Scott Cross was subdued in the postgame interview room, but the Texas-Arlington coach admitted he hadn’t been immediately after his team beat Ohio State 73-68 on Friday night. “I just celebrated in the locker room with the guys and enjoyed it,” the 10th-year Mavericks coach said. “I whooped when I got out in the hall. I felt bad about that because I shouldn’t do that, but yes we enjoyed every second for the two minutes were we in the locker room.” He had good reason to be excited: The Mavericks beat Ohio State for the first time in three tries, the first two coming in 1973 and ’74. Kevin Hervey scored 18 points, Erick Neal added 17 and Faith Pope 11 for the Mavericks. Cross called the win the best for his program since a December 2007 win at Wichita State. It was also the first for the program in seven tries against a Big Ten team. Ohio State lost to a current member of the Sun Belt for the first time since a 68-64 setback at Louisiana-Lafayette in December 1997. The Buckeyes’ only previous home loss to a current Sun Belt team was December 1980, a 76-67 final against South Alabama. The 1980-81 Buckeyes went 14-13, and the 1997-98 Ohio State team finished 6-22 overall, tying the school record for losses in a season. Nobody expected anything like the latter from this group, but coach Thad Matta admitted he had entered the night with some questions about his previously 2-0 team. “You know it’s funny because I told them at shoot around one of my worst fears was we haven’t had our head held under water yet and I’m excited to see how you respond in those times,” Matta said. “And we talked about it as a staff this morning, what will we be made of when push comes to shove? And tonight we didn’t respond when we needed to respond…
Continue Reading: Texas-Arlington shocks Ohio State 73-68
