SAN FRANCISCO – Facing one of the West Coast's premier programs off to a 9-3 start this season, the unfazed UT Arlington men's basketball team led wire-to-wire en route to an emphatic 68-63 road win at San Francisco on Monday night inside the War Memorial at The Sobrato Center.
 
Facing a USF squad which went to the NCAA Tournament a season ago and just handed UNLV its first loss of this season on Saturday, the Mavericks used a 14-0 scoring blitz midway through the 1st half, led by as much as 17 in the 2nd half and held on down the stretch to claim a pivotal NET Quad 2 victory.
 
San Francisco native Aaron Cash delivered a team-high-tying 12 points to go along with four rebounds – the same exact stat line as Kyron Gibson, who also added a game-best four assists and three steals for UTA, which shot 46 percent (26-57) from the floor while holding USF to 38 percent (21-55).
 
Shemar Wilson nearly notched his third double-double of the year with nine points and nine rebounds, while true freshman Chendall Weaver delivered his best all-around game against a Division-I opponent with eight points and a game-high 10 boards. Marion Humphrey finished with 11 points and a game-best four steals as the guard was responsible for a pair of late free throw makes which proved to be critical in the final outcome.
 
UTA was simply the tougher team, as evidenced by a 40-28 edge on the glass and a dominant 36-10 advantage in paint points. Included in that rebounding cushion was a 13-7 differential on the offense boards as UTA entered the game as the nation's 2nd-best offensive rebounding team and lived up to the billing on the home floor of a formidable West Coast Conference member.
 
For UTA, the win marks a victory that's been brewing for several weeks as this was the fourth-straight opponent for the Mavs that played in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last year, and they had dropped the first three by a combined 13 points: 63-59 at LSU, 60-57 against North Texas and 71-65 versus Texas State.

A $20,000 CELEBRATION 💪😤💰 pic.twitter.com/DKoTGRMXPZ

— UTA Men's Basketball (@UTAMavsMBB) December 20, 2022

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the win, UTA improves to 5-7 while USF falls to 9-4.
• Brandyn Talbot tallied eight points off the bench in just 13 minutes, and went a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line in the 2nd half.
• Brandon Walker added six points and four rebounds off the bench as well in 16 minutes of action.
• The Dons attempt the 7th-most 3-pointers per game in the country (29.3), and they surpassed that total on Monday with 31 (13 makes for a 42-percent rate).
• Tyrell Roberts led all scorers with 24 for the Dons, who also received double-figure point contributions from Zane Meeks (13) and Khalil Shabazz (11).
• UTA utilized the same starting lineup for the fifth-straight game: Humphrey, Gibson, Weaver, Cash and Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"We were just the tougher team tonight – it was a great win for our program and for our players. It wasn't easy, and we had to hold on, but we haven't been in those situations much this year. We made some free throws down the stretch when we needed to, and I'm just proud of our grit and toughness tonight."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

GAME FLOW
The first points of the game came on an alley-oop connection from Gibson to Humphrey, and that spearheaded a 7-0 start for the Mavs, who eventually built an eight-point edge, 11-3, just a little more than three minutes into the contest.
 
USF clipped away at that deficit and pulled within one, 15-14, at the 13-minute mark, but a 14-0 run in the middle stages of the 1st half by UTA which included multiple highlight-reel alley-oop connections keyed by a feisty defensive effort gave the Mavs a 15-point lead, 29-14,
 
UTA ended the half strong and carried a 38-27 cushion into the halftime break after shooting 57 percent (17-30) from the floor and holding the Dons to just 39 percent (9-23). Additionally, UTA connected at a 50-percent clip (4-8) from beyond the arc and out-scored the WCC foe in the paint, 20-2.
 
The first four minutes of the 2nd half – much like the last four minutes of the 1st half – was accentuated by the Mavs keeping the Dons at bay and even increasing their lead during that stretch. UTA was in front by 11, 34-23, with four to play in the opening stanza and held a 14-point margin, 45-31, four minutes into the 2nd half.
 
The UTA advantage swelled to its biggest of the evening at 17, 51-34, at the 14-minute juncture after Montez Young Jr. converted a tough layup for his first points since Nov. 28.
 
That deficit necessitated USF turning up the pressure, and the Dons began to convert UTA turnovers into triples and shaved it down to an eight-point contest, 55-47, at the midway point of the period following an 8-0 run in less than two minutes.
 
Humphrey put an end to that surge with a off-hand layup and Wilson followed on the next possession with a floater to put the Mavs back ahead by 12, 59-47, with eight minutes to play and it remained a 12-point margin, 64-52, with 1:25 remaining.
 
That's when USF dialed up even more full-court pressure and it resulted in a furious push by the Dons to only trail by four, 64-60, with under 50 seconds showing. After two Weaver free throws put the Mavs back ahead, 66-60, USF's Roberts was fouled shooting a 3 and made the trio of free throws to result in a one-possession game, 66-63.
 
On the next possession, UTA used its final timeout trying to get across the timeline, and out of the timeout Humphrey received the inbound and was promptly fouled with 21.8 ticks left.
 
The man with previous WCC experience in the building from his time with San Diego calmly drilled both to put UTA back in front, 68-63, and the Mavs got the defensive stops they needed in the closing 10 seconds to complete the upset in impressive fashion and put an end to USF's 16-game home-court non-conference winning streak.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This was UTA's second-straight year claiming a KenPom top-100 road win in California as USF entered ranked 98th in the metrics; the Mavs won at UC Santa Barbara last November.
• The Dons were ranked even higher in the more important NCAA official NET rankings at #85 to place them as a Quad 2 win for the Mavs.
• USF was the fifth NET Quad 1 or 2 opponent for UTA already this year along with #45 Oklahoma State, #52 North Texas, #57 Nevada and #81 LSU.
• This was the third all-time meeting between UTA and USF, but first since 1991 and also the first on either team's home floor (UTA now leads the series, 3-0).

NEXT UP
UTA remains in the Bay Arena to face California on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 6 p.m. Central (4 local) on the Pac-12 Network in what will be the regular-season non-conference finale for the Mavs, who will be in search of a West Coast sweep.
 
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).