NORMAN, Okla. – David Azore eclipsed the 1,000-career point mark, but unfortunately for UT Arlington (3-7) it was one of the lone bright spots on Sunday afternoon as the again-shorthanded Mavericks dropped a 70-50 decision inside Lloyd Noble Center to an Oklahoma team (9-2) receiving votes in the national polls.
Facing its eighth opponent already this year which played in the NCAA Tournament last season, UTA fell behind 11-0 from the start and never recovered as the Mavs shot just 34 percent from the floor while allowing OU to connect at a 55-percent clip (28-51).
Azore made a pair of free throws at the 11:14 mark of the 1st half for his 999th and 1,000th career points – conversions from the charity stripe which also moved him into a tie for 5th on the program's all-time free throws made list.
The Houston native ended up leading UTA offensively as he paced the Mavs for the fifth time this year with a game-high 15 points.
Patrick Mwamba scored exactly 10 points for the third time in the last four games to finish as the lone other double-figure scorer for the Mavs, who improved their field goal percentage by 17 in the 2nd half from the 1st, but it wasn't enough again a team that already has a pair of victories over top-15 nationally-ranked foes.
Prior to the start of the game, it was announced that UTA's 2nd-leading scorer
Pedro Castro would miss the rest of the season after undergoing back surgery to repair an injury suffered in the Mavs game Thursday at Oral Roberts.
While the Mavs lost Castro, they gained
Nicolas Elame as the point guard and 3rd-leading scorer for UTA at nearly 8 per game returned for the first time since Nov. 20 after missing the previous four games with a hamstring injury. Elame did not score, but had a steal in 11 minutes off the bench.
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu – the nation's active career leader in blocks per game – had two more on Sunday, extending his streak with at least one rejection to a nation-leading 25th-straight outing dating back to last year. In 23 of those games, he has had 2+ rejections.
- By going 6-8 from the free throw line, Azore moved into sole possession of 5th place on the program's all-time list with now 315 career makes. Kevin Hervey is next up on the list in 4th place with 317.
- UTA shot just 25 percent (6-24) in the 1st half compared with 59 percent (13-22) by the Sooners. The Mavs connected at a 42-percent rate (11-26) from the floor in the 2nd half.
- Shemar Wilson scored eight points, one shy of matching his career high versus a Division-I opponent.
- Akobundu-Ehiogu led the Mavs with six rebounds, but UTA was out-rebounded as a team, 35-26.
- Carson Bischoff knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to finish with six points.
- Brandyn Talbot led the Mavs with three assists in 14 minutes off the bench.
- The Mavs used their seventh-different starting lineup already this year as Bischoff made his first start in two seasons with UTA.
- Umoja Gibson led the Sooners with 14 points to go along with a team-best eight rebounds. He was joined in double-figure scoring by Tanner Groves with 13 and Jalen Hill with 12. CJ Noland added nine points as OU out-scored UTA in the paint, 32-18.
GAME FLOW
Oklahoma jumped out quickly to the aforementioned double-figure lead as UTA missed its first nine shots. Azore scored six-straight points for the Mavs to open their scoring for the game – including the 1,000-point free throws – but OU maintained a 16-6 edge at the midway point of the half.
From there, UTA's only points over a seven-minute stretch came off a Mwamba 3-pointer, and the Sooners opened up a 28-9 lead courtesy of a 12-3 run, and eventually led by as much as 22 before the Mavs closed the half on a mini 5-0 run to make it a 35-18 differential after 20 minutes.
That 17-point margin would end up being as close as UTA would get the rest of the way, however, as OU led by 20+ most of the 2nd half.
QUOTABLES
"It was another hard game as part of our gauntlet of a schedule. Credit to Oklahoma – I told our team before the game that this would be the best team we've played to this point of the season.
We didn't compete as well as we needed to compete in the 1st half. The 2nd half was better, but we just struggled again to score, and we have to figure that out. And we will. We learned some lessons today. We had some guys do some good things today, and we did some things well today as a team that we hadn't done this year yet."
-- UTA Head Coach
Greg Young
THIS AND THAT
- Azore became the 28th member of UTA's 1,000 Point Club, and did so in only 86 career games. He now has 1,009 career points, good for 27th on the all-time list.
- Castro was averaging 7.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and had made a team-best nine 3-pointers for the Mavs as one of just three players to start all nine contests.
- This was UTA's second game in the state of Oklahoma in four days and third contest of the non-conference season.
- Oklahoma was the third opponent for UTA this season which was receiving votes in the national poll(s).
- Azore recorded his 1,000th-career point in the same building as he tore his ACL as a true freshman in a preseason charity scrimmage win for the Mavs over OU back in October of 2017.
- Mwamba's only game not scoring 10 points in the last four contests was a nine-point outing at Oral Roberts.
NEXT UP
UTA will close out its non-conference schedule with a home contest against
Greg Young's alma mater, Howard Payne, at the College Park Center on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m.
Gallery: (12-19-2021) Men's Basketball @ Oklahoma
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