JONESBORO, Ark. – In a matchup of two teams tied for 2nd place in the Sun Belt Conference despite one team playing three more games, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (8-10, 4-3 SBC) let a double-figure lead slip away in a tightly-contested battle with Arkansas State (12-4, 3-1 SBC) Thursday night inside First National Bank, 75-70.
 
In a tale of two halves, UTA opened up a 14-point lead late in the 1st half, 33-19, and shot 52 percent from the floor (14-27) while limiting A-State to just 39 percent (11-28) in the game's opening 20 minutes.
 
However, a 16-2 run by the Red Wolves bridging the halftime break completely erased that UTA advantage as the hosts connected at a 60-percent clip (15-25) in the 2nd half and staved off a late Maverick push by holding the visitors to 41 percent (12-29) from the floor.
 
After missing the previous two games due to COVID protocols, David Azore – the Sun Belt's leading scorer in conference games at 26 per contest entering the day – led UTA in scoring for the eighth-straight game in which he played with 18 on 9-10 shooting from the free throw line.
 
Coming off a pair of career scoring outings last weekend, Patrick Mwamba continued his hot play with 15 points, four rebounds and three assists. Nicolas Elame rounded out the trio of UTA double-figure scorers with 11 – his third time in the last four games scoring at least 10.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu finished with arguably his best all-around performance of the year with eight points, nine rebounds and four blocks.
• Javon Levi tallied eight points, secured four rebounds and passed out three assists.
• The Mavs received five rebounds from Elame, but we out-rebounded, 33-27.
• UTA finished at 46 percent (26-56) from the floor for the game, while allowing A-State to connect at 49 percent (26-53).
• For the first time since the Sun Belt opener against South Alabama, UTA had more turnovers (14) than assists (13).
• After missing its first free throw of the game, UTA finished the contest by making 12 in a row (12-13, 92 percent).
• Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year Norchad Omier posted his eighth-career game of at least 15 points and 15 rebounds as he registered 18 points and 16 rebounds for A-State.
• Arkansas transfer Desi Sills and former high school teammate Marquis Eaton both notched 16 points for the Red Wolves, while Caleb Fields added 12 as A-State had 21 assists on its 26 made field goals.
• Eaton added a game-high eight assists, but had his program-record streak of made free throws come to an end at 40 in a row late in the game.

GAME FLOW
UTA jumped out to a quick 9-2 start just three-and-a-half minutes in following Mwamba's second 3-pointer of the night. After A-State cut that margin to just two, 11-9, UTA responded with an 8-0 run capped by consecutive buckets from Levi to open up the first double-figure lead for either team at 19-9 midway through the stanza.
 
A few minutes later, the Mavs clipped off a 7-0 spurt in a minute to create a 14-point cushion, 31-17, after a Brandyn Talbot triple, and UTA carried a 35-26 lead into the halftime break.
 
However, the Mavs allowed the Red Wolves to close that 1st half on a 7-2 run and open the 2nd half on a 9-0 push, and all told that aforementioned 16-2 extended stretch completely erased UTA's 14-point advantage as game was tied up, 35-35, not even three minutes into the second stanza.
 
Over the next seven minutes, the lead changed hands six times and was tied on eight occasions before A-State eventually carved out a six-point edge, 60-54, inside of the 7-minute mark.
 
After the Mavs pulled within three, 62-59, out of the under-4 media timeout following a pair of Levi free throws, the Red Wolves used a 6-0 run as part of a larger chunk of not allowing a UTA made field goal for more than seven minutes as the hosts created a 68-59 lead with 90 seconds remaining.
 
From there, UTA couldn't get any closer than four until the closing seven seconds when Mwamba knocked down a third 3-pointer in front of the UTA bench to pull the Mavs within 73-70. However, Omier iced the game as he leaked out on the ensuing inbounds and knocked down a pair of free throws to account for the final margin.
 
QUOTABLE
"Congratulations to Arkansas State – they were the aggressors and were better than us in the 2nd half. I'm disappointed in the way we defended and rebounded in the 2nd half as well, and it's just really hard to win on the road when you play like that. That's not who we want to be, and we've got to get that corrected before Saturday."
 
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

THIS AND THAT

• This was UTA's second loss when leading at the half this year (7-2).
• UTA was looking to match its best-ever start through seven games of a Sun Belt season at 5-2 along with the 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2018-19 campaigns.
• The Red Wolves and Mavs entered play Thursday as the only two teams in the Sun Belt who had not lost a conference game in regulation (UTA: overtime losses to Georgia Southern (74-73) and ULM (62-55); A-State: overtime setback to Louisiana (83-77)).
• UTA lost back-to-back games for just the second time since November (Dec. 16-19 at Oral Roberts and Oklahoma).

NEXT UP
UTA is scheduled to wrap up its trip through the Natural State on Saturday when the Mavs take on Little Rock in a 2 p.m. tipoff. The Trojans are 6-9 (1-2 SBC) following a 69-59 loss at home earlier on Thursday to Texas State.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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