The Dallas Mavericks turned to their fellow Mavericks at The University of Texas at Arlington to generate excitement before Game 3 of Dallas' round 1 playoff game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
On UTA's campus on April 25, members of the Dallas Mavericks cheerleading squad and the Mavs Maniacs pumped up a crowd of students, faculty and staff at Brazos Park in the heart of the UTA campus. UTA's mascot, Blaze, student-athletes from UTA athletic teams and fans of both the NBA's Mavericks and UTA's Mavericks broke into a dance party. Around noon, a create loaded with Dallas Mavericks swag was dropped off on campus and everyone swarmed to get merchandise, including T-shirts, hats, foam fingers and energy drinks.
The team also gave away a pair of "golden" tickets to Game 3. Danielle Beach, a die-hard Dallas Mavericks fan and resident director in Apartment and Resident Life, was the lucky winner. She said she and her husband will be extremely happy to see the Mavs in a playoff game.
"I found the golden ticket under all the Celsius cans; the envelope was all the way toward the bottom of the crate," Beach said. "When I saw a glimpse of gold I started shoveling all the cans out of the way and grabbed it as fast as I could."
The Maniacs also gave away one free pair of tickets to Game 4, scheduled for Sunday night. The winner, Caleb Mack, correctly answered the trivia question, "In what year was UTA founded?" (The answer: 1895.)
"This is going to be my first NBA game, ever," Mack said. "I'm rooting for the Mavericks, and we have to go out there and support them. I'm very excited, and it's going to be an awesome time."
