RUSTON, La. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team cut a 16-point 2nd-half deficit down to just one, but LA Tech kept the Mavericks at bay from there for a 76-71 win on Friday night to open the Louisiana Tech Classic presented by Hampton Inn of Ruston.
 
UTA trailed, 48-32, with 15 minutes remaining, but the Mavs trimmed that margin to 63-62 with 5 minutes left before a late Bulldogs' surge sent UTA to its second single-digit defeat in three days to open the season.
 
Redshirt junior David Azore recorded his sixth-career double-double with a team-high-tying 18 points and a game-high-tying 12 rebounds. Junior Shahada Wells continued to impress in his first season with the Mavs by pouring in an equaling 18 points, while the 6-foot guard also corralled seven rebounds.
 
Sam Griffin – who was held scoreless against Oklahoma State on Wednesday for just the second time in his young career – was kept off the scoreboard in the 1st half as well on Friday before the sophomore exploded for 14 points in the 2nd half to help lead the UTA comeback attempt.
 
Sophomore Nicolas Elame added eight points and a game-best six assists for the Mavs, who also received seven points off the bench from junior Jordan Phillips.
 
After scoring just 28 points in the 1st half on 32-percent shooting from the floor (12-37) and 20-percent shooting from 3-point range (2-10), UTA netted 43 2nd-half points on 42-percent shooting (14-33) and 47 percent from beyond the arc (7-15).
 
However, it wasn't quite enough against a LA Tech team playing its season opener with 11 returning letterwinners from a roster which won 22 games a season ago.
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
UTA raced to a 6-0 lead off the opening tip, but LA Tech responded and eventually took its only lead of the opening 10 minutes at 11-10. After a Wells' contested 3-pointer put the Mavs briefly back in front, the Bulldogs put together a 7-0 run as part of a larger 12-2 stretch which gave the Conference USA member a 23-15 lead at the 6-minute mark.
 
The LA Tech lead would fluctuate between four and eight points for most of the rest of the half, until the closing minute when the Bulldogs closed on a 5-0 run to take a 38-28 halftime lead.
 
Azore (13) and Wells (11) accounted for 24 of UTA's points in the 1st half, with Phillips adding the other four. Similar to their 1st-half performance against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, the Mavs struggled from the field by connecting at just the aforementioned 32-percent clip; LA Tech shot it at a 39-percent rate.
 
The 10-point differential remained intact into the 2nd half until LA Tech knocked down a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive possessions 27 seconds apart to extend to its largest lead of the night at 48-32. However, following a UTA timeout the Mavs responded with a pair of triples of their own to get back within 10, 48-38.
 
One of those 3-pointers came off the right hand of Griffin, who knocked down four triples in the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half to key a big UTA comeback. The Mavs fought back to get within two, 59-57, on a Wells' 3-pointer at the 7-minute mark, and on a putback by Tre Jones – the redshirt freshman's first-career points – at the 5-minute mark, the Mavs had pulled within one, 63-62.
 
However, unfortunately for UTA, LA Tech rebutted with six-straight points from Jacolby Pemberton to forge back in front, 69-62 at the under-4 media timeout, and didn't allow the Mavs to get any closer than four the rest of the way.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• The 12 rebounds for Azore were one shy of matching his career best of 13 set at Texas State on Feb. 2, 2019.
• Elame established a career high with six assists; he has started the year with 11 assists and three turnovers in the first two games.
• Griffin finished 4-9 from 3-point range, with all but two of those attempts coming in the 2nd half.
• Jones finished with four points and three rebounds in 12 minutes – the first points and rebounds of his career.
• After being out-rebounded by 21 at the hands of Oklahoma State, UTA finished with a 45-43 edge on the glass Friday, leading to a 15-9 advantage in 2nd-chance points.
• UTA finished at 37 percent from the field (26-70), while LA Tech closed the game at 44 percent (28-64).
• Pemberton led the Bulldogs with a double-double performance of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Andrew Gordon (14), Kalob Ledoux (13) and Armorie Archibald (12) rounded out the quartet of double-figure scorers for LA Tech, which held a 39-25 cushion in bench points.

THIS AND THAT

• This is UTA's first 0-2 start to a season since 2003-04.
• The matchup with LA Tech was the 34th all-time meeting, but first since the 2015-16 season.
• LA Tech and UTA have been conference foes twice before: 1972-86 (Southland Conference) and 2012-13 (Western Athletic Conference).

NEXT UP
UTA will conclude the LA Tech Classic with its third game in four days to open the season when the Mavs face Northwestern State on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Demons opened their year on Wednesday night with a 101-58 loss at #14 Texas Tech.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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