ARLINGTON – After winning a shootout on Friday night, the shorthanded UT Arlington men's basketball team couldn't complete the weekend sweep of Louisiana as the Ragin' Cajuns never allowed the Mavericks to lead en route to a 68-51 setback for UTA Saturday afternoon inside the College Park Center.
 
Louisiana built a double-figure lead just seven minutes into the contest, and led by that margin most of the rest of the day as UTA couldn't get anything flowing on offense.
 
The Mavs entered the game averaging 80 points in their first five Sun Belt Conference games, but the 51 on Saturday represented a season low, along with just 26.5-percent shooting (18-68) from the floor and also 15 percent from the 3-point line (4-27).
 
Fredelin De La Cruz recorded his team-leading fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Mavs. Fresh off a season-high 31-point outing on Friday, Shahada Wells was the lone other UTA player to reach double-figure scoring with 10 as well. Wells added a team-best four assists to go along with four rebounds.
 
As previously mentioned, the Mavs were shorthanded for the fourth-straight game as they were without David Azore (11.4 points, 4.6 rebounds), Nicolas Elame (7.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3 assists) and Lazaro Rojas (4.4 points, 3.3 rebounds) due to leg injuries. Prior to being sidelined two weeks ago, that trio had accounted for nearly 25 percent of UTA's scoring on the season and almost 30 percent of its rebounding.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• UTA falls to 7-7 overall on the year and 3-3 in Sun Belt play, while Louisiana improves to 9-4 and 3-3.
• Grayson Carter finished with eight points for the Mavs.
• Patrick Mwamba scored six points and grabbed five rebounds for UTA.
• The 68 points UTA held Louisiana to are actually the 2nd-fewest allowed by the Mavs to a Division-I opponent this year.
• After Louisiana connected at a 50-percent clip from the floor in the 1st half (16-32), the Mavs limited the Cajuns to just 31 percent in the 2nd half (8-26) en route to 41 percent for the game (24-58).
• Mylik Wilson recorded a monster double-double with game bests of 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead UL. Cedric Russell finished with 16 points; Dou Gueye secured 10 rebounds to aid in Louisiana's 51-38 rebounding edge.
• Maverick head coach Chris Ogden utilized the same starting lineup for the fifth-straight time: Sam Griffin, Wells, Davis Steelman, Mwamba and De La Cruz.
• Prior to this stretch, UTA featured five different starting groups through the first nine contest of the season. De La Cruz is the only player on the roster to have started all 14 games.

PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
Looking to salvage a weekend road split, Louisiana came out blistering with energy at both ends, quickly building a 15-point lead, 25-10, at the midway point of the 1st half, before growing that to as much as 25, 42-17, with 3:30 remaining.
 
However, keyed by a one-handed dunk by De La Cruz off a Wells' steal, the Mavs closed the half on a much-needed 9-0 run to only face a 16-point deficit at the break, 42-26 – still its largest of the season (previous: 11 (44-33) at Arkansas).
 
Less than 24 hours removed from its best 3-point performance against a D-I opponent this season, UTA struggled to get anything to fall from distance in the opening 20 minutes, going just 2-16 (13 percent) from beyond the arc while Louisiana went a scorching 8-10 (80 percent).
 
The run bridged the 2nd half as well with De La Cruz converting a second-chance bucket underneath to commence the scoring and extend the UTA run to 11-0 and pull within 14, 42-28.
 
After the Cajun lead was extended back to 18 on multiple occasions, the Mavs orchestrated a 9-0 run to make it a 50-41 margin with 11 minutes to play – the first time it was a single-digit margin since the 18-10 with 11 minutes remaining in the 1st half.
 
However, Louisiana responded and eventually re-built a 20-point lead on its way to snapping UTA's second three-game winning streak of the season.
 
THIS AND THAT

• Louisiana was picked 2nd in the Sun Belt West Division in the preseason poll, while UTA was slotted 3rd (Little Rock 1st).
• These were UTA's first two home games of 2021 after opening its Sun Belt Conference slate with four-straight road games for the second-straight season.
• UTA's previous season low in points was 60 at Arkansas.
• The 26.5 percent from the floor for the Mavs is the 5th-worst in single-game program history.

NEXT UP
UTA will remain at home and once again face preseason league favorite and defending regular-season champion Little Rock for a pair of games next Friday and Saturday (Jan. 22-23) at 6 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively.
 
The Trojans swept both games from the Mavs earlier this month in Arkansas, but since then have gone 1-3, including getting swept at home this weekend by Texas State.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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