By Ryan Greene

Tue, Nov 18, 2008 (2:13 a.m.)

The Texas-Pan American hoops squad hit just 10 of its 19 free throw attempts in its 2008-09 season opener. That's a percentage that begs for improvement, even if it didn't hurt the Broncs in the least bit in an 84-59 victory over Sul Ross State Saturday night.

Covering up the miserable performance at the stripe was a blistering 61-percent showing from the field. To be specific, that's 36 makes on 59 tries.

"It was a hard game to gauge because we were working on some things that we haven't worked on consistently in practice," UTPA coach Tom Schuberth said. "We were able to play everyone, which was a good thing."

UNLV will recognize the 25th anniversary of the Thomas & Mack Center Tuesday night with Turn Back the Clock night, and 25 years ago, Rebels coach Lon Kruger found himself in shoes similar to those of Schuberth.

Kruger's first Division-I head coaching position was with the Broncs, where he improved the squad's win total from seven to 13 between his first season and his second. Last season, Schuberth bumped it up from six to 14 as a sophomore coach.

Now he faces a huge challenge over the next month, as his team won't play at the UTPA Fieldhouse again until Dec. 18 against Texas-San Antonio. In that stretch - beginning with tonight's 7 p.m. tip against UNLV - the Broncs play nine road games and take part in three separate tournaments.

""Now we have a huge challenge in front of us as we head to UNLV and California which are two high-powered basketball teams that will certainly be a different atmosphere," Schubert said following Saturday's game. "If we don't play better defense, we won't have a chance to play out there."

The Broncs did hold Sully to just a 38.8 percent showing from the floor and forced 26 turnovers, but they committed 20 giveaways of their own.

Offensively, the Broncs will rely heavily on 6-foot-7 senior forward Emmanuel Jones. After averaging 9.3 points per game as a first-year juco transfer last season in 22 games, he scored a game-high 27 points on Saturday on efficient 13-of-20 shooting.

Jones is one of 10 transfers who make up the 16-man roster. Another to keep an eye out for is 6-foot-6 junior Nathan Hawkins, who alongside Jones put up 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and grabbed seven boards.

In the backcourt, sophomore guard Nick Weiermiller had 11 points, 11 assists, three steals and just two turnovers in the team's 2008-09 debut.