UT Arlington men end 13-day layoff with game against Sul Ross

In its first game after a 13-day layoff, UT Arlington hosts Sul Ross State at 7 p.m. Monday at College Park Center before taking another nine days off.

Playing one game in 22 days is an odd scheduling quirk, but the Mavericks are finishing the nonconference schedule with a chance to give coach Scott Cross the all-time wins mark before the calendar turns to 2016.

Cross, the owner of 161 wins, is just two shy of becoming the all-time winningest coach in program history. With Georgia State coming to town Dec. 30, it’s possible he gets there by New Year’s Eve.

But to have a chance at that, the Mavericks can’t overlook the Lobos and Rocky Feliciano, who’s scoring 13.4 points per game. After a slow start, they’ve won three of their past four.

And the Mavericks may have to do it without Erick Neal, who is day-to-day with a hamstring injury. Should the Mavericks be without their point guard, they’ll turn to Nathan Hawkins and Mairega Clarke to run the offense.

Hawkins delivered a career-high 17 points in UTA’s last outing, a 97-61 rout of Bradley. Clarke, a 6-foot-5 guard, is just finding his rhythm since his debut against North Texas on Dec. 3 after a concussion sidelined him for much of the year.

“He can do a lot of things for our offense, but he’s missed a lot of time,” Cross said. “We’ll try to work him in a little bit with our focus on getting everybody ready for conference play.”

Regardless of who runs the offense, forward Kevin Hervey remains the focal point of the system. Hervey is scoring 17.9 points and grabbing 10.2 rebounds per game.

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "UT Arlington men end 13-day layoff with game against Sul Ross."