ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (13-16, 9-9 Sun Belt) turned in its worst-shooting performance of the conference season on Saturday as the Mavericks had their three-game winning streak snapped with an 81-61 setback to Georgia Southern (17-12, 11-7 Sun Belt) inside the College Park Center.
 
UTA shot just 31.8 percent (21-66) from the floor, dug itself a 17-point halftime deficit and allowed Georgia Southern to connect at a 52.8-percent clip (28-53) from the field as the Mavericks tied their largest margin of defeat this season.
 
Jabari Narcis scored 19 points – his most versus a Division-I opponent – and the 6-foot-9 forward tied a career high with five 3-pointers to lead UTA offensively. Brian Warren scored 13 off the bench – the 26th time a Mav has registered double-figure points in a non-starting role. Sam Griffin added 11 points and David Azore had 10 for the Mavs, who faced their largest halftime differential of the season.
 
That intermission scoreline sat at 39-22, and the deficit grew to as much as 25 in the 2nd half. UTA was able to get the margin back down to 11 with four minutes remaining, but the Mavs could get no closer.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
UTA finished 28.6 percent (10-35) from 3-point range – with 22 of the attempts coming in the 2nd half as the Mavs were trying to mount a comeback.
 
Narcis corralled a team-best six rebounds, while Warren also had four assists and three steals.
 
UTA committed only 10 turnovers – its eighth Sun Belt contest with 10 or fewer giveaways – but Georgia Southern took advantage in the paint by finishing with a 32-8 edge in points in the key.
 
Quan Jackson scored 26 points to pace Georgia Southern – tied for the 3rd-most points UTA has allowed this year. Elijah McCadden added 15 points, while Simeon Carter netted 12 off the bench to go along with eight rebounds. Isaiah Crawley secured a game-best 12 rebounds as part of 42-32 rebounding edge for the Eagles.
 
THEY SAID IT – HEAD COACH CHRIS OGDEN
"There's not much to say – we got beat from the opening tip. We weren't ready to play, and they had more fight and brought it to us. The final score was absolutely indicative of what happened on the court."
 
1ST-HALF RUNDOWN
Narcis knocked down a 3-pointer on UTA's first possession of the game, but Georgia Southern countered with an immediate 13-0 run to take a 13-3 lead four minutes into the contest. Narcis ended that run with another triple, but the Eagles pushed back again and created another double-figure lead at 18-7 a few minutes later.
 
UTA trimmed its deficit to single digits, but a 10-0 Georgia Southern run turned a 22-16 advantage into a 32-16 edge with just under six minutes remaining in the half.
 
Against Georgia State on Thursday, UTA faced a nearly-identical 16-point hole (31-15) with just over six minutes remaining in the half. But unlike two days prior where the Mavs were able to trim their deficit to just five at the break, they dug a deficit as large as 18 and went into the locker room trailing by 17, 39-22 – by far its largest halftime deficit of the season.
 
UTA shot just 22.6 percent (7-31) from the floor in the opening half, including only a 15.4-percent clip (2-13) from 3-point range. Conversely, the Eagles connected at a 55.6-percent rate (15-27) and went 57.1 percent (4-7) from beyond the arc.
 
2ND-HALF RUNDOWN
Georgia Southern commenced the 2nd half on a 13-5 run to create a 25-point lead, 52-27, seven minutes into the stanza.
 
Trailing 62-40 at the 8:30 mark, the Mavs clipped off nine-straight points to make the margin potentially manageable at only 13, 62-49, with 6+ minutes remaining. However, following a Georgia Southern timeout to stem the UTA momentum, Jackson delivered a baseline 3-pointer to push the Eagles back in front by 17.
 
From there, UTA was able to get as close as 11 in the closing minutes, but combined with sending Georgia Southern to the free-throw line and missed 3-point attempts on the offensive end the advantage grew back to the final margin of 20.
 
THIS AND THAT

• UTA's previous largest halftime deficit was 12 (35-23) against North Texas on Dec. 2.
• This is the third time this year UTA has attempted 35 or more 3-pointers in a game (36 at Oregon; 37 versus UT Dallas).
• This was the third game of a four-game stretch in which UTA is facing the top-4 teams in the Sun Belt standings.
• Despite their record, the Mavs came into Saturday as the highest-ranked Sun Belt team in the NET Rankings at #114.

 
NEXT UP
UTA will host its first-ever regular-season nationally-televised contest next Friday, Feb. 28, when the Mavs welcome rival Texas State to the CPC for an 8 p.m. tipoff on ESPN2.
 
 PURCHASE TICKETS
Tickets for all remaining 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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