Coming home isn't just the reward for another successful road trip. Homecoming is up next for UT Arlington, with Houston Baptist visiting College Park Center for a 7:30 p.m. tip Saturday night.

The Mavericks are 2-1 after beating Grand Canyon 66-64 in Phoenix on Thursday. UTA is 2-0 away from home, with the team's one loss coming Tuesday at CPC against Buffalo.

"Homecoming is usually the best crowd of the year, so I'm excited for the guys to have the opportunity to redeem themselves," UT Arlington coach Scott Cross said. "Obviously, we let the Buffalo game slip away. We want to go out, play great and get the fans excited so hopefully they're return and come watch us at the rest of our home games.

"We had our best defensive game of the year last night and if we can continue to do that great things will happen for us. Our offense will get going at home because of our defense. They're focused right now and I'm looking forward to the game on Saturday."

UTA owns a 14-game winning streak against HBU dating back to 1980. The Huskies are 1-1, having lost at Big 10 program Northwestern (65-58) and blowing out Hillsdale (89-53).

"They're playing better basketball than years past, so we're going to have to play well," Cross said. "There are no easy wins at the Division I level. You have to flight and claw for everyone single one. Hopefully our guys will have the right mentality to do that on Saturday."

NOTES

• UTA has started the season at least 2-1 for the 8th time in 9 seasons under Scott Cross. Mavs are 2-0 on the road for the 2nd time under Cross (other was 2007-08).
• UTA owns 14-game winning streak vs. HBU. Last loss was 12/5/79 (98-85).
• UTA outrebounded Grand Canyon 47-32 in the 66-64 road win. G Lonnie McClanahan scored team-high 19 off the bench & made career-high 11 free throws.
• Mavs shot 12-20 (60%) on 3-pointers at Bradley. UTA is 12-46 (26.1%) in last 2 games.
• UTA had 4 score in double figures at Bradley, 3 against Buffalo & 2 at Grand Canyon.
• UTA has used same starting lineup in all 3 games.
• Freshmen Kevin Hervey, Erick Neal, Kaelon Wilson & Julian Harris are averaging combined 23.7 points & 17.3 rebounds per game. Hervey is averaging a team-high 10.3 rebounds.
• Eleven Mavs are averaging at least 10 minutes per game.