ARLINGTON – On the strength of arguably its best all-around defensive effort of the season, UT Arlington (9-11, 5-4 SBC) never trailed en route to snapping a mini three-game losing streak with a 70-58 win Thursday night inside the College Park Center over rival Texas State (12-6, 3-3 SBC).
 
Just five days after setting a career high with 12 points, Lazaro Rojas matched that with another strong performance off the bench, but it was Patrick Mwamba leading the Mavs' attack with 15 points as UTA connected at 49 percent (23-47) from the floor on an evening in which it retired the #0 jersey of Marquez Haynes.
 
UTA raced out to a 21-5 lead just eight minutes into the contest, allowed Texas State to get as close as two, 43-41, eight minutes into the 2nd half, but staved off the defending Sun Belt Conference regular-season champions thanks to limiting the visitors to their second-lowest scoring output of the season behind only a 47-point showing by Houston.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• After scoring a career-high 37 points on Saturday, the Sun Belt's leading scorer in David Azore was held to just nine on Thursday – the first time finishing in single digits since Nov. 18 at North Texas – while pulling down six rebounds.
• As a result of that, Mwamba became the first UTA player to lead the Mavs in scoring in a game in which Azore played since incredibly Nov. 29 at UC Santa Barbara when Pedro Castro tallied a team-best 17 in a winning effort.
• Ironically, Azore (now 1,177) surpassed Haynes (1,174) on the program's all-time scoring list on the night the Mavs raised his jersey to the roof.
• Javon Levi had another balanced effort with eight points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
• Nicolas Elame posted seven points and corralled seven rebounds. He also added a pair of thefts.
• Rojas tied a season high with two steals.
• The 58 points UTA allowed – six of which came in a 30-second stretch with under a minute to play – are the 3rd-fewest it has allowed this year to a Division-I opponent (Lamar: 47, Troy: 57).
• UTA matched its season high in free throws made (19) and surpassed the number attempted (29) in a regulation contest.
• In a matchup of the top-two teams in rebound margin in Sun Belt play, the two teams finished tied on the glass, 35-35.

GAME FLOW
UTA raced out to early leads of 9-0 and 12-3 not even a handful of minutes into the contest before extending its cushion to the aforementioned 16 points after just eight minutes as the Mavs made eight of their first 12 shots and had six assists and no turnovers during that impressive opening stretch.
 
Texas State settled in after that and held UTA scoreless for the next five minutes, but the Mavs did a good job on the defensive end themselves as the Bobcats only erased three points off their deficit, 23-10, during the stretch.
 
The Bobcats pulled to within six, 27-21, with three minutes remaining in the 1st half, but UTA closed the stanza on an impressive and important 9-0 run, capped by a Levi steal and layup just before the buzzer to give the Mavs a 36-21 halftime lead after shooting 56 percent (15-27) from the floor.
 
Making the 1st-half performance even more impressive was that UTA did it with Azore scoring just two points following the career-high outing five days prior.
 
Texas State opened the 2nd half on a tear, and pulled within two, 43-41, with 12 minutes to play following an 11-1 run. Unfazed and without using a timeout, UTA rebutted with a 6-0 spurt in 70 seconds as part of a larger 7-0 stretch to reclaim a nine-point edge, 50-41, at the midway point of the stanza.
 
After the Bobcats pulled back to seven, 55-48, with under seven minutes showing, UTA used a 6-0 run to forge back ahead by 13, 61-48, with two minutes left which for all intents and purposes sealed the game as the Mavs maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
 
QUOTABLE
"Texas State has nearly everyone back from a championship team, so I knew it would be a good, tough and physical game. They're organized. They're well-coached. They play hard. But so do our players, and I'm really proud of our guys. Losing three-straight close games – two in overtime – to bounce back like this tells you about the character of our players."
 – UTA Head Coach Greg Young


THIS AND THAT

• At halftime, UTA retired Haynes' number to the College Park Center rafters, joining the #22 jersey of all-time leading scorer Willie Brand as just the second men's basketball player to have his number hung up for good. Haynes scored the aforementioned 1,174 points in just 60 games and two seasons with the Mavs.
• UTA has now defeated each of the top-3 teams in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll in Georgia State (1st), Louisiana (2nd) and Texas State (3rd).
• UTA wore blue uniforms at home for the first time this season in conjunction with a BLUE OUT atmosphere.
• The Mavs snapped a three-game losing streak to the Bobcats after winning 17 of the previous 20 meetings from 2012-20.
• This was the 77th all-time meeting between the two sides (UTA leads: 41-36), the second-most played opponent for UTA (McNeese: 79).

NEXT UP
UTA will conclude its weekend set with the Bobcats when it heads to San Marcos for a 4 p.m. tip on Saturday.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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