LOGAN, Utah – Utah State (5-1) used a game-altering 2nd-half run to run away from UT Arlington (1-5) Saturday night, 80-61, inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
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Facing a Utah State team which is receiving votes in the coaches poll this week, UTA only trailed by seven near the middle stages of the 2nd half, but a 14-0 Aggies' run from the 11-minute mark to the 6-minute mark put the contest out of reach for the Mavericks.
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David Azore led UTA with 17 points, while
Javon Levi notched a season high with 14 points and paced the Mavs with four assists.
Lazaro Rojas put together his best all-around game of the young year with season highs in both points (8) and rebounds (6) to tie for the team lead in the latter category with
Pedro Castro.
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A native of Ogden, Utah,
Carson Bischoff – who has not played this season and was just medically cleared earlier this week following back surgery – knocked down his first 3-point attempt of the year early in the 1st half en route to finishing the night with a trio of triples and nine points.
Playing without their 3rd-leading scorer in
Nicolas Elame (7.6 points per game) due to a hamstring injury, the Mavs started the night hot from the field as they connected on 48 percent (13-27) in the 1st half. However, UTA only shot it at a 31-percent clip (9-29) in the 2nd half en route to finishing the night at 39 percent (22-56).
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Facing its fourth-straight opponent which played in the NCAA Tournament last year, UTA allowed USU to shoot 52 percent from the floor (30-58). The Mavs entered the game ranked 30th in the country in defensive field goal percentage for the year (37.1), having allowed only one opponent all season to connect at better than 35 percent before tonight (Oklahoma State: 47 percent).
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QUOTABLE
"We knew this would be another tough test for our team, but I'm proud of our guys for the most part," said UTA head coach
Greg Young. "It was a seven-point game into the 2nd half, and we just struggled to score the rest of the way. And when you're not scoring and you're playing against a team that can really score the ball it makes for a hard night.
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"But we'll continue to get better," Young continued. "Our schedule is brutal, but congrats to Utah State tonight and I hope they have a great year."
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- Seven different UTA players recorded a steal, led by Bischoff with two.
- UTA used the same starting lineup for the second-straight game: Levi, Montez Young Jr., Azore, Castro and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu.
- Akobundu-Ehiogu blocked a shot for the sixth-straight game to start the year, moving him into a tie for 7th on the program's all-time blocked shots list with Johnny Hamilton (77).
- After missing three of the previous four games due to health protocol, Patrick Mwamba returned and was UTA's first sub off the bench. Mwamba is UTA's 2nd-leading returning scorer from last season at 6.9 per game. He scored one point and grabbed three rebounds on Saturday.
- Justin Bean notched his fifth double-double of the season as the nation's 5th-leading scorer and 2nd-leading rebounder totaled 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead Utah State.
- Brock Miller scored 16 points, and Steven Ashworth registered 15 off the bench for the Aggies to round out their trio of double-figure scorers.
- USU held a 20-10 edge in points off turnovers.
GAME FLOW
Coming off a Myrtle Beach Invitational Championship last week, Utah State raced out to a 22-9 lead not even eight minutes into the contest – one of several double-digit leads for the hosts in the opening 11 minutes.
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However, UTA chipped away and got its deficit down to six on multiple occasions over the next several minutes – the first on a Bischoff 3-pointer at the 5:49 mark and the second on a Akobundu-Ehiogu and-1 finish with 4:22 to play to pull within 34-28.
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USU responded to that second Maverick push with a 6-0 run of its own to go back in front by 12, 40-28, before UTA – and specifically, Azore – tallied the final four points of the half to only trail by eight at intermission, 40-32.
Early in the 2nd half it remained an eight-point margin, 49-41, but the Aggies clipped off five-straight points in a minute-and-a-half to surge back in front by 13, 54-41, with 12:30 left – equaling their largest lead of the night to that juncture.
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Azore answered the run with a transition 3-pointer, but the Aggies then orchestrated the aforementioned 14-0 run which put the game out of reach.
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THIS AND THAT
- The Aggies were already the third road test for the Mavs in the first three weeks of the season which is currently ranked in the top 70 by KenPom (Oklahoma State: 34, San Diego State: 36, Utah State: 67).
- UTA now leads the all-time series with Utah State, 3-2.
- Utah State was already the fifth opponent for UTA this season which played in the NCAA Tournament last year (Oklahoma State, Abilene Christian, North Texas, San Diego State).
- Bischoff was a member of Utah State in 2019-20, but utilized a redshirt season. He had about 30 friends and family in attendance, playing roughly 30 minutes from his hometown.
- USU was the second of three Mountain West opponents for UTA over a four-game stretch. The Mavs will welcome Nevada to the College Park Center on Dec. 7.
- After not playing a Saturday night non-conference road game in nearly four years (Dec. 16, 2017), UTA now has had back-to-back such contests.
NEXT UP
UTA remains on the road and heads back to California for the second time in a little over a week when the Mavs take on UC Santa Barbara on Monday, Nov. 29, at 8 p.m. Central (6 p.m. Pacific). The defending Big West Conference Champions won 22 games last season and had a shot at the end of their NCAA Tournament game against Creighton to win, but ultimately fell one point short, 63-62.
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The Gauchos – who are off to a 3-1 start this year – and Mavs have met twice previously: 1970 in Santa Barbara and 2019 in Arlington.
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FOLLOW ALONG
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