ARLINGTON – A big early-season showdown between 3-0 Louisiana and 3-1 UT Arlington is on tap Thursday at 7 p.m. inside the College Park Center with the winner taking over 1st place in the Sun Belt Conference.
 

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Game Notes: UT Arlington  ///  Louisiana  ///  Sun Belt  ///  Digital Gameday Program

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• UTA will be looking to match its best-ever start to a Sun Belt season at 4-1. The Mavericks also commenced the 2015-16 campaign 4-1. Louisiana was picked to finish 2nd in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll behind Georgia State, which UTA knocked off on the road last Thursday, 70-63.
   
• David Azore leads the Sun Belt at 26 points per game through UTA's first four league contests, including a career-high-tying 33-point outing this past Saturday at Georgia Southern. Azore is the only player in the Sun Belt with a 30-point game in conference action this year, and he's got two already (30 versus South Alabama on Dec. 30).
   
• Azore – who was named Sun Belt Player of the Week last week – has led UTA in scoring in seven-straight games in which he's played (DNP versus Howard Payne on Dec. 22 due to a non-COVID illness). The last time someone other than Azore led UTA in scoring was Pedro Castro with 17 at UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 29.
   
• UTA erased a 14-point deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining at Georgia Southern and forced overtime on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Javon Levi. Leading 73-72 with 20 seconds left, Levi was fouled away from the ball – which should have been a Flagrant 1 personal foul but instead was a common foul – and he missed both free throws (UTA should have received two free throws and the ball back), allowing Georgia Southern to win it 74-73 on a layup in the closing seconds. In overtime, UTA had the ball and a lead with 20 seconds remaining before a controversial ending in which a Flagrant 1 personal foul appeared to not be administered correctly, which would have benefited the Mavs.

TWEETABLES
1) Levi's roller-coaster game at Georgia Southern also featured him reaching 1,000 career points on a layup with 26 seconds remaining in regulation – part of a 7-1 UTA run in the final 30 seconds to overcome a six-point deficit.
 
2) UTA made seven and 10 3-pointers, respectively, at Georgia State and Georgia Southern last weekend to represent the most triples the Mavs have made against Division-I opponents this year.
 
3) The Mavs rank 35th in the nation in both blocked shots per game (5) and field goal percentage defense (39.2). Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu ranks 14th nationally in total blocks with 42, and is 21st in the country with 2.8 blocks per game.
 
4) Azore is tied for the Sun Belt lead in scoring in all games this year at 17.2 per outing (Charles Manning Jr., South Alabama). He has increased his season point-per-game average every single game since Nov. 29.

5) UTA is one of only four of the Sun Belt's 12 teams to have played all four of their scheduled league games through the first two weeks of the season (Troy, App State and ULM).
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• Louisiana won at App State and Coastal Carolina to open league play two weeks ago and then defeated Arkansas State last Thursday in overtime to open 3-0. The Ragin' Cajuns then had their scheduled contest against Little Rock last Saturday canceled due to COVID protocols with the Trojans' program.
   
• The Cajuns rank 15th in the nation by holding opponents to just 27.3 percent from 3-point range. Louisiana is also 18th nationally in rebounds per game at 41.4 and ranks 45th in blocks per game at 4.9.
   
• Louisiana ranks 2nd in league games by holding opponents to just 65.3 points per contest and is 1st in field goal percentage defense (35.3).
   
• UTA (42.3) and Louisiana (40.7) rank 1st and 2nd in rebounds per game in Sun Belt contests.
   
• Arizona transfer and former McDonald's All-American Jordan Brown leads the Cajuns at 14.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the year. Theo Akwuba averages 10.4 points and 8.8 rebounds as well, while Kobe Julien is averaging 9.9 points per outing. Akwuba – the reigning Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year – was a Sun Belt Preseason First Team selection.  

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE STRENGTH
UTA played the hardest non-conference schedule of any Sun Belt team (15th-toughest in the nation). The Mavs faced five Quad 1 opponents; no other team in the league faced more than three as UTA was responsible for nearly 25 percent of the Sun Belt's 22 combined Quad 1 games. In fact, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Little Rock, Troy and Coastal Carolina have combined for just three Quad 1 games – two fewer than UTA on its own.
 
AZORE NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Azore, whose 104 points in league play are 26 more than anyone else, earned UTA's first Sun Belt Player of the Week honor in nearly two years on Jan. 4 after averaging 27 points, seven rebounds, shooting 54 percent from the floor and 93 percent from the free throw line.
 
He is the first Mav to win SBC Player of the Week since Brian Warren on Feb. 4, 2019. Warren was named Co-Player that week, meaning Azore is the first outright winner of the weekly award in the league since Erick Neal on Feb. 26, 2018.
 
KEY NUMBERS
2: UTA lost its then-2nd-leading scorer Pedro Castro for the season after he underwent back surgery on Dec. 18 following an injury suffered at Oral Roberts two days prior.
 
4: UTA committed just four turnovers against Troy on Jan. 1 – tied for the fewest in program history in the last 10 years (Louisiana on Jan. 31, 2020).
 
5: The victory over Troy was UTA's first when trailing with five minutes remaining (now 1-8; trailed 53-47).
 
6: Six of UTA's seven wins this year have come when scoring in the 50s, 60s, 70, 80s, 90s or 100s.
 
7: Akobundu-Ehiogu recorded his seventh-career game of 5+ blocks against South Alabama on Dec. 30; no other player in program history has more than three such games, and Akobundu-Ehiogu has done it in just 33 contests with UTA.
 
8: UTA played the most non-conference opponents in the nation that participated in the NCAA Tournament last year with incredibly eight. Of the nine D-I foes the Mavs faced in their non-league schedule only one (Lamar) didn't play in March Madness in 2021.
 
9: UTA has already used nine-different starting lineups in 15 games – tied for the 3rd-most combinations of any team in the nation (UTEP: 12, Stony Brook: 11, multiple teams: 9).
 
28: Azore reached 1,000 career points with a free throw in the 1st half of UTA's contest at Oklahoma on Dec. 19, becoming the 28th member of UTA's 1,000 Point Club.
 
51: UTA pulled down 51 boards on Jan. 6 in out-rebounding Georgia State, 51-32. That's the most caroms for the Mavs versus a D-I opponent since 55 against Troy on Mar. 5, 2016. Additionally, 18 of those came on the offensive glass – UTA's most against any D-I team in more than a decade.
 
100: With a 62-57 win over Troy on Jan. 1, UTA claimed its 100th all-time victory in the College Park Center (100-41, .709). The first game took place on Feb. 1, 2012, with 2012-13 being the first full season of the CPC.
 
KEY KENPOM NUMBERS
13.4% – Percentage of UTA's opponent shots this season that have been blocked by the Mavs, ranking as the 41st-highest in the country.
 
41.5% – Percentage of UTA's total minutes this season which have been played by its bench (non-starters), the 17th-most of any team in the nation.

98.8 – The rating of UTA's opponent defenses so far this season, ranking the 12th-hardest schedule in the country in terms of defenses faced.
 
AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
Levi spent the previous four seasons at UTRGV, accumulating statistical numbers which place him among the best guards in the nation. Levi ranks in the top 8 among all active D-I players in the country in career assists (4th, 669), steals (4th, 266) and assist-to-turnover ratio (T-8th, 2.51). Additionally, Levi ranks 4th in career steals per game at 2.2.
 
MOVING ON UP
Azore is 4th on UTA's all-time program list for made free throws with 338, and currently ranks 8th in free throw percentage at 79.7.
 
DEPTH ON DISPLAY
UTA led the nation along with Abilene Christian and Murray State last season by having 13 different players score double-figure points in a game. So far this year, the Mavs have already had 10 different double-figure scorers – tied for the 8th-most in the nation (two teams with 13; five teams with 11). Below is a list of those players, their respective season highs and how many times they have led UTA in scoring:
 
David Azore: 33 (9x)
Pedro Castro: 17 (3x)
Nicolas Elame: 17 (1x)
Patrick Mwamba: 16, 2x
Shemar Wilson: 15 (1x)
Javon Levi: 14
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu: 14
Brandyn Talbot: 13
Montez Young Jr.: 12 (1x)
Jack Hoiberg: 11
 
RE-TWEETS

• UTA established season highs against a D-I opponent in an 89-87 overtime win against South Alabama on Dec. 30 with points (89), field goal percentage (.541) and points in a half (41, 1st). USA entered the game holding opponents to just 61 points per game – 2nd-best in the SBC and 41st nationally.
   
• Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu posted a career-high 14 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked six shots against Lamar on Dec. 11. The six blocks are tied for the most by any Sun Belt player this year and are tied for the 5th-most in single-game program history. He went 7-7 from the floor thanks to six alley-oops – tied for the 6th-most makes without a miss in program history (minimum five makes).

• The Mavs were scheduled to face Nevada (NET #127 – Quad 3 opponent at home) on Tuesday, Dec. 7; however, that contest was canceled due to COVID protocols within the Wolf Pack program.
   
• UTA won at UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 29, 70-62, snapping the 6th-longest home winning streak in the country at 20 in a row dating back to 2019. UCSB was the last of five-straight opponents – and six-straight D-I foes for UTA – which played in the NCAA Tournament last year.
   
• UTA's win at UCSB (ranked #93 at the time by KenPom) was its first road non-conference win over a KenPom top-100 team since the Mavs took down BYU (then #73) on Nov. 18, 2018.
   
• Pedro Castro was held scoreless at Utah State, his first pointless game since he was a redshirt freshman with the Mavs (two schools in-between) on Mar. 16, 2019, in a Sun Belt Tournament semifinal win over Georgia Southern. He bounced back impressively with a team-high 16 points at UC Santa Barbara two days later.
   
• UTA shot 64.2 percent (43-67) from the floor on Nov. 13 against Mary Hardin-Baylor, which was tied for the 7th-best mark in single-game program history. It was the 2nd-highest percentage in program history when making at least 40 shots (66 percent, 40-62, at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2, 1965).
   
• Shemar Wilson led the way with that shooting percentage as he went a perfect 6-6 from the floor – tied for the 10th-most makes in program history without a miss.
   
• Javon Levi posted his seventh-career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists against UMHB. It was the first points-assists double-double by a UTA player since Brian Warren had 15 and 12 versus Arkansas Tech on Nov. 24, 2019.
   
• Greg Young secured his first-career win at the D-I level with the 104-75 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor. Young – who was named the ninth head coach in program history this past spring following 12 seasons on the UTA sidelines as either an assistant (2009-13) or associate head coach (2013-21) – had previously served as a junior college head coach for 10 seasons, accumulating an overall record of 168-139. His first-career victory over a D-I opponent came on Nov. 29 at UC Santa Barbara.
   
• The Mavs had six different players reach double-figure points against Mary Hardin-Baylor. The last time UTA had exactly six in double figures was an NIT Second Round victory over Akron on Mar. 20, 2017. UTA had eight double-figure scorers in a 117-53 win opposite Howard Payne on Dec. 22, 2020.
   
• The Mavs handed out 28 assists against UMHB, one shy of cracking the top-10 single-game program record list.

NEXT UP
UTA is scheduled to conclude its home weekend by welcoming ULM to the CPC for a 2 p.m. tipoff on Saturday. The Warhawks are 9-7 overall and 1-3 in the Sun Belt entering Thursday's scheduled contest at Texas State.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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