ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (1-2) suffered a heartbreaking 80-71 overtime loss to Abilene Christian (1-2) Tuesday night inside the College Park Center in a contest which featured 15 lead changes and 11 ties.
 
ACU – which knocked off Texas in the NCAA Tournament this past March – hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime after a call in which two officials differed on a foul or jump ball.
 
That gave the Wildcats a second chance, and ACU took full advantage in the extra session, out-scoring the Mavericks, 17-8, to escape with a win in an outing in which 55 total fouls were called.
 
David Azore led UTA with team bests of 21 points and eight rebounds. Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu tallied 10 points for the second-straight game, and Michigan State transfer Jack Hoiberg set a career high with 10 points off the bench.
 
Playing its second of eight non-conference opponents which competed in the NCAA Tournament last year, UTA shot 47.1 percent (24-51) from the floor while holding ACU to just 32.8 percent (22-67). However, the Mavs turned the ball over 28 times, leading to 35 points by the Wildcats – who ranked 2nd in the country in steals per game last year at nearly 10 a contest. ACU also went 29-38 (76.3 percent) from the free throw line compared with 17-24 (70.8 percent) for UTA.
 
UTA used a 6-0 run in the closing minutes of regulation to turn a 60-57 deficit into a 63-60 lead with just a few seconds remaining. The Mavs elected to intentionally foul with 3.5 ticks showing, sending Damien Daniels to the free throw line for a 1-and-1. He missed the first, and UTA's Shemar Wilson grabbed the rebound.
 
Wilson was then surrounded by a pair of Wildcats, and one official signaled for an ACU foul for grabbing Wilson around the waist with 1.5 seconds left. However, another official under the basket called for a jump ball. That ended up being the final decision, and with the possession arrow in favor of ACU, the visitors got the ball back under their own basket.
 
With no timeouts remaining, ACU's inbounds pass went to the top of the arc, and Immanuel Allen knocked down a contested, buzzer-beating, overtime-forcing 3-pointer.


 
QUOTABLE
"I give ACU a lot of credit – they're a very good defensive team and the best in the country last year in creating turnovers, and that was the difference in the game," said UTA head coach Greg Young. "I'm surprised we were even in the game turning it over 28 times. That's inexcusable, and I've got to coach better. But, to our guys' credit we were able to keep fighting and execute some plays late.
 
"We had a chance to win," Young continued. "I thought Shemar got fouled at the end, but they called it a jump ball. And that last 3-pointer was my fault – we hadn't covered baseline out of bounds, up three, with a little over a second remaining. (Allen) made a tough shot, and that's part of it. And we didn't have enough to finish the game in overtime. But I saw a lot of good things tonight. I liked our grit. I liked our toughness. I liked our rotations. We've got some guys who are getting better, and we're getting better as a team."
 


BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The nine-point final margin was the largest lead either team had all game.
• Pedro Castro finished with eight points and six rebounds.
• Javon Levi issued a game-high five assists.
• Wilson posted eight points and seven rebounds.
• Akobundu-Ehiogu rejected a game-best four shots and again was perfect from the floor, going 4-4. He is now 11-13 from the field in three games this season.
• Young used his third-different starting lineup in as many games to begin the year: Levi, Azore, Castro, Lazaro Rojas and Akobundu-Ehiogu.
• Coryon Mason led ACU with 21 points. Mahki Morris poured in 20 points and collected nine rebounds. Allen capped the night with 11 points.

GAME FLOW
UTA held an early 4-0 lead, but that was the largest lead either team would possess in the 1st half until ACU opened up multiple five-point advantages in the closing three minutes of the stanza. However, a late baseline 3-pointer from Brandyn Talbot pulled UTA within two at the break, 34-32, against an ACU team which finished last year ranked 5th in the nation in points allowed.
 
The opening 20 minutes took over an hour to play as the officiating crew called 29 combined fouls and the two teams accounted for 23 turnovers, leading to 24 total points. UTA held ACU to just 27.6 percent from the floor (8-29) while shooting 8-19 itself (42.1 percent). The Wildcats went 15-19 (78.9 percent) from the free throw line, while the Mavs connected at an 81.3-percent clip (13-16).
 
The Mavs flipped the deficit right back around on ACU out of the locker room, and following Montez Young Jr.'s first collegiate 3-pointer UTA built a 43-39 lead a handful of minutes into the stanza.
 
From there, the two teams went back-and-forth, with neither side able to create separation larger than four into the closing minutes.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This was the first time UTA and ACU have met since 1994. Both schools were founding members of the Southland Conference in 1963.
• As a No. 14 seed, ACU stunned 3rd-seeded Texas in the NCAA Tournament this past March, 53-52, before falling to eventual Final Four participant UCLA in the Second Round, 67-47.
• ACU began a stretch of five-straight NCAA Tournament opponents for the Mavs – three of which come in a five-day period in three different cities and two different states.
• UTA and ACU were two of three teams to lead the nation with 13 different players reaching double-figure points in a game last season along with Murray State.

NEXT UP
UTA heads to Denton to face North Texas on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Mean Green are 1-1 on the year after opening the season with an 84-53 win over Oklahoma Christian last Tuesday and suffering a narrow 69-66 loss to a quality Buffalo program at home on Monday night.
 
It will be the second-straight opponent – and second in a five-game stretch for UTA – which competed in the NCAA Tournament a season ago.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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