AUSTIN, Texas – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (4-9) concluded its non-conference schedule Friday night with a 76-56 setback at Texas (8-4) in a homecoming affair for first-year UTA head coach Chris Ogden.
 
The Mavericks – who are projected to play the 7th-hardest non-league schedule in the nation – only trailed by seven at halftime, 33-26, but Texas outscored UTA in the 2nd half, 43-30, due largely to a 22-4 edge in points in the paint over the final closing 20 minutes.
 
Edric Dennis made his first start in more than a month for UTA, and he responded with a season-best 23 points. Dennis, who missed three games and more than two weeks earlier this month with a turf toe injury, also corralled a game-high-tying eight rebounds and finished 6-9 from 3-point range – representing the most makes from long distance by a UTA player this year.
 
Brian Warren finished as the only other double-figure point scorer for UTA with 12 points and a game-high-tying three assists.
 
The Mavericks held Texas to just 42.4 percent (28-66) from the floor, but connected at only a 35.4-percent rate (17-48) themselves. UTA – which came into the game ranked 14th in the nation in 3-point percentage defense at .272 – held Texas to about that average as the Longhorns went just 6-21 (28.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
 
Former Texas captain Chris Ogden became the first former Longhorn player to return to the Erwin Center as a visiting head coach since Harry Larrabee (played on the Texas varsity from 1971-72 to 1973-74 seasons) brought his Alaska-Anchorage team to Austin on Dec. 20, 1985. More info later on Ogden in this release.
 
HEAD COACH CHRIS OGDEN'S THOUGHTS
"I'm proud of my guys. We hung in for a while, but we let the start of the 2nd half get away from us and we never got back into it from there. We just didn't get loose balls, knock down any shots and just had a drought we couldn't recover from. We had some good individual performances, we fought them well on the boards despite our lack of size.
 
"It was good to be back in Austin and see a lot of familiar, friendly faces. But now we have to re-group and get ready to go for the start of conference play."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Texas scored the first seven points of the night before the Mavs responded with an 8-2 run to pull within two, 10-8. However, the Longhorns rebutted with an extended 13-3 spurt to open up their largest lead of the opening half at 23-11 with less than 7 minutes remaining. Keyed by a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer from Dennis, UTA answered back with a 7-0 run to pull within 23-18, prompting a Texas timeout before hitting the break with a 33-26 edge.
 
The  Longhorns commenced the 2nd half on a 14-5 run to open up their largest lead of the night at 47-31, and the Mavericks were unable to get any closer than 12 the rest of the night.
OGDEN'S HOMECOMING
The contest represented a homecoming for Odgen, who played for the Longhorns from 1999-2003, reaching the NCAA Tournament each season and culminating with a trip to the Final Four as a senior captain. Following his playing career, he joined the UT staff where he remained for the next 12 seasons – the first as a student assistant coach, the next four as an administrative assistant and the final seven as an assistant coach. Ogden's wife, Katie, is a UT alumnae, former student body president and 2006 graduate of the UT School of Law.
 
THIS AND THAT
Each of the previous four meetings between UTA and UT had been decided by 10 points or less, including the Mavericks first victory in the series in 2016 – the last meeting – 72-61 … Texas was UTA's seventh NET (the new NCAA RPI) opponent already this year which was a Quadrant 1 or 2 foe – tied with Texas Southern for the most in the nation among non-Power 5 teams ranked in the top-250 … UT outscored UTA in the paint, 36-16, and in points off turnovers, 19-4.
 
IN THE MIDST OF A TOUGH STRETCH
Texas was the fifth opponent in a six-game stretch for UTA who played in the postseason last year. It's part of a larger stretch for the Mavs – who are projected by ESPN's Basketball Power Index to have the 7th-hardest non-conference schedule in the nation – in which eight of 11 opponents between mid-November and early January played in the postseason in 2018.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will tip off Sun Belt action against another one of those such opponents when the defending league tournament champions, Georgia State, at the College Park Center at 7 p.m. on Jan. 3.
 
CLEAR BAG POLICY
In an effort to enhance public safety and the fan experience, for all UTA men's and women's home games this season the College Park Center will implement a clear-bag policy. All purses, containers, backpacks or anything larger than a small clutch bag are prohibited, and items must be placed in a clear tote bag not to exceed 12" x 6" x 12". For more information, fans are encouraged to visit UTAMavs.com/BasketballGameday.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
To secure tickets for upcoming games and find out about additional gameday procedures, log on to UTATickets.com. Additionally, for updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, be sure to follow the men's basketball program on Twitter (@UTA_MBB) and Instagram (@UTA_Hoops).