Cunningham's 22 Points Not Enough As Men's Basketball Falls At UT-Arlington

Monday, November 12

Arlington, TX

7:30 pm

UC Riverside

University of Texas at Arlington

Cunningham's 22 Points Not Enough As Men's Basketball Falls At UT-Arlington

11/12/2007 8:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Arlington, TX—UC Riverside suffered a 79-58 defeat to the University of Texas - Arlington Monday night in Arlington, TX. Senior Larry Cunningham led UCR with a game-high 22 points and Junior Severin Gates added a career-high 15 points in the losing effort as the Highlanders dropped to 0-2 on the young season.

It was the turnovers that did UCR in for the second game in a row, allowing the Mavericks (1-0) to score 30 points off of 21 turnovers. Cunningham and Gates were the loan bright spots for the Highlanders as the two combined to shoot 10-for-12 (45.5%) from the floor and 14-for-16 (88%) from the line. The Highlanders as a team took advantage of the charity stripe, making 18-of-23 (78.3%) on a night.

The Highlanders opened the game with a 10-2 run and held the lead for most of the half. Rod Epps's three-pointer for the Mavericks gave UTA their first lead, 21-18 at the 6:56 mark. UCR cut the Maverick lead to 32-28 with five seconds left in the half, after a Gates jumper and two Cunningham free-throws. Brandon Long answered to give the Mavericks a 34-28 lead at the break. Long went the length of the floor and got his jumper to fall as the buzzer went off.

UTA opened the second half with a 19-5 run before junior Aaron Scott's jumper and two more Cunningham free-throws cut the Maverick lead to 53-37 with just under 13 minutes remaining. UTA continued to answer any type of Highlander runs and opened the lead back up to 20 shortly after the eight minute mark and never looked back. The Mavericks shot 17-for-29 (58.9%) in the second half and finished the night with four players in double figures in points. Jermaine Griffin led the Mavericks with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

UCR shot 18-47 (38.3%) from the floor and 4-15 (26.7%) from beyond the arc. UTA shot 30-for-53 (56.6%) on the night and committed 14 turnovers that the Highlanders turned into 16 points. Sophomore Sean Cunningham led UCR with eight boards and Aaron Scott added eight points for the Highlanders.

UCR continues it's 10-day road trip to open season with two stops up in Washington. Thursday the team travels to Cheney, WA to play Eastern Washington University at 7:45 p.m. then on to Spokane, WA to square off with #14 Gonzaga on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.