ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (3-5) won its second-straight game despite 12 days in-between contests courtesy of a 56-47 victory over visiting Lamar (2-8) Saturday afternoon inside the College Park Center Saturday afternoon.
 
After UTA built a lead as large as 21 late in the 1st half, Lamar cut its deficit to as little as five in the 2nd half, but the Mavs allowed the Cardinals to get no closer, keeping the visitors at bay thanks to a trio of standout individual performances and a team-wide defensive effort.
 
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu set a career high with 14 points – 12 of which came off six alley-oop connections – in addition to pulling down six rebounds and blocking six shots, the sixth time in now just 26 career games with UTA that he has recorded 5+ rejections in a single game.
 
David Azore posted a team-high 16 points on the strength of 9-10 from the free throw line as part of a balanced all-around effort in which he secured six rebounds and passed out a season-high four assists. After netting just four points through his first three health-impacted games of the season, Patrick Mwamba has now reached double-figure points for the second-straight time with 10, along with grabbing a season-best seven rebounds.
 
UTA entered the day having played the 4th-hardest schedule of any team in the nation this year, and Lamar was incredibly the first Division-I opponent for the Mavs that did not participate in the NCAA Tournament last season.
 
Once again, too, the Mavs were without their full complement of players as 3rd-leading scorer Nicolas Elame (7.6) did not play as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
 
That didn't matter, though, at the end of the day as UTA used the strength of a big 1st half in which it held Lamar to just 10-percent shooting and only 12 points en route to a 19-point advantage after the opening 20 minutes.


BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The lengthy, athletic Akobundu-Ehiogu went a perfect 7-7 from the floor, tied for the 6th-most makes without a miss (minimum five makes) in single game program history.
• The 47 points UTA held Lamar to rank just outside the top 10 in terms of fewest points allowed in program lore.
• Javon Levi finished with five points, five rebounds, a game-high six assists and a team-best three steals. Levi by himself had more assists than Lamar's entire team (five).
• UTA has now won games this year when scoring in the 100s, 70s and 50s.
• The 12 1st-half points were the fewest UTA has allowed in any half this year (previous: 21 by North Texas in the 2nd half on Nov. 18).
• With the nine made free throws, Azore broke a tie for 7th on the program's all-time career makes list with now 306.
• UTA led for all but 18 seconds the entire game.
• With the five blocks, Akobundu-Ehiogu now has 84 for his career with the Mavs, tying Mack Callier for 6th on the all-time list. Callier accomplished his in 111 career games.
• Davion Buster tallied a game-high 21 points to lead Lamar. Mason Senigaur added 10 points to finish as the lone double-figure scorers for the Cardinals.
• UTA held Lamar to just 26 percent (16-62) from the floor while connecting at a 37-percent rate (20-54).

GAME FLOW
After Lamar scored the opening points of the night, UTA responded with a 12-0 run over four minutes to build an early double-figure lead of 12-2 just over five minutes into the contest and never trailed again. The Maverick lead grew to 15, 21-6, with 7:30 remaining, and it stretched to 20 for the first time, 29-8, following a Akobundu-Ehiogu layup with just under two minutes remaining.
 
The Mavs settled for a 31-12 halftime advantage as they held Lamar to just 10 percent from the floor (3-29) as the Cardinals had as many points from the field (six) as they did from the free throw line (6-8).
 
Lamar came out of the halftime break hot and quickly trimmed UTA's lead to 13 in the opening five minutes of the stanza before getting its deficit to single digits at eight, 42-34, at the midway point.
 
Azore answered the Lamar push with a 3-pointer to put UTA back in front by double digits, but the Cardinals responded and made it a seven-point game, 45-38, with under seven minutes to play.
 
However, a 7-2 counter by the Mavs over the ensuing 3+ minutes put them back in front by as much as 12 before which for all intents and purposes ended the game.
 
QUOTABLES
"It's hard to have 12 days off in-between a great road win and another game, in addition to being in the middle of finals, but I thought our guys' effort and attention to detail in practice over the past two weeks was incredible.
 
Today was a rock fight; we threw way more rocks than they did in the 1st half and we guarded them at an elite level. Human nature – after getting a big lead like we did – is to relax, and I knew Lamar would fight back. But we withstood that, and for our guys to not let shot making affect how we finished the game was a big deal. I'm proud of our team. Sometimes you have to win ugly games."
 
-- UTA Head Coach Greg Young


THIS AND THAT

• Lamar will end up being the only D-I opponent UTA will play in its non-conference schedule this year which did not compete in the NCAA Tournament last season.
• This was the 76th all-time meeting between UTA and Lamar, who were both long-time Southland Conference members. UTA has only played McNeese (79) more times in its history than Lamar (Texas State also 76 meetings).
• This was UTA's first home game in 25 days dating back to a Nov. 16 contest against Abilene Christian. The Mavs were scheduled to host Nevada on Dec. 7, but that game was canceled due to COVID protocol within the Wolf Pack program.

NEXT UP
UTA will head back on the road for another pair of challenging games against teams which went to the NCAA Tournament last year. It kicks off at Oral Roberts – which became just the second school in March Madness history to ever advance to the Sweet Sixteen as a 15 seed – on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. FOLLOW ALONG
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