ARLINGTON – Facing the defending Sun Belt Conference champions and unanimous preseason favorites this season, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (4-10, 0-1 SBC) put up a resilient fight Thursday night before ultimately falling to Georgia State (10-4, 1-0 SBC) at the College Park Center, 63-58, in the league opener for both teams.
 
UTA – picked to finish 11th out of 12 teams in the SBC – held Georgia State 15 points below its season average, limited the Panthers to just 41 percent shooting from the floor (16-39), but couldn't overcome 15 turnovers and just a 2-25 (8 percent) performance from 3-point range.
 
David Azore and Brian Warren led the Mavericks with 13 points each – with the baker's dozen for Azore representing his best offensive outing since tallying a season-best 16 on Nov. 10. The redshirt freshman also added a game- and career-high-tying eight rebounds as part of a 40-31 edge on the glass for UTA.
 
Edric Dennis and Radshad Davis each tallied 11 for the Mavs, who shot just 35.7 percent (20-56) themselves. It marked the first time Davis has been in double figures since netting 10 at Tulsa on Nov. 27.
 
After digging themselves a 10-point deficit early in the 2nd half, the Mavericks – who return the fewest amount of points in the nation from last year and just one scholarship player – battled back to make it just a two-point contest, 57-55, with 30 seconds remaining following a Davis and-1 finish.
 
However, that would be as close as UTA would get in a rematch from the conference tournament final from a season ago, which was also won by the Panthers to send them to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years.
 
HEAD COACH CHRIS OGDEN
"We're going to get there; we're making progress and eventually it's all going to come together for us. I believe that we can be a problem for other teams in this league. We just need to stay with it and get back in the gym and keep working. We need to switch our focus now to Georgia Southern and make getting a split this weekend our top priority."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Georgia State opened the game with nine-straight points off a trio of 3-pointers from Devin Mitchell, prompting an Ogden timeout just 1:39 into the contest. Out of that timeout, the Mavericks responded with 10 in a row – six from Dennis on a pair of triples – to take a 10-0 advantage.
 
From there the two sides traded buckets and were tied at 16-all before Georgia Southern led for most of the rest of the half, taking a slim 31-28 lead into the halftime break.
 
The Panthers came out of the locker room and commenced the 2nd half the same way they did the 1st, scoring the first seven points of the stanza to create their largest lead of the night to that point, 38-28.
 
However, the Mavs slowly battled their way back, and – due in large part to keeping the Panthers off the scoreboard for more than five minutes in the middle portion of the half – only found themselves trailing by four, 42-38, with less than seven minutes remaining.
 
It remained a four-point differential, 53-49, with under two minutes left, and the Mavs got it down to two in the closing seconds, but the Panthers knocked down some crucial free throws late to seal the contest.
 
Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year D'Marcus Simonds led all scorers with 15 for the Panthers. Mitchell finished with 11 – nine of which came in the opening 100 seconds – and Malik Benlevi tallied 10 for GSU, which marched to the free-throw line 38 times and made 23 (60.5 percent) compared with UTA going 16-22 (72.7 percent).
 
UTA came into the contest ranked 14th in the country and leading the Sun Belt in 3-point percentage defense (27.3), while Georgia State ranked 32nd nationally in 3-point percentage (38.6) and pacing the league with 9.5 makes per game. The Panthers shot 38.1 percent (8-21) on Thursday – just the second opponent all season the Mavs have allowed to shoot better than 36 percent from beyond the arc.
 
THIS AND THAT
Andres Ibarguen added six points and seven rebounds for UTA … the Mavs actually finished with a 18-6 edge in points off turnovers, and a 22-16 advantage in paint points … since joining the Sun Belt in 2013-14, UTA – entering Thursday – had won 56 league regular-season games, and is the only program to finish in the top-5 of the conference standings every year; only Louisiana (62) and Georgia State (65) have more league wins in that time entering this season.
 
THE FINAL TEST OF A TOUGH STRETCH
Georgia State represented the final test in a challenging stretch in which seven of nine opponents played in postseason last year, and five of those (including Georgia State) played in the NCAA Tournament. The Mavericks – who finished with the 7th-hardest non-conference schedule in the nation – played seven Quadrant 1 & 2 opponents in the NCAA latest NET report (new RPI), which is tied for the 6th-most in the country.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will remain at the CPC when it welcomes Georgia Southern on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff. The game is the final contest as part of UTA's Holiday Hoops, with all children aged 18 and under receiving complimentary admission. The Eagles – picked to finish 2nd in the preseason poll – dropped a 73-70 decision Thursday night at Texas State.
 
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).