NEW ORLEANS – Picked 11th in the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (17-16) vastly exceeded those expectations under first-year head coach Chris Ogden as the 2nd-seeded Mavericks reached the championship final on Sunday before falling in a tournament rematch with top-seeded Georgia State (24-9) Sunday afternoon at Lakefront Arena, 73-64.
 
Edric Dennis and Brian Warren led UTA with 12 and 11 points, respectively, but it was a long field-goal drought which proved too much for the Mavericks to overcome as they fell to the Panthers in the SBC title game for a second-straight year.
 
From the 10:10 mark of the 1st half until the 14:46 mark of the 2nd half, UTA didn't make a field goal, helping GSU turn a 23-19 deficit into a 43-31 lead – which ended up being the Panthers' largest of the game. During the crucial stretch, UTA – which entered the tournament shooting 51 percent from the floor during its four-game winning streak – missed 23-straight shots.
 
Despite that, the Mavs – as they've done all year under the SBC Coach of the Year – fought back, trimming the aforementioned 12-point deficit down to five a handful of times, and following a Warren floater in the paint with 2 remaining whittled the margin to only four, 64-60.
 
Following a pair of free throws by GSU, TiAndre Jackson-Young had a good look at a 3-pointer which would have made it a one-possession game with 90 seconds remaining, but it rimmed out and UTA went into foul mode from that point.
 
HEAD COACH CHRIS OGDEN
"I thought our guys were ready to play. (We) opened up the game really aggressive, and I knew our guys were locked in. We just didn't get it done offensively. We didn't make the shots and the plays we needed to. We fought. We fought. I'm really proud of my guys. I really appreciate them, in my first year of being a head coach, the effort that they've given us, the buy-in that they've given us. I'm really proud. I hurt for them. I've been here, and we'll be back, but I hurt for them because I wanted it for them. I told them that any time you put as much into it as they have, it should hurt. But I'm really proud of our players."
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
UTA raced out to a fast start offensively, holding an early 12-4 lead and also an advantage of 23-19. However, after Warren knocked down a 3-pointer at the 10:10 mark to give the Mavs that four-point advantage, UTA didn't make a field goal the rest of the half.
 
That allowed GSU to get back into it, and the Panthers – after trailing by eight – built an eight-point cushion of their own before settling for a 36-31 halftime lead. The Mavs' final eight points of the stanza all came from the free-throw line, but despite shooting just 29 percent (9-31) from the floor, were within a handful at the break.
 
Georgia State entered the game a perfect 21-0 on the year when leading at halftime, representing the 2nd-most wins in the nation when leading at intermission (Gonzaga, 25-0), and the Panthers were able to extend that to 22-0 en route to their second-straight SBC Tournament Championship and third in five years.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
UTA shot just 36 percent (23-64) from the floor, including only 21 percent (7-33) from 3-point range …the 33 attempts from beyond the arc are the 2nd-most this year (34 at Gonzaga) … Warren added four rebounds and four assists; Dennis had a team-high-tying six rebounds and three assists … Radshad Davis and Andres Ibarguen both also pulled down six boards as part of a 41-36 rebounding edge for UTA … Ibarguen added seven points, David Azore had eight and  Patrick Mwamba netted seven as well – all of which came in the 1st half – while Jackson-Young had six.
 
Malik Benlevi led a quintet of double-figure scorers for GSU with 16 as each of the Panthers' starters reached 10 points … Benlevi completed the double-double performance by corralling a game-high 11 rebounds … the Panthers shot 40 percent (20-50) from the floor and 36 percent (8-22) from 3-point range.
 
QUOTABLES
Brian Warren | SBC All-Tournament Team Member
The team came out hot in the first half but sputtered in the second, what happened?
"We just didn't make the shots, we played well enough on defense; I mean they made a great run after we made a run, we just couldn't sustain it."
 
Edric Dennis
How did you feel going into the 2nd half going down only 5?
"We felt good. Anytime you get in a championship game and you are right there, 2-3 possession game, you feel good, you feel confident. We all go through trials and tribulations, not just in basketball, but in life, so we will learn from it, we will grow from it, we will wake up tomorrow and the sun will still be shining."

SBC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Josh Ajayi, South Alabama
Travis Munnings, ULM
Brian Warren, UTA
D'Marcus Simonds, Georgia State
Kane Williams, Georgia State

Most Outstanding Player:
Malik Benlevi, Georgia State
 
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