ESTERO, Fla. – A tightly contested 1st half gave way to East Carolina separating from UT Arlington on Wednesday afternoon as the Mavericks fell to the Pirates, 79-65, to conclude their Gulf Coast Showcase from Hertz Arena.
 
Kyron Gibson led UTA offensively for the second time in three days as the junior guard registered 13 points and issued three assists. Marion Humphrey also reached double figures as he came off the bench to tally 10 and also pass out a team-best four assists.
 
A strong first 18 minutes of action by UTA which had the game tied, 28-28, quickly dissipated over the next 5+ minutes bridging the 1st and 2nd halves as ECU used an extended 21-3 run in that timeframe to turn a tie game into a 49-31 lead and never looked back.
 
The Mavs shot 50 percent (15-30) from the floor in the 2nd half, including a 40-percent clip from 3-point range (4-10), but it wasn't enough to fight back against the Pirates, who finished the day shooting 46 percent (26-57) from the field and 33 percent (9-27) from beyond the arc.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• True freshman Brandon Walker notched nine points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench for the Mavs, who also got eight points each from Aaron Cash and true freshman Chendall Weaver.
• Shemar Wilson scored six points, while Pedro Castro had five and four boards. Brandyn Talbot knocked down a couple of buckets to record four points.
• True freshman Damonze Woods scored his first career points against a Division-I opponent with a free throw in the 1st half and finished the game with another make for two points.
• With the loss, UTA drops to 3-4 on the season, while American Athletic Conference member ECU improves to 5-1.
• UTA's Starting 5 was the same as Tuesday: Taj Anderson, Kyron Gibson, Aaron Cash, Pedro Castro, Shemar Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"We just couldn't sustain enough defensive effort for 40 minutes against a really good offensive team, and they're now 5-1 for a reason. But we got better this week and it will serve us well the rest of the season. We're getting better offensively and starting to find some rhythm. And I still think we've got some guys who are going to continue to get better offensively as we go throughout the year."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 
GAME FLOW
Neither team led by more than three points in the 1st half until a late push by ECU. With the game tied for the 11th time, 28-28, the Pirates closed the opening stanza on a 9-1 run over the final 2:14 to take a 37-29 lead into the halftime break.
 
The two teams exchanged the lead 10 times in addition to the 11 ties in the 1st half as UTA shot 31 percent (9-29) from the floor while ECU connected at a 43-percent clip (13-30).
 
Cash opened the 2nd-half scoring to pull the Mavs within six, 37-31, but after that the Pirates continued their surge and mounted a 12-0 run to create the aforementioned 49-31 lead at the 16:45 mark – an extended 21-3 push over just 5+ minutes to open up the 18-point edge.
 
However, UTA immediately responded with an 8-0 stretch to pull within 10, 49-39, at the 15-minute mark. From there, both offenses came alive and the two teams traded buckets before ECU re-established its 18-point lead with over eight minutes to play, 68-50, and didn't permit the Mavs to get any closer than 13 the rest of the way.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This was the third-straight day UTA faced a team it had never played before in its 64-year history. The Mavs played Drexel in the opening round Monday and Northern Kentucky in the consolation bracket Tuesday.

NEXT UP
UTA will head back to Arlington on Thanksgiving morning and then get ready for a contest against Howard Payne at the College Park Center on Monday, Nov. 28, at 7 p.m.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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