COLUMBIA, Mo. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (3-6) struggled offensively Tuesday night at SEC member Missouri (5-3) as the Mavericks scored a season-low point total en route to a 65-45 setback to the Tigers at Mizzou Arena.
 
In just his third game since being cleared by the NCAA, Andres Ibarguen led UTA in scoring for the second time with nine points to go along with six rebounds. Redshirt freshman Pedro Castro tallied a career-high eight points – a total matched by Brian Warren, who also issued a game-high four assists, as the Mavs shot just 39.1 percent (18-46) from the floor and committed a season-high-tying 21 turnovers.
 
UTA was without its second-leading scorer Edric Dennis (14 per game) for the second-straight contest as he recovers from a foot injury, and the Mavericks once again significantly missed his scoring presence as the 45 points represent the fewest the Mavs have scored in a game since tallying 44 at then-#1 Kentucky in 2014.
 
With Mizzou holding just a one-point lead, 11-10, midway through the opening half, the Tigers went on a quick 6-0 spurt coming out of the under-12 timeout and eventually created their first double-figure lead of the night, 23-12, at the 6-minute mark.
 
The Mavs got the deficit back to single digits on an and-1 finish by Radshad Davis – who finished with six points and five rebounds – with under 4 minutes remaining in the stanza, but Mizzou closed the opening 20 minutes on another run and went into the halftime locker room with its largest lead of the period, 37-21, following a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
 
UTA played the 2nd half almost even with the Tigers as Mizzou outscored the Mavs just 28-24 over the final 20 minutes, but they never got closer than 15 in the closing stanza.
 
HEAD COACH CHRIS OGDEN
"We're struggling offensively right now. We did miss some more open shots tonight, but we were just way too careless with the ball once again – 21 turnovers is too many lost possessions for us and giving Missouri way too many opportunities to capitalize at the other end. We need to clean up that part of our game immediately."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Missouri turned those 21 UTA turnovers into 17 points … Jeremiah Tilmon recorded a double-double to lead the Tigers with 10 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out … Torrence Watson netted 12 points and Javon Picket tallied 10 for Mizzou to finish as the only other double-figure scorers … UTA entered the contest holding its opponents to just 27.2 percent from 3-point range to lead the Sun Belt and rank 22nd in the nation, while Mizzou came into the game pacing the SEC in 3-point percentage (38.3 – 58th in the country) … the Tigers made 36 percent of their triples (9-25) on the evening … after converting just four total 3-pointers in the previous two games combined, UTA knocked down five … redshirt freshman Patrick Mwamba grabbed a career-high nine rebounds … Mizzou out-rebounded UTA, 35-27 … the Tigers shot 44.2 percent (23-52) from the floor.
 
THIS AND THAT
This is the first time UTA has lost five in a row at any point in a season since the 2013-14 campaign … the Mavs entered the game 34th in the country in free-throw percentage (75.8), but went just 4-11 (36.4 percent) Tuesday … the 45 points are tied for the 12th-fewest in a game in program history (fewest: 31 at SMU in 1989) … this was the first time all year UTA has not had a deficit in the single digits with less than 10 minutes remaining.
 
IN THE MIDST OF A TOUGH STRETCH
The contest represented the second opponent for UTA in the non-conference schedule which played in the NCAA Tournament last year (Arkansas). The Mavericks are in the midst of a challenging stretch in which six of seven opponents participated in the postseason last year – part of a larger stretch of eight of 11 – and five of those seven played in the NCAA Tournament.
 
NEXT UP
That grueling schedule gets no easier for the Mavs on Saturday as they head to Denton to face North Texas for a 5 p.m. tip. UNT is off to an 8-1 start this year, is receiving votes in the national polls and won the College Basketball Invitational last year.