Men’s basketball - Texas 84, UT Arlington 52

by PegNews wire

UT Arlington could not stay with the Texas Longhorns in the second half as Texas used a 17-4 run in the second half to pull away from the Mavericks for a 84-52 victory at the Frank Erwin Center Tuesday night.

UT Arlington (4-8) was led by sophomore center Jermaine Griffin with 16 points and a season-high 12 rebounds. Freshman guard Ro'ger Guignard canned 12 points and Larry Posey added 11. The Mavs finished the night 8-of-22 from the free-throw line.

Texas (10-3) was led by freshman forward Kevin Durant poured in 16 second-half points and finished with a game-high 21 points and 15 rebounds. Guard A.J. Abrams added 20 points and D.J. Augustin had 14 points and four assists.

The Longhorns outrebounded UTA 27 to 9 in the second half.

"I thought we played much more intensity than our last game," said UT Arlington Head Men's Basketball Coach Scott Cross, referring to a 78-76 loss to Texas-Dallas on Dec. 30. "We can build off of this game and hopefully we can continue to improve during the conference season.

"Give Texas credit, Texas' half-court defense was very good tonight. They made it extremely tough for us to get a clean look at the basket."

UT Arlington stayed with the taller, more athletic Longhorns in the first half. The Mavs outrebounded Texas 26-22 in the opening half, but missed eight of nine free throws in the half and trailed 34-23 at the intermission.

Texas established control early in the second half. Durant scored eight points in the first five minutes as Texas stretched the lead to 49-35 after a 3-pointer from Abrams and a Durant lay up with 14:53 left in the game. The lead continued to swell throughout the second half en route to the 32-point victory.

UT Arlington opens Southland Conference play Thursday when they host Central Arkansas at Texas Hall at 7 p.m.

Source: UT Arlington