ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team trimmed a 21-point deficit with just over 7 minutes remaining down to only 4 points, but the Mavericks couldn't complete the comeback as they dropped a 66-59 decision to Little Rock Friday night inside the College Park Center.
 
Facing a 56-35 deficit with 7:25 remaining – and a 15-point margin, 61-46, with less than 4 minutes left – UTA mounted an 11-0 run in 2:24 to pull within 61-57 with still 1:11 showing. It remained a four-point differential, 63-59, with 34 seconds on the board, but a trio of Little Rock free throws between a trio of missed UTA 3-pointers on one trip sealed the contest for the Trojans.
 
Shahada Wells led UTA with team bests of 14 points, five assists and seven steals – tied for the 3rd-most in single-game program history and tied for the 3rd-most by any Division-I player this season.
 
Jordan Phillips added 10 points for the Mavs, while Sam Griffin tallied eight and Patrick Mwamba collected six while contributing nine rebounds.
 
After missing the previous four games with a leg injury, Nicolas Elame – who started eight of the nine games he appeared in before the setback – returned for the Mavs on Friday and made an immediate impact with 10 points and four boards in 19 minutes.
 
Walk-on redshirt sophomore Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu continued to emerge as a key cog for UTA as the lengthy forward secured a career-high 14 rebounds – the most by a Maverick against a D-I opponent this season. He added two blocks as well – his fifth multi-rejection contest in now seven games played this year.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• UTA falls to 7-8 overall and 3-4 in Sun Belt play, while Little Rock improves to 8-6 and 4-3 in league play.
• While Elame returned, UTA was still without Sun Belt Preseason Second Team selection David Azore (11.4 points, 4.6 rebounds) for the sixth-straight game with a leg injury. Additionally, Lazaro Rojas (4.4 points, 3.3 rebounds) also missed his fifth-consecutive game with a leg injury.
• Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year Ruot Monyyong recorded his sixth-straight double-double for Little Rock with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Marko Lukic and Nikola Maric both added 14 points, with Maric corralling eight caroms.
• UTA head coach Chris Ogden used the same starting lineup for the sixth-straight game after the Mavs had five different versions in the first nine games of the season.
• The 59 points are the 2nd-fewest this season by the Mavs, who have now recorded their two-lowest scoring outputs of the year the last two times out (51 against Louisiana last Saturday; previous to that was 60 at Arkansas).

PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
Little Rock had multiple seven-point leads early in the contest, including 15-8, but UTA put together a 7-0 run to tie things up at 15-all at the 8-minute mark.
 
From there, the Trojans slowly re-built their lead and again had a seven-point cushion, 28-21, in the closing minute before the defensive 1st-half battle ended in the visitors taking a 28-23 lead into the halftime break.
 
Out of the locker room, the Trojans extended to either team's first double-digit lead of the night at 36-26; that was part of a larger 8-0 run which gave Little Rock a 40-26 advantage with a little over 13 minutes remaining.
 
That lead swelled to over 20 with just over 8 minutes left. However, the Mavs would not go quietly and mounted the aforementioned effort before coming up just short.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This is the first time that UTA has lost three-straight games to Little Rock.
• Little Rock claimed the Sun Belt Regular Season Championship last year with a 15-5 league record and were installed as the preseason favorites this season.
• The 23 1st-half points for UTA represented a season low (previous: 25 at Little Rock on Jan. 2).
• UTA is now 0-8 when trailing at the half and 7-0 when leading at the half this year.
• Akobundu-Ehiogu's previous rebound high was six, set last Saturday against Louisiana.

NEXT UP
UTA and Little Rock will play for the fourth time in 23 days to start the conference season when the two teams run it back on Saturday with a 4 p.m. tip. That will be the final regular-season meetings for the two sides, with the only other potential matchup this year coming in the Sun Belt Tournament.
 
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).