March 9, 2018

Final Stats | Quotes | Notes | Photo Gallery

NEW ORLEANS, La. -- UTA senior Erick Neal has already firmly etched his name in the UTA record books and will go down as one of the greatest players in school history.

If that was ever in doubt, he placed another solid punctuation mark on his legacy with an eye-popping performance in UTA's 84-68 Sun Belt Conference Championships quarterfinal victory over Appalachian State today at Lakefront Arena.

The Dallas native bolted out of the gate by making each of his first nine shots, including five 3-pointers, en route to scoring 24 points over the first 10:22 of the game. His jumper with 9:38 left in the first half put the Mavericks up by 15 points, a lead that stretched to as many as 19 in the first period.

He ended up with 37 points, one shy of his career high (also scored against Appalachian State, earlier this season in College Park Center) to send the Mavericks into tomorrow's semifinal game against top-seeded Louisiana. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. (CST). The game will be streamed live on ESPN3 via WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app.

The victory also handed UTA its 20th victory, a mark it has surpassed in each of the last three seasons. Over the last three seasons, the Mavericks have won 71 games - the third highest total among Division I programs in the state of Texas. Only Houston joins the Mavericks as having won 20 games in each of the last three years.

UTA forward Kevin Hervey scored 17 points, while center Johnny Hamilton led UTA with a team-high 9 rebounds. The Mavericks shot 52.6 percent from the field, including 47.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. UTA also went 15-of-17 from the free throw stripe.

Appalachian State senior Griffin Kinney led the Mountaineers (15-18) with 22 points, while Justin Forrest added 17.

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