ESTERO, Fla. – Trailing in the final minute and desperate for a win, the UT Arlington men's basketball team delivered clutch performances to pull away from a tough Northern Kentucky team and earn a 60-56 win Tuesday in the consolation bracket of the Gulf Coast Showcase from Hertz Arena.
 
Brandyn Talbot keyed a 1st-half comeback for UTA (3-3) and finished with a team- and career-high 15 points before turning things over to Aaron Cash who was instrumental in the 2nd-half surge and tallied 14 points.
 
Facing a 56-55 deficit with 50 seconds remaining against the preseason Horizon League favorites, Kyron Gibson brilliantly curled a one-handed pass from the right elbow to a cutting Shemar Wilson on the left block, and he finished a contested layup to put the Mavericks in front, 57-56.
 
On the ensuing Northern Kentucky (2-3) inbound, Marion Humphrey affected the catch along the sideline and the Norse turned the ball back over to UTA.
 
Then, with the shot clock winding down on the Mavs' possession, Gibson – from nearly the identical elbow spot as the pass to Wilson moments earlier – skipped a pass to Talbot on the baseline in front of the UTA bench, and the sophomore calmly hit nothing but net on his fifth, and last, triple with 27 seconds left to create the final 60-56 margin.
 
Facing a Northern Kentucky team which defeated Cincinnati – picked to finish 3rd in the American Athletic Conference – by double figures last week, UTA shot 46 percent (21-46) from the floor, including a 50-percent clip (8-16) from 3-point range.
 
Conversely, the Mavs held NKU to just 35 percent (20-57) from the field, and after allowing the Norse to go 6-10 (60 percent) from beyond the arc in the 1st half they locked in and didn't allow NKU to make a 3 in the 2nd half (0-9).
 
Talbot knocked down four 1st-half 3-pointers in a four-minute stretch, and then didn't strike again until the aforementioned dagger to ice the game en route to a career-best five 3-pointers off the bench in 20 minutes. Cash, meanwhile, scored nine of his 14 in the 2nd half, with the 14 representing the most the redshirt senior has tallied against a Division-I opponent.
 
Dario Domingos was a pivotal force in the low blocks as the sophomore also came off the bench to net eight points and secure a game-best 10 rebounds. Wilson finished with nine points and five rebounds to go along with two blocks and a pair of steals.
 
With the win, UTA advances to play East Carolina again at 12:30 p.m. Central (1:30 local) in its final game of the tournament on Wednesday.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• After turning the ball over just nine times on Monday against Drexel, UTA committed four giveaways in the first four minutes Tuesday en route to 17 for the game. However, the Mavs only allowed NKU to score nine points on those giveaways while converting 10 Norse turnovers into 17 points.
• UTA finished with a 36-28 rebounding edge.
• Chendall Weaver scored four points and secured four rebounds off the bench.
• Humphrey did not score, but finished with a game-best plus/minus of +19.
• After leading UTA offensively on Monday night, Gibson scored six points, grabbed three rebounds and issued three assists against the Norse.
• Nearly half (29) of UTA's points came from the bench.
• The game was tied on seven occasions and changed hands 13 times.
• Talbot's previous career high for points against a D-I opponent was eight at Georgia State on Jan. 6, 2022, and his previous career best for 3-pointers versus any opponent was three, which he had done four times and most recently on Nov. 15 opposite Hardin-Simmons. His previous scoring high in a game regardless of opponent was 13.
• Cash's previous D-I high for points was 12 against Houston Baptist (now named Houston Christian) last year when he was at Texas A&M.
• UTA Starting 5: Taj Anderson, Kyron Gibson, Aaron Cash, Pedro Castro, Shemar Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"It was a great win. We knew coming on this trip we'd be playing three quality teams, and today was no exception. For our guys to respond the way they did today after yesterday's tough game shows their resiliency. I'm just really proud of our team and proud that we were able to find a way to win."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young


GAME FLOW
Neither team led by more than five the entire 1st half as the two sides went into the locker room deadlocked at 30-all. NKU opened up its largest lead of the first stanza, 12-8, at the 11:30 mark, but UTA responded and eventually built a five-point lead, 23-18, with six minutes to play following a Cash triple.
 
That five-point advantage remained a few seconds later as the Mavs countered a Norse 3-pointer with another one from Talbot to make it 26-21, but from there NKU closed the half on a mini 9-4 run to pull even after 20 minutes.
 
The Norse carried that momentum over to the start of the 2nd half as they commenced the period on an 8-0 run to forge in front, 38-30, just 4½ minutes in before Cash hit a free-throw jumper to stop the stretch.
 
That bucket not only stop the bleeding but helped spearhead a response from the Mavs as UTA orchestrated an extended 8-1 run, and following a Domingos putback underneath had re-claimed a 40-39 lead with 12:15 to play.
 
However, the game of runs continued as the Norse re-butted with an 8-1 run of their own to take a 47-41 advantage before the Mavs responded, and on a Cash triple from the top of the arc re-tied the contest, 52-52, with just under four minutes showing.
 
That preceded a media timeout, and on the first possession out of the break, Wilson found a slashing Cash in the paint and the San Francisco native hammered through a two-handed dunk to give the Mavs a 52-50 lead.
 
The game remained tied, 55-55, with under two minutes left before NKU converted one free throw with 1:05 left to go in front by one, 56-55, before the Mavs scored the game's final five points.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This was the second-straight day UTA faced a team it had never played before in its 64-year history. The Mavs played Drexel in the opening round on Monday.
• NKU lost its first game of the showcase to Florida Gulf Coast on Monday night, 82-61.
• The Norse defeated Cincinnati, 64-51, in their final game before heading to Southwest Florida.
• East Carolina – UTA's opponent on Wednesday – is 4-1 on the year. The Pirates lost to Indiana State, 79-75, on Monday to open their tournament, but defeated Toledo on Tuesday, 86-75.

FOLLOW ALONG
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