UTA men set sights on another road win

UT Arlington is one win away from redeeming itself after a devastating homestand in which the Mavericks never held a lead against two of the Western Athletic Conference bottom-feeders.

After beating Idaho on its home court 71-68 on Thursday, the hungry Mavericks try to get the other win back when it faces Seattle at 9 tonight at Key Arena.

The teams are headed in different directions. Seattle has dropped its past four games, and UTA is rolling on a three-game winning streak, powered by the emergence of Kevin Butler as a scoring machine.

Having entered the streak without a single scorer averaging more than 10 points per game, UTA's insertion of Butler has resulted in games of 21, 17 and 23 points from the senior. Against Idaho on Thursday, Butler was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field as he made six 3-pointers to lead UTA's victory.

Against UTA on Jan. 17, the Redhawks took a 16-point lead only 13 minutes into the game and coasted to an easy 61-44 win at College Park Center.

UTA shot a miserable 25.8 percent from the floor and made only two of its 23 3-point attempts. Now that their offense is moving again, the Mavericks hope to win their 10th road game of the season and inch closer to a top-3 seed in the WAC tournament.

Having only won once since beating UTA, Seattle has scuffled in conference play.

Clarence Trent leads the Redhawks with 10.7 points per game, but Chad Rasmussen scored 13 points in the teams' last meeting.

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