ARLINGTON – Behind a career offensive night from Jabari Narcis and a stout UT Arlington defensive effort, the Mavericks (2-0) made a strong early-season statement by rolling over American Athletic Conference member Tulsa (1-1) on Homecoming Weekend Saturday night inside the College Park Center, 73-59.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Senior Narcis – in his second year with the Mavs – registered his first double-double effort as a UTA player with a team-high 16 points and a game-best 10 rebounds, in addition to blocking three shots. The 6-9 forward also established a career high in 3-pointers made by going 4-7 and finishing with a game-best +/- of +18.
 
Brian Warren bounced back from an uncharacteristic low-scoring game Tuesday with 15 points, four assists and three rebounds. David Azore (12) and Radshad Davis (11) rounded out a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Mavs, who connected at a 48.3-percent clip (14-29) from the floor in the 2nd half to run away from the Hurricane.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
UTA never trailed, and the game was tied on just one occasion, 12-12, as the Mavs led by double figures for the final 25 minutes on their way to a third-straight 2-0 start to a campaign.
 
In front of 3,722 fans and a packed, vocal student section, the Mavs dominated both sides of the ball from the opening tip, limiting Tulsa to just 30.6 percent from the floor (19-62) en route to their first-ever win (1-4) over the Hurricane. After a slow offensive 1st half for both sides, UTA finished the night connecting at 40 percent from the field (24-60).
 
The Mavs took care of the ball with just nine turnovers compared with 16 assists – six of which came from Azore as the redshirt sophomore matched his career high in that category. The Houston native put together arguably his most well-rounded game yet as he also added six rebounds in 28 minutes of action.
 
Tulsa scored 22 paint points to UTA's 12, but the Mavs shot 94.1 percent from the free-throw line by going 16-17.
 
1ST-HALF RUNDOWN
Narcis got things started right off the opening tip as the Trinidad and Tobago product knocked down a 3-pointer 12 seconds into the game to spearhead an 8-0 UTA start.
 
That set the tone for a trend in the first 20 minutes as the stanza developed into a series of runs by both sides, but mostly controlled by the homestanding Mavs.
 
UTA forged a 12-2 lead out of the gate, but Tulsa responded with 10 straight over 150 seconds to tie things up at 12-12. Azore snapped that run with a baseline jumper at the 12-minute mark, and he bookended a 9-0 Mavs' spurt with another jumper at the 8-minute mark to put UTA back in front, 21-12.
 
The Mavs orchestrated another surge – this time holding a 23-16 lead with 5 minutes showing – as in just over a minute Narcis keyed a 7-0 push which was capped by a Jordan Phillips triple to give UTA its largest lead of the night at that point, 30-16, with 3:41 remaining.
 
Tulsa made up a little ground before the break, but UTA still took a 33-23 lead into halftime after holding the Hurricane to just 25 percent (8-32) from the field.
 
2ND-HALF RUNDOWN
Four of UTA's first six made field in the 2nd half came from 3-point range, led by Narcis knocking down two more to add to his career night.
 
The Mavs exploded out of the locker room, scoring 18 points in the first 4:30 of the period, eventually opening up a 20-point advantage, 53-33, at the 14-minute mark. The edge ballooned to as much as 22 at one juncture, and UTA never led by fewer the final margin of 14.
 
THEY SAID IT – Head Coach Chris Ogden
"First of all, I want to thank the crowd; it was big time. The student section once again showed up and we really appreciate that. Hopefully they're taking a liking to our team.
 
Our guys were ready to play and were locked in. I could tell yesterday; I could tell in shootaround. I just knew we were going to play hard. I didn't know how well we were going to play but I knew we were going to play hard enough to give ourselves a chance to win the game.
 
I'm just really proud of our team and I really thought that it was a team effort tonight. I think the strength in this team is our depth, and a lot of different guys made a lot of plays tonight."
 
THIS AND THAT

• The double-double effort for Narcis was the 10th of his career, with the first nine coming at Jacksonville College; his 16 points surpassed his previous UTA high of 11.
• Narcis's three blocks gave him his 14th career 3+ block game and the 10 rebounds were his 19th career double-figure rebound game. Four of those boards came on the offensive end, providing Narcis 25 career contests with 3+ offensive rebounds.
• Four different Mavericks reached double-figure points; it's also the second-consecutive game where nine Mavs tallied at least one basket in the game.
• Tulsa was the first of what will be four-straight opponents for UTA which were ranked in the top 100 of KenPom's preseason rankings.
• This was Tulsa's first time visiting Arlington as previously all four matchups have been held on UT's home floor.
• Tulsa head coach Frank Haith was an assistant coach at Texas from 2001-04; Ogden played for the Longhorns from 1999-03, helping lead UT to the Final Four in 2003 as a captain.
• Tulsa has made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching the Sweet Sixteen three times – including an Elite Eight trip in 2000. The Hurricane are 16-time conference champions, and have also played in the NIT on 11 occasions.

NEXT UP
UTA hits the road for the first time this year as its challenging non-conference stretch continues with a trip to Reno to face Nevada (0-1 entering a contest on Saturday with Loyola Marymount) on Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 9 p.m. Central.
 
The Wolfpack – who will be the first of three-straight road opponents that played in the NCAA Tournament last year – went 29-5 last season, earned an at-large bid into March Madness and received a No. 7 seed. The three-time defending Mountain West Conference Regular Season Champions ranked 27th in the NET and resided inside the top 10 in the national polls most of last year. Nevada will return the game to the CPC during the 2020-21 season.
 
PURCHASE TICKETS
Season tickets start as low as $99, and tickets for all home games are available by visiting UTATickets.com, calling the UTA Box Office at (817) 272-9595 or by stopping by the College Park Center during regular business hours.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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