →

UTA 58, Northern Iowa 62
Just a quick late-night post…In a game that was being billed by many basketball fans as one of the best matchups around the country tonight, the Mavs’ mediocre shooting continued and UTA saw a 9-point lead with about 9 minutes left disappear to lose their second game of the season. The game wasn’t an offensive masterpiece for either team, but it was game of runs by each team, and UTA came up just a little short tonight. Northern Iowa (7-2 with quality wins over UNLV, SMU) was ranked 26 in RPI going into the game, UTA was in the mid-30’s.  UTA held UNI scoreless for about two minutes in the closing minutes of the game, but a furious Maverick rally of their own wasn’t quite enough to overcome a late 7-point UNI lead. Continue reading →

A large homecoming crowd of 4,379 didn’t have a lot to cheer about in the first half. But a second half comeback gave the Mavs an 85-80 win in their season opener.

The Mavs, coming off a historic 27-win season and a convincing exhibition win over Oklahoma, found themselves trailing much of the night (LMU lead for 33:17). Opening games are often less than perfect from an offensive execution standpoint, and tonight was no exception. Give credit to Loyola-Marymount, they came in and played a solid game defensively and nearly pulled off a huge road upset win against UTA.

After 20:00, the Mavs’ defense looked a little sluggish at times and LMU’s zone defense proved to be very effective. Hence, the Mavs were down 41-36 after shooting a respectable 44% FG but shooting a mere 4-13 from outside and losing the battle of the boards. LMU outrebounded the Mavs 39-29 for the game.

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