ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team used a big 2nd-half performance, and backed by a trio of standout individual showings the Mavericks knocked off ULM, 63-56, Friday night inside the College Park Center to claim their sixth-straight win over the Warhawks and third this season.
 
Trailing at halftime by six, 31-25, UTA turned up the defensive pressure in the 2nd half and outscored ULM by 13 in the closing 20 minutes to move their overall (10-9) and Sun Belt Conference record (6-5) above .500.
 
Sam Griffin continued his stellar play as the sophomore delivered his third-straight game of 20+ points with a game-high 23, while backcourt mate Shahada Wells added 17. Griffin tallied 13 of his in the 2nd half, while Wells netted 12 of his in the closing 20 minutes. Junior Wells added a season-high-tying seven assists to go along with three steals.
 
Redshirt sophomore Patrick Mwamba registered a career-high 14 points – nine of which came in the 2nd period – and he also secured all seven of his rebounds for the night in the 2nd half as he gave the Mavs a much-needed boost.
 
UTA led for the final 14 minutes of the game, but ULM hung around and found itself only down five, 58-53, with a minute remaining. However, with the ball in his hand, Griffin rose up from well beyond the 3-point line with the shot clock winding down and delivered a game-sealing triple inside of a minute to push the cushion back to eight, and for all intents and purposes end the game.
 
While Griffin spearheaded the offense, it the defensive performance for the Mavs which allowed them to get back into the contest. UTA forced ULM into 11 2nd-half turnovers – while committing only one of its own – and capitalized off those giveaways to the tune of a 15-0 advantage in points off turnovers in the 2nd half.
 
Additionally, UTA nearly made (14) as many field goals as ULM attempted (19) in the 2nd half as a result of those lost possessions.
 
Walk-on Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu continued to provide UTA valuable minutes as the redshirt sophomore grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds and rejected a game-best four shots – already his seventh game in only 11 opportunities this year that he's rejected 3+ shots in an outing.
 
The performance was made even more impressive as UTA was again without Sun Belt Preseason Second Team selection David Azore (11.4 points, 4.6 rebounds) for the 10th-straight game with a leg injury. Additionally, Lazaro Rojas (4.4 points, 3.3 rebounds) also missed his ninth-consecutive game with a leg injury.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• ULM falls to 4-14 and 2-9 in league action following its ninth-straight loss.
• UTA grabbed 13 offensive rebounds – tied for its 2nd-most against a Division-I opponent this year.
• The Mavs had eight turnovers – tied for their fewest in a Sun Belt game this year.
• Wells and Griffin – the only pair of teammates in the Sun Belt averaging better than 15 points per game in conference action – came into the game responsible for 49 percent of UTA's league scoring this year, and that percentage will go up as they accounted for 64 percent of UTA's points on Friday (40 of 63).
• Josh Nicholas led ULM in scoring with 15 off the bench. Russell Harrison was the lone other Warhawk in double figures as he tallied 11. Marco Morency issued a game-high-tying seven assists.
   

PLAY-BY-PLAY SUMMARY
Both teams put together early runs of 7-0 or better, but an 8-0 run by ULM put the Warhawks in front and they extended that advantage to as much as eight, 21-13, at the 11-minute mark. UTA methodically chipped away, and following an extended 10-2 run, the hosts tied things up at 23-all inside of 7 minutes.
 
However, ULM got the better of the closing minutes of the stanza and took the aforementioned lead into the halftime break. Both teams got off to hot starts from the floor as the Warhawks made nine of their first 15 attempts (60 percent) and the Mavs connected on eight of their first 16 (50 percent); however, ULM closed the half making three of 16 tries (19 percent) and UTA two of 14 (14 percent).
 
ULM scored the first basket out of halftime, but UTA immediately responded with an 11-0 run to take a 36-33 lead at the 16:30 mark – its first lead since the 17-minute mark of the 1st half, and never trailed again. The UTA advantage swelled to its largest of the night at 10, 48-38, inside of 10 minutes following back-to-back buckets by Wells.
 
From there, UTA wouldn't allow ULM to get any closer than three – 49-46, at the under-4 media timeout – and out of that break the Mavs responded with five-straight points to go back ahead by eight before Griffin's final aforementioned dagger.

THIS AND THAT

• This is UTA's third-straight win over ULM this season, sixth in a row overall and ninth in the last 10 meetings with the Warhawks dating back to the 2016 Sun Belt Tournament.
• This is the second-straight game UTA has erased a halftime deficit to win; those are the only two occurrences of the season (2-8).

NEXT UP
Both teams will run it back on Saturday as the Mavs and Warhawks will face off at 4 p.m. to conclude their weekend series from the College Park Center.
 
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).