Friday, February 15, 2008

Men’s basketball: Lamar 80, UT-Arlington 66

By Pegasus News wire

The UT Arlington men's basketball team fell behind early, then lost starting guard Rog'er Guignard to an injury in the first half, and couldn't recover in an 80-66 loss against Lamar in a Southland Conference game at the Montagne Center in Beaumont.

The Mavericks got 21 points on 10 of 10 shooting by senior center Jermaine Griffin. It was Griffin's second consecutive game with at least 20 points. Senior forward Larry Posey chipped in 17 and finished off the double-double with a team-high 11 rebounds.

UT Arlington won the battle on the boards, 39-28, and outshot the Cardinals, 49.1 percent to 44.1 percent. But the Mavericks (16-6, 5-5 in the SLC) couldn't overcome 27 turnovers as they return home having lost three of three conference games on the road against East Division foes. Lamar (14-8, 8-1) remained in first place in the East and won its seventh consecutive game.

Lamar had five players in double-figures, led by 19 by Kenny Dawkins.

The Mavericks were without second-leading scorer Rog'er Guignard, who left with an undisclosed injury in the first half. Guignard played 10 minutes.

After a layup by Griffin at the 14:42 mark of the first half made it 11-8 in favor of the Cardinals, UT Arlington went into an offensive drought from which it never recovered. Lamar went on a 15-0 run and led 26-8 with 9:30 left in the first half. UT Arlington cut it to 13 by halftime, then made it 55-47 midway through the second half on a Tommy Moffitt 3-pointer. But that eight-point deficit would be as close as the Mavericks would get.

Another scoring spurt with five minutes left pushed the Lamar lead back to 15.

UTA remains in third place in the SLC West, just behind Sam Houston State.

UTA is back in action at 4 p.m. Saturday at home against McNeese State.

Source: UTA

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