ARLINGTON – Two days after scoring a season-high point total, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (5-11, 1-4 Sun Belt) suffered one of its worst-shooting performances of the year as the Mavericks dropped a 66-54 contest to South Alabama (9-7, 2-3 Sun Belt) Monday night inside the College Park Center.
 
In a matchup of the Sun Belt's preseason top-2 favorites (USA: 1st, UTA: 2nd) each playing their third game in five days in three different cities, it was the visitors looking unfazed as the Jaguars connected at a 53-percent rate (26-49) from the floor while the Mavericks were held to just 34 percent (20-59), including a season-worst 18 percent (6-33) from 3-point range against USA's zone defense.
 
UTA never led as USA pulled away early, and the Mavs were unable to get any closer than four in the 2nd half. TiAndre Jackson-Young tried to give UTA a boost off the bench with a team-high 16 points – 14 of which came in the 2nd half – to tie for his most against a Division-I opponent this season.
 
David Azore continued his incredibly consistent redshirt sophomore campaign with 14 points – the 15th-straight contest he's reached double-figure points since tallying seven in the season opener against UT Dallas.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Jackson-Young and Azore were the only two Mavs to reach double-figure scoring as UTA rebounded from 27-percent shooting (7-26) in the 1st half to connect at a 39-percent rate (13-33) in the 2nd half to try and mount a comeback, but the Jags had an answer at each turn.
 
USA connected at better than 50 percent from the floor in each half as UTA has now allowed back-to-back season-high field goal percentages following Little Rock's 56 percent clip on Saturday.
 
Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year Josh Ajayi registered a double-double with 14 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. Chad Lott led all scorers with 20, while John Pettway added 10 to complete a balanced Jags' attack which also featured two nine-point scorers.
 
Brian Warren was held to just seven points but did issue a game-high-tying six assists. UTA committed just eight turnovers, but was out-scored in the paint by 20, 34-14. The Mavs did secure a season-high 10 steals in forcing USA into 14 turnovers, but couldn't capitalize as the Jaguars actually finished with a 7-6 edge in points off giveaways.
 
THEY SAID IT – Head Coach Chris Ogden
"There's not much to say about this game; we didn't come ready to play. That's on me. We can't let a team come in here on our home court and shoot 53 percent; you won't win a lot of games that way. So we have to get back to work and grind this out."
 
"I didn't think we had enough emphasis on attacking the paint and attacking the rim. We shot 33 3-pointers and that's a lot. When you do shoot poorly, your defense has to pull you through and it just didn't tonight."
 
1ST-HALF RUNDOWN
UTA got down early, but made a push to get its deficit down to just two, 18-16. However, South Alabama's zone defense shut the Mavs down in the opening 20 minutes, limiting the hosts to just 27 percent from the floor (7-26) and only 13 percent (2-16) from 3-point rage.
 
On the other end, USA connected at a 52-percent clip (14-27) from the floor, with most of those misses coming from beyond the arc (1-8, 13 percent). USA out-scored UTA in the paint in the first stanza, 16-4, en route to a 33-22 halftime lead.
 
After scoring a season-high 44 1st-half points on Saturday at Little Rock, UTA's 22 on Monday were a season low.
 
2ND-HALF RUNDOWN
The USA lead grew to as much as 14 before UTA finally got it back down to single digits on a Jackson-Young 3-pointer at the 10:51 mark to make it a 43-34 contest.
 
That triple stopped a stretch of 16-straight misses from deep by the Mavs bridging both halves, and jumpstarted Jackson-Young as he drilled his next two 3-pointers after that. After the Mavs got their deficit down to only four, 43-39, following a Radshad Davis putback at the 10-minute mark, USA responded and re-built a nine-point edge, 48-39.
 
However, the Mavericks received one of those aforementioned two 3-pointers from Jackson-Young to get the differential back down to six, and it wavered between six and eight for the next four minutes before an Azore and-1 finish with a little over four minutes showing pulled UTA within five, 54-49.
 
That would be as close as UTA would get in the closing 10 minutes as the Mavs dropped their Sun Belt home opener after commencing the year with four-straight road tilts.
 
THIS AND THAT

• Eight of UTA's 10 losses this year had been by eight points or less, including all three Sun Belt setbacks – two of which have been by three points.
• UTA was without Coleman Sparling for the third-straight game as he recovers from the flu.
• UTA entered action having played the nation's 12th-hardest schedule, according to KenPom. Based solely off win-loss percentage, UTA has played the 9th-hardest schedule in the nation as its opponents' winning percentage is .675 (leader: West Virginia, .763).
• Despite their record, the Mavs came into Monday as the 2nd-highest ranked Sun Belt team in the NET Rankings at #115 (Georgia State #110).

 
NEXT UP
UTA will remain at home as the Mavs continue their league-opening homestand with a tilt against Appalachian State on Thursday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. The Mountaineers are 9-7 overall and 3-2 in Sun Belt play following an 81-73 home loss to ULM earlier on Monday.
   
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
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, be sure to follow the men's basketball program on Twitter (@UTAMavsMBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsMBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsMBB).