ARLINGTON – Kyron Gibson's last-second attempt to force overtime came up just short, and the UT Arlington men's basketball team narrowly dropped a second-straight physical battle, this time at the hands of North Texas, 60-57, inside the College Park Center Tuesday night.
 
Trailing by six with under a minute to play, UTA gutted its way back to pull within one, 58-57, with less than 10 seconds remaining. After fouling Tylor Perry, the UNT guard calmly drilled both free throws to extend the Mean Green cushion to three, 60-57. Without a timeout, UTA pushed the ball into the frontcourt, but Gibson's contested triple from the right wing fell short.
 
Shemar Wilson tied a UTA career high with 16 points and also pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Mavs. Playing on his birthday, Aaron Cash tallied 11 points to finish as the only other double-figure scorer for the Mavericks.
 
In a matchup of two of the 25 best offensive rebounding teams in the nation (UTA: 4th, UNT: 24th), both teams lived up to the billing as the Mean Green corralled 19 compared with UTA's 15, but both squads finished with 16 second-chance points. UNT got the better of the Mavs on the glass early on, including a 6-0 edge on the offensive end in the 1st half, but UTA fought back and used their offensive rebounding to get back into the game down the stretch.
 
Facing the three-time defending Conference USA Champions and the country's 3rd-best scoring defense, UTA shot 67 percent (10-15) from the floor in the 1st half and held a 27-24 halftime lead. However, after leading for the majority of the 1st half, the Mavs only held the advantage for the first 45 seconds of the 2nd half as they fell to the NET-ranked #69 team in the nation by three after falling to the NET-ranked #83 LSU Tigers by four on the road Friday night.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the loss, UTA drops to 4-6 while UNT improves to 7-2.
• Chendall Weaver, Kyron Gibson and Marion Humphrey all registered seven points for the Mavs, who ended up shooting 41 percent for the night (19-46).
• Brandyn Talbot, Dario Domingos and Brandon Walker each netted three points to round out the UTA scoring.
• Perry led all scorers with 22 points, including a perfect 10-10 from the free throw.
• The Mavs held UNT to 38 percent from the floor (21-56) and just 25 percent (6-24) from the 3-point line.
• Both teams finished tied in points off turnovers (13-all) and UNT posted a small 26-22 edge in paint points. UNT held a 35-33 edge on the glass overall.
• Neither team led by more than nine points.
• UTA utilized the same starting lineup for the third-straight game: Humphrey, Gibson, Weaver, Cash and Wilson. It's the first time all season the Mavs – who have had five-different starting lineups this year – have used the same starting group three games in a row.

QUOTABLE
"I've got great respect for UNT, and they made winning plays late and we didn't. They beat us on the glass, and that helped them build the lead in the 2nd half. We weren't able to keep them off the offensive boards early on, but I thought our guys responded well and we were able to make it a one-possession game numerous times. But we just couldn't get some stops in key moments and a few moments late we weren't dialed in as much as we needed to be."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

GAME FLOW
UTA jumped out to a seven-point lead, 13-6, not even seven minutes in thanks to a 9-0 run before UNT erased that completely and knotted things up at 13-all at the midway point.
 
From there, neither team led by more than four the rest of the half, but it was UTA closing the stanza on a 6-0 spurt in the final 90 seconds to take a 27-24 advantage into the locker room.
 
The Mavs shot the blistering percentage from the floor in the 1st half, but 10 opening-frame turnovers only yielded the three-point lead at intermission. Conversely, UTA held UNT to just 38 percent (9-24) from the field, but the Mean Green only gave the ball away five times.
 
UNT scored the first six points in the 2nd half and 12 of the opening 14 to take its largest lead of the night, 36-29, before a Weaver and-1 baseline finish briefly halted the momentum. However, the Mean Green continued their rebounding attack and it eventually resulted in more second-chance points and a lead as large as nine, 43-34, at the 12-minute juncture.
 
Unfazed, UTA clipped off an important 6-0 stretch over the next 1:30 to get back within one possession, 43-40, but that would be put to an abrupt end as the Mean Green rebutted with their own 6-0 run to re-establish the nine-point edge before the Mavs crawled back within four, 49-45, with under five minutes showing.
 
After UNT briefly went back ahead by eight, 53-45, UTA once again fought back to make it a three-point contest, 53-50, after a Walker 3-point from the top of the arc. Perry responded with a 3-pointer that appeared to likely ice the contest, 56-50, before UTA mounted its comeback effort.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This was the second of four-straight opponents for UTA that played in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last year: LSU (NCAA), North Texas (NIT), Texas State (NIT) and San Francisco (NCAA).
• UNT came into the game with the aforementioned ranking of #69 in the NET (Quad 2 game) – the 2nd-highest opponent UTA has faced this year behind Nevada (#41).
• The Mean Green led the nation in scoring defense last year, and entered Tuesday holding opponents to just 51.1 points per game.

NEXT UP
UTA will face another rival when the Mavs and Texas State square off at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 6:30 p.m.
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