Feb. 20, 2016

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

By Art Garcia | @ArtGarcia92

ARLINGTON, Texas - Two games this week, two nail-biters for UT Arlington. This time it didn't go the Mavericks' way.

UTA saw its four-game winning streak snapped in Saturday night's 64-61 loss to ULM at College Park Center with second place in the Sun Belt on the line.

The Mavs dropped to 18-8 overall and 9-6 in league play, while the Warhawks improved to 15-12 and 11-5. Louisiana, which lost earlier in the day at Texas State, is third in the league at 10-6. UTA is in fourth place with five games left in the regular season.

ULM led for most of the night in a nip-and-tuck affair, though the Mavericks were up 59-58 going into the final minute after Kaelon Wilson knocked down a 3-pointer. The Warhawks regained the lead on Mack Foster's tip-in with 38 seconds remaining.

UT Arlington lost the ball on the ensuing possession as Erick Neal was tied up under the basket with 14 seconds left. The possession arrow was favoring ULM and the Mavs were forced to foul. Neal had a desperation 3-pointer from half court at the buzzer that hit back rim.

UT Arlington had put itself in position to move into second place after beating Louisiana 84-83 in overtime on Jalen Jones' late 3-pointer on Thursday.

Jorge Bilbao paced the Mavs with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Wilson scored 11. Neal had seven points, seven boards and seven assists.

Nick Coppola led three Warhawks in double figures with 19 points.

Key Stats
The Mavs shot 35 percent (21-60) from the floor, including 25.9 percent (7-27) on 3-pointers. ... UTA was outrebounded for only the sixth time this season, as ULM had a 44-39 edge on the glass. ... The Warhawks had a 19-6 edge in second-chance points. ... ULM had 10 blocks, nine from Majok Deng.

Notable
The Mavs were trailing at halftime for the seventh time this season (3-4). ... ULM swept the season series 2-0. ... Bilbao had his fifth double-double this season. ... Two ULM starters fouled out - Jamaal Samuel and DeMondre Harvey.

Up Next
The Mavericks head to Arkansas next week for games at Little Rock (Thursday) and Arkansas State (Saturday). Those are the last two road games of the regular season.

Quotable
UTA coach Scott Cross opening statement:
"Monroe did a great job defensively. They made everything difficult for us. Their length bothered us. We couldn't get anything going offensively. I thought our guys tried to defend. A couple of their guys that normally don't hit shots stepped up and hit shots. Our guys battled. We had an opportunity to win it down the stretch and just didn't come through. We've got to regroup, we've got to find a way to bounce back. We don't want to let one loss linger and cause a second loss."

Cross on shooting 35 percent:
"We missed a lot of open shots. That's what you look for, you want to make sure you get open shots. Normally we knock those down, but you've got to find a way to win when you're not hitting shots. They did a good job on the boards against us."