The difference between Texas-Arlington and Memphis was as wide as the gap between their NCAA Tournament goals.

While Memphis has its sights set on a national championship after two consecutive trips to the Elite Eight, UTA coach Scott Cross wanted to make sure his team enjoyed everything about the first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

The Mavericks enjoyed the extras -- the public practices, interviews and police escorts. The only thing they didn't enjoy was the result of their game against Memphis.

The 16th-seeded Mavericks lost to the top-seeded Tigers 87-63 in Little Rock in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, but the final score didn't tell the entire story.

If the Mavericks were intimidated, it didn't show. They were aggressive from the start and never allowed Memphis to take full control of the game until the final 10 minutes.

One loss to Memphis doesn't take away from a season in which the Mavs won a school-record 21 wins and went from the seventh seed in the Southland Conference to the tournament title and the NCAA Tournament.

Building on this season's success won't be easy. UTA (21-13) loses three solid senior starters in guard Rod Epps, forward Larry Posey and center Jermaine Griffin. On the plus side, the Mavs return their three most talented offensive players in sophomore point guard Rog'er Guignard, sophomore forward Anthony Vereen and junior guard Brandon Long.

MEMPHIS 87, TEXAS-ARLINGTON 63: UTA went right at Memphis from the opening tip and even led 4-0 and 6-3 before Memphis took over with a 12-2 run.

The Mavs committed only 14 turnovers, which is a relatively solid number against a Memphis team forcing more than 17 turnovers per game, but 10 of those turnovers came in the first half as UTA fell behind 45-31.

It was tough enough when Memphis shot .519 from the floor and made 9 of 20 3-point attempts, but the Tigers dominated the Mavs at the free-throw line. While the Tigers attempted 35 free throws and made 22, the Mavs shot only 21 free throws and made 11. The Tigers also dominated on the boards, outrebounding UTA 37-28.

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