STATESBORO, Ga. – David Azore tied a career high with 33 points,
Javon Levi hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to force overtime and UT Arlington overcame a 14-point 2nd-half deficit, but it all came up just short of a win as the Mavericks (7-8, 3-1 SBC) had a chance to win it at the end of the extra session but fell one point shy as Georgia Southern (8-6, 1-2 SBC) claimed a 74-73 victory on Saturday inside Hanner Fieldhouse.
UTA trailed by 11 with under five minutes remaining and by six with less than 30 seconds left in regulation before a furious comeback was capped by Levi – who reached 1,000 career points moments before – rising up from NBA range and knocking down an overtime-forcing triple.
In the extra period, the Mavs – who once again played with just nine scholarship players due to COVID protocols and injuries – built multiple four-point leads, the latest of which came on Azore's final points with 40 ticks showing to go up 73-69. However, Georgia Southern knocked down a 3-pointer on its ensuing possession to pull within one, 73-72, setting up an offensive trip for UTA which resulted in Levi being fouled well away from the ball and not remotely part of the play – appearing to fit one of the criteria for a Flagrant 1 personal foul, which would have been two shots and the ball for the Mavs.
However, a common foul was issued, and both free throws were missed preceding a Georgia Southern layup at the other end. UTA had a couple final attempts to win the game after calling timeout with seven seconds left. Azore rose up from the top of the key, but his shot was rebounded by
Patrick Mwamba, who had a chance to potentially win it with a layup, but his effort came up just short as the Mavs had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week Azore continued his torrid play as he led UTA in scoring for the seventh-straight game that he's played in dating back to late November by equaling his career high set in the same building back in 2019. He also narrowly missed a double-double by securing a season-high nine rebounds.
Levi just missed what would have been his first-career points-rebounds double-double with nine points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Nicolas Elame notched 13 points for UTA as well, setting a personal high versus a Division-I opponent this season.
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- Jack Hoiberg (4.5 ppg) and Carson Bischoff (3.9 ppg) did not play for UTA due to COVID protocols.
- Mwamba finished with nine points and eight rebounds as UTA posted a 46-37 rebound edge.
- Azore went 5-5 from 3-point range, with the quintet of makes setting a career high and also matching the best 3-point percentage without a miss (minimum five makes) in program history.
- Elame established a career high with three 3-pointers. His previous best was two makes on two occasions.
- UTA went 10-25 (40 percent) from 3-point range to establish a season high in terms of makes versus a D-I foe.
- The Mavs, however, finished just 11-18 (58 percent) from the free throw line.
- Georgia Southern was without its leading scorer Elijan McCadden (11.9 ppg).
- Kamari Brown led a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Eagles with 16. He was followed by Gedi Juozapaitis with 15, Andrei Savrasov with 13 and Tre Cobbs with 10.
GAME FLOW
Azore scored the first six points for the Mavs to take an early 6-4 lead before the Eagles responded with a 9-0 run to jump ahead 13-6 just six minutes into the afternoon. After trimming that deficit down to just two, 15-13, at the 12-minute mark, UTA lost Mwamba for the half as he picked up his second foul.
That, in part, allowed the Eagles to open up their largest advantage of the 1st half at 21-13, but keyed by Azore the Mavs clipped off a 9-2 run to pull within one, 23-22, and force Georgia Southern into a timeout with four minutes remaining.
Out of that, the hosts extended their edge again to 29-24 before taking a 33-30 halftime lead. The Mavs let the Eagles shoot 47 percent (14-30) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes while only connecting at a 38-percent rate (12-32).
UTA tied the game at 33-33 for the first time since it was 4-4 with Elame's third 3-pointer on the opening possession of the 2nd half. However, the Eagles rebutted and eventually built their largest lead of the game, 54-40, with just over nine minutes showing.
After briefly getting its margin down to single digits, UTA trailed 62-51 with 4:30 remaining before a 7-0 surge pulled the Mavs to 62-58 with under two minutes remaining. After the Eagles went back in front by six, 64-58, Levi registered his 1,000th point on a driving layup and UTA's full-court pressure resulted in an Elame steal and layup to get it to a 64-62 scoreline.
After nearly forcing another turnover, Georgia Southern hit one of two free throws, giving the ball back to UTA off the rebound of the second shot with no timeouts and a chance to force overtime inside of 10 seconds.
That set up Levi's heroics to force another five minutes, but UTA fell just short in its second overtime game of the league season in just four contests.
QUOTABLE
"It was a fight for all 45 minutes. We had our chances to win the game, but we just didn't make the plays we needed to make to win the game. We also weren't good enough at the free throw line. But credit to Georgia Southern – they played hard, and we both played a little shorthanded. They put us on our heels until the last handful of minutes in regulation, but Javon hit a tough shot to force overtime and I thought we'd win it in overtime but we came up just short."
– UTA Head Coach
Greg Young
THIS AND THAT
- Levi is a UTRGV grad transfer who scored 918 points in four seasons with the Vaqueros. He is the second UTA player to reach the 1,000-point milestone in six games (Azore at Oklahoma on Dec. 19).
- Despite the loss, UTA's 3-1 start to a Sun Belt season is its second-best since joining the league, bested only by a 4-0 beginning to the 2015-16 campaign.
- Georgia Southern had its game on Thursday against Texas State canceled due to COVID protocols within the Bobcats' program.
NEXT UP
UTA is scheduled to return home to welcome Louisiana to the College Park Center on Thursday, Jan. 13, for what is shaping up as a massive early-season clash as the Cajuns are 3-0 in the Sun Belt, but had their game Saturday night against Little Rock canceled due to COVID protocols within the Trojans' program. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
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).
