Jan. 4, 2007

Box Score

The University of Texas-Pan American men's basketball team did not open the New Year as they had hoped falling short to the SMU Mustangs by a score of 84-71 in Dallas, TX at the Moody Coliseum on Thursday (Jan. 2).

SMU used an almost flawless opening half to build an unsurmountable lead on the Broncs. The loss dropped UTPA to 8-7 on the season while SMU improved to 10-4.

SMU went on a 10-1 run to open the game as Ike Ofoegbu scored five points on 2-of-4 shooting with 15:21 left to play in the first half. UTPA could not get anything going offensively, with its one point coming on the back end of a pair of Julius Allgood (Marion, AL/Southern Union State C.C.) foul shots.

The Broncs broke into double-digits on the scoreboard in just less than ten minutes into the game as Paul Stoll (Lansing, MI/Lansing C.C.) hit his first field goal of the game from behind the arc to make the score 20-10 with 10:15 remaining in the opening stanza.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong the Broncs in the first half of play against the Mustangs. UTPA shot just 30.8 percent on 8-of-26, including 2-of-12 from behind the three-point line. On the other hand, SMU connected on 60.0 percent of its shot as the Mustangs were 15-of-25 from the field, including 80.0 percent from the three-point line on 8-of-10.

The Mustangs out-rebounded the Broncs 18-12, including 15 defensive rebounds which held UTPA to five second-chance points.

Bronc leading scorer Brian Burrell (Nacogdoches, TX/Nacogdoches H.S.) was held scoreless in the first half, going 0-for-5 from the field while Zach Trader (La Porte, TX/La Porte H.S.) led the Broncs with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in 12 minutes of play.

SMU's Ofoegbu was the high-scorer in the first half with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting while teammate Devon Pearson picked up five rebounds in 11 minutes of play.

The Broncs headed to the locker room down by 24 points with the score 47-23, being outscored 12-6 in the paint and 11-4 on points off turnovers.

It was a tale of two halves as the Broncs outscored the Conference-USA opponent in five different categories, including points in the paint (28-20), points off turnovers (21-20), second chance points (13-8), fast break points (6-2) and bench points (42-26) .

The Broncs opened up the second half by going on a 9-4 run, capped by Burrell's first field goal of the night, making the score 51-32 with 16:37 remaining in the contest.

The Mustangs refused to relinquish the lead in the second half, and continued their hot-shooting by going on a run of their own, increasing the lead to 27 points with the score 79-52 at the 3:45 mark.

The Broncs continued to fight to the end and were able to close the lead to 13 point before time expired, ending the contest with the score 84-71 in favor of the Mustangs.

Kano Edwards (Bridgeport, CT/Western Nebraska C.C.) was the Broncs leading scorer with 14 points on 6-of-9 from the field while adding four rebounds in 16 minutes from the bench while the Bronc's season leading scorer Burrell was held to a season-low two points on 1-of-10 shooting, including 0-of-4 from the three-point line.

SMU's Jon Killen was the game's high scorer with 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-6 from behind the arc and a solid 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.

The Broncs take to the court again as they face their third consecutive Conference-USA opponent in Tulsa on Saturday (Jan. 4) with tip set for 7:05 p.m. in Tulsa, OK.

UTPA Sports Information