ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (1-1) scored 61 2nd-half points and put on a highlight show en route to a dominant 104-75 Homecoming victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor Saturday night inside the College Park Center.
 
Leading by only five points at halftime, UTA blitzed the Crusaders in the closing stanza and placed six scorers in double figure, led by Nicolas Elame who matched his career high with 17 on 7-of-8 shooting.
 
The win was the first at the Division-I level for Greg Young, who was named the ninth head coach in program history this past spring following 12 seasons on the UTA sidelines as either an assistant (2009-13) or associate head coach (2013-21).
 
The preseason American Southwest Conference favorites, UMHB only trailed UTA by the aforementioned five at the half after getting down by as much as 15 in the opening period. The Crusaders were able to get as close as two, 45-43, in the opening moments of the 2nd half, but from there the Mavs orchestrated an 11-0 run behind David Azore and Javon Levi to open up a double-figure lead, and the Cru would get no closer than eight the rest of the night as UTA led by as much as 31.
 
Azore finished with 15 points, which was matched by newcomer Shemar Wilson, who went a perfect 6-6 from the floor – tied for the 9th-most makes in single-game program history without a miss.
 
Levi finished the night with 12 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh-career double-double. Incredibly, it was UTA's first double-double with points and assists since Brian Warren had 15 and 12 against Arkansas Tech on Nov. 24, 2019.
 
A true freshman, Montez Young Jr. reached double figures in just his second collegiate game with 12 points, while Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu hammered home five alley-oop finishes to round out the sextuplet of UTA double-figure scorers with 10.



 BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• UTA shot a blistering 64.2 percent (43-67) from the floor, tied for the 7th-best mark in single-game program history and the 4th-best since 1984.
• The Mavs handed out 28 assists, one shy of cracking the top-10 single-game program record list.
• After being out-rebounded in the 1st half, 22-21, UTA out-boarded UMHB in the 2nd half, 26-5, to finish +20 on the glass for the evening (47-27).
• Pedro Castro, who led UTA in scoring at Oklahoma State Tuesday, only tallied six points but led the Mavs with eight rebounds. Wilson was close behind with seven caroms.
• UTA finished with a 68-16 edge in points in the paint.
• A pair of Mavs made their first-career D-I starts in Young Jr. and Wilson, who joined Azore, Levi and Castro on the opening unit.
• Antonio Romanelli knocked down a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the game for just his second-career triple.
• Josiah Johnson – a D3hoops.com Preseason First Team All-American – was limited by the UTA defense to only eight points. Carson Hammond and Braedyn Dawes both paced the Cru with 16 points each. Payton Brooks rounded out the trio of double-figure scorers for UMHB with 13.

GAME FLOW
Trailing early, 6-4, UTA clipped off a quick 9-0 run – capped by an alley-oop connection from Pedro Castro to Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu to take a 13-6 lead. That 9-0 stretch was briefly interrupted by a UMHB bucket, but after that UTA put together a 10-0 run as part of combined 19-2 surge to open up a 15-point edge at 23-8 with just over 11 minutes left.
 
However, UMHB quick cut into that deficit thanks to long-range shooting and the Cru were only down five with inside of eight minutes to play. The 3-point attack continued to close the half, and UTA only took a 43-38 advantage into the locker room as UMHB knocked down eight triples in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Out of the locker room it was one of the Mavs' new faces, but not a new face to Division-I basketball, as grad transfer Levi set the tone, scoring 12 points in the first six minutes to push UTA back in front by double figures, 63-51, with 14 minutes showing, and the Mavs were never threatened after that.
 


THIS AND THAT

• Young had previously served as a junior college head coach for 10 seasons, accumulating an overall record of 168-139.
• This marked the 74th all-time occurrence of UTA scoring at least 100 points in a game.
• The 104 points are tied for the 42nd-most in program history.
• The contest was an official game for UTA, but it served as an exhibition tilt for Division-III UMHB, which also played an exhibition on Thursday night against Stephen F. Austin.
• UTA is now 18-4 in home openers since the turn of the century.
• Despite being separated by just 2 ½ hours, UTA and Mary Hardin-Baylor (located in Belton, Texas) had never met in men's basketball prior to Saturday. UMHB was an NAIA member before moving up to NCAA D-III in 1999-00.

NEXT UP
UTA remains at home and welcomes Abilene Christian to the College Park Center on Tuesday, Nov. 16, for a 7 p.m. tipoff. ACU – which knocked off Texas in the NCAA Tournament this past March – has opened its season with road losses at Utah (70-56) and at Texas A&M (81-80 in double overtime) on Tuesday and Friday, respectively. Tickets are still available for the contest at UTATickets.com.

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).