GAME NOTES
GRAND FORKS, North Dakota - The University of Texas-Pan American men's basketball team will look to end their 11 game losing streak on Thursday as their season long seven game road trip continues against the University of North Dakota with an 8 PM tip-off at the Sioux Center. Thursday will be the fourth GWC match-up this season for UTPA.
The Broncs (3-17, 0-3) are coming off an 81-71 road defeat last Saturday at Houston Baptist. The Broncs fell behind by as many as 19 points in the first half, and despite a furious second half rally that pulled UTPA within five, the Broncs could not find an answer to the hot outside shooting of HBU.
The Huskies poured in 12 three-pointers, shooting 48% from beyond the arc for the game.
After the Broncs had pulled within six
late in the second half, the Huskies responded with a 7-0 run and once again led by 13 after Shawn Echols put in a lay-up to make the score 72-59 HBU. The Broncs would not quit, Mierzycki's three-point play with 2:00 to play, capped off a 10-2 run and pulled the Broncs to within five at 74-69. UTPA would not pull any closer. Ben Daniels hit a jumper in the right corner near the end of the shot clock, and 1:15 remaining in the game, after a hard nosed defensive push by UTPA, to virtually seal it for the Huskies. HBU scored the final five points and won their third straight meeting over UTPA.
Andrew Gonzalez, the GWC's leading scorer poured in a career high 33 points in the Husky victory. UTPA guard
Brandon Provost, who had scored a career high 18 points in his last game, bested that effort with a 22-point night versus HBU.
Jared Maree scored in double figures for the first time since November, pouring in 12, with two steals defensively. Aaron Urbanus and Julius Hearn each scored nine. Mierzycki scored seven and a team high eight rebounds. The Broncs shot 39% from beyond the arc and committed 21 turnovers, but just seven in the second half.
The Broncs have been without Perry Petty, the team's leading scorer (16.6 ppg) since their game two weeks ago at Chicago State. Petty was suspended indefinitely due to conduct detrimental to the team. Provost has been the team's leading scorer since his departure and he is the teams second leading scorer among active players at 11.1 points per game. Aaron Urbanus is the overall active scoring leader at 11.4 points per game. MIerzycki is the team's leading rebounder at 5.4 boards per contest.
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North Dakota (8-10, 1-1 GWC) is looking to jump back into the win column after suffering a disappointing quadruple overtime conference defeat 107-96 last Thursday against Utah Valley. The Sioux are led in scoring by Troy Huff (11.3 ppg) Patrick Mitchell (10.3 ppg) and Jamal Webb (9.1). UND is a tough home team having lost just two home games all season in nine tries. Mitchell leads the Sioux with 12 double-figure scoring games, including 13-point efforts in the first two GWC clashes. He has scored 13 points four different times this season.
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Texas-Pan American is 1-1 all-time versus North Dakota with each team winning on their opponents home floor last season. The two schools had never met prior to 2009-10. The Broncs lost a tight one at the UTPA Fieldhouse on January 28th 2010. Luis Valera scored 19 points to lead the Broncs. UTPA got the better of the Sioux as they spoiled UND's senior night with a 71-68 victory in Grand Forks on the final night of the Great West Conference regular season. Aaron Urbanus poured in 19 to lead UTPA. The win over UND last season was the last road victory for UTPA.