Box Score SAN MARCOS – UT Arlington (9-12, 5-5 SBC) once again put its grit on display and had a chance to force overtime after being down late, but the Mavericks came up just short Saturday at Texas State (13-6, 4-3 SBC), dropping an emotion-filled 58-53 contest inside Strahan Arena.
 
Down by eight with less than four minutes remaining, UTA once again mounted a furious comeback effort and had a chance to tie the contest with a pair of Javon Levi free throws with 22 seconds left. He made one of two, pulling the Mavs within 54-53.
 
On the ensuring inbound, Texas State's Nighael Caeser was fouled, and he made the first but missed the second. However, the Bobcats grabbed a crucial offensive rebound, and Isiah Small was sent to the line. He also made one of two attempts, still keeping hopes afloat for UTA to potentially force a would-be fifth conference overtime game of the year already.
 
Trailing 56-53 with 15 seconds left, UTA – following a Texas State timeout – inbounded to David Azore, who tried to make a contested pass in the backcourt up the left sideline to Patrick Mwamba. However, the pass was behind him, and Mwamba tried to save the ball but it went directly into the hands of Small, who was promptly fouled and made both to finalize the 58-53 score.
 
Azore – who entered the day leading the Sun Belt Conference with 17.9 points for the year and a gaudy 24 per game in league play – nearly matched exactly that total with a game-high 23 to pace the Mavs after having his stretch of 12-straight double-figure scoring games snapped on Thursday.
 
UTA – which held Texas State to its second-fewest points of the season in Thursday's 70-58 win – equaled that total on the defensive end once again, but mustered just 53 of its own, the lowest offensive performance of the conference season for the Mavs.
 
All five of UTA's Sun Belt losses have now come by seven points or less, and three of those have occurred in overtime or triple overtime as the Mavs average loss in league action is just four points.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• After shooting 57 percent (12-21) from the floor in the 1st half, UTA only connected at a 31-percent rate (9-29) in the 2nd half. Conversely, Texas State shot 33 percent (9-27) in the opening 20 minutes and 48 percent (10-21) in the final 20.
• With five assists, Levi cracked the 700-helper mark with now 703 career assists during his time at UTRGV and UTA. Levi ranks 4th among all active players in that category, and by comparison the only UTA player to eclipse 700 career assists was Erick Neal with 756 from 2014-18.
• Patrick Mwamba tallied eight points and secured five rebounds for UTA, while Kaodirchi Akobundu-Ehiogu had six points and five rebounds.
• Carson Bischoff added six points on a pair of 3-pointers for the Mavs, and Nicolas Elame notched five points off the bench.
• UTA won the rebounding battle, 30-29, and also 8-7 on the offensive end; however, Texas State converted nearly all of those opportunities into buckets as the Bobcats critically out-scored the Mavs in second-chance points, 15-7.
• Caleb Asberry led Texas State with 15 points. Small just missed a double-double with eight points and a game-best 10 rebounds.

GAME FLOW
UTA jumped out to a quick 6-0 start but Texas State responded, and on a Dylan Dawson 3-pointer near the midway point of the half took its first lead in nearly 30 minutes against the Mavs this year, 13-10. The Bobcats eventually extended to their largest 1st-half lead of six, 22-16, at the seven-minute mark, but a pair of triples by Mwamba and Elame as part of a four-minute shutout streak on the defensive end pulled the Mavs even, 22-22, with a little over three minutes left in the stanza.
 
A traditional three-point play put the Bobcats back in front, 25-22, but UTA closed the half on an important 7-1 stretch – capped by a step-back 3-pointer from Azore – to take a 29-26 lead into intermission.
 
After scoring the final five points of the 1st half, UTA notched the first five points of the 2nd half as part of a larger 13-2 run bridging both halves to open up its biggest cushion of the game, 37-28, following Bischoff's second triple of the contest with just over 16 minutes left.
 
In a game of runs, the Bobcats had an immediate response with a 9-0 surge in three minutes to tie things up, 37-all. The contest remained knotted, 39-39, with just over 11 minutes to play when Texas State clipped off a 10-1 run to take its largest lead of the afternoon, 49-40, with under eight minutes to play after banking in a 3-pointer before the shot clock expired.
 
Fast forward several minutes, and UTA had used a 7-1 run in just under three minutes to turn the aforementioned eight-point hole, 53-45, into a 54-52 contest when Levi went to the free throw line.
 
QUOTABLE
"What a great game; I'm disappointed we couldn't finish this one off for our team, our players and our university. We had a lead in the 2nd half and couldn't defend that lead. It's been a little bit of a problem for us this year – not being able to consistently put 40 minutes together. We got some tough brakes down the stretch, and we just didn't finish the game the way we needed to on the road."
 
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

THIS AND THAT

• This was the 78th all-time meeting between the two sides (UTA leads: 41-37), the second-most played opponent for UTA (McNeese: 79).
• It also was the final regular-season meeting between the Mavs and Bobcats as Sun Belt members as UTA is heading to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) on July 1.
   

NEXT UP
UTA will return home to welcome Coastal Carolina on Thursday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. before hosting defending Sun Belt Tournament Champion and current conference leader App State on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 5 p.m.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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