UT Arlington seniors put on a show in beating Utah State

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By Sam Morton

Special to the Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON — If the UT Arlington men’s team wanted to leave its rowdiest crowd of the season with a lasting impression heading into tournament season, then it did so after a dominating 61-46 win over Utah State on senior night Saturday at College Park Center.

All four UTA seniors played a huge role in ensuring that the 4,837 fans knew the Mavericks (17-10, 11-5 Western Athletic Conference) are peaking at the right time with a victory that guaranteed no worse than fourth place in the WAC.

“If I had a dream, that’s how I’d have wanted it to play out,” senior Cameron Catlett said. “The crowd was active, there was a lot of energy in the stadium and we got a good win against a good team.”

Wearing their blue road jerseys, Catlett, Kevin Butler, Karol Gruszecki and Jordan Reves scored as many points combined as the Aggies scored the entire game. Butler scored 21, Gruszecki had 14 and Catlett added nine points and six assists.

Reves had seven rebounds and two steals as the Mavericks held the Aggies to a season-low 46 points and a 30.4 shooting percentage.

The Aggies relied heavily on a six-man rotation, with two guards playing the entirety of the game. They hung around in the first half despite UTA draining five 3-pointers, but Gruszecki and Butler keyed a 17-6 run to open the second half that buried Utah State (19-9, 9-7).

After going cold from the floor over the last two games, Butler got hot on Saturday. He made UTA’s first three 3-pointers to lead the Mavericks’ barrage of 11 3s.

For the second straight game, UTA played with a faster pace that opened up more scoring opportunities than it has been used to. The Mavericks now look ahead to a pair of road games against Denver and New Mexico State with a chance at clinching the third seed in the WAC tournament.

“If we can take the third seed, I’d sure like to do it,” coach Scott Cross said. “I don’t worry about who we’re going to play because you’ve got to be ready every single time out.”

The Mavericks finished the season 7-7 at home, avoiding their first home losing record since 1993-94.

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