PHOENIX – A strong 1st half by the UT Arlington men's basketball team did not hold up on Thursday night inside GCU Arena as Grand Canyon used a big 2nd half to claim an 80-48 victory over the Mavericks.
 
Facing the preseason Western Athletic Conference favorites, UTA possessed a 30-28 halftime advantage after trailing for just 28 seconds in the 1st half, but GCU exploded in the 2nd half to out-score the Mavs by 34 to claim its fifth win in the last six games.
 
Playing in front of 40 family members and friends, local product Shemar Wilson led UTA as he closed in on what would have been his sixth double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-best eight rebounds to pace the Mavs.
 
Wilson came into the contest ranked 7th nationally by averaging 3.9 offensive rebounds per game, and he surpassed that again by corralling five – his fourth-straight performance of 5+ offensive boards.
 
Kyron Gibson got into double figures for the seventh time in the last eight games for UTA with 11 points, and the junior guard also issued a game-high-tying four assists. Aaron Cash reached double-figure points for the first time since Dec. 19 as he tallied 10 and secured four boards for the Mavs, who allowed GCU to shoot 66 percent (19-29) from the floor in the 2nd half and 58 percent (28-48) for the game – the highest percentage UTA has given up all season.
 
The Mavs held a 28-18 lead with just under five minutes remaining in the 1st half, but after that GCU went on a 46-10 run over nearly 17 minutes bridging both halves to create a 64-38 advantage with eight minutes to play.
 
UTA starting point guard Marion Humphrey – who leads the team in both assists and steals this year – went down with a knee injury early in the 2nd half and did not return. Shortly after, walk-on Shaysten Cornish made his Division-I debut as GCU was in the midst of its run to take control of the game.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the loss, UTA drops to 5-13 overall and 0-5 in the WAC, while GCU moves to 12-5 and 3-1.
• Pedro Castro knocked down a 3-pointer at the 16:47 mark of the 1st half to give UTA an 8-4 lead; it was his first triple since Nov. 28. He finished with seven points and also grabbed four rebounds.
• Brandyn Talbot drilled consecutive 3-pointers in the 1st half to total six points; it's his first game with multiple triples since Nov. 22 when he made five in a win over Northern Kentucky.
• True freshman Damonze Woods played the final four minutes for his first action since Nov. 28 against Howard Payne.
• Cornish ended up playing seven minutes and scored his first points at the D-I level on a free throw at the 2:09 mark of the 2nd half.
• GCU connected at a 67-percent rate (10-15) from the 3-point line in the 2nd half.
• Noah Baumann led a quintet of double-figure scorers for the Lopes with 19; he was followed by Ray Harrison (17), Chance McMillian (14), Kobe Knox (13) and Gabe McGlothan (11).
• The only time Gibson hasn't reached double-figure points in the last eight contests was when he tallied nine at California on Dec. 21.
• GCU was without both WAC Preseason Player of the Year Jovan Blacksher Jr., who suffered a season-ending torn ACL last Thursday, and starting forward Yvan Ouedraogo (6.1 points, 5.8 rebounds), who has been out since Dec. 20 with a left-hand fracture.
• UTA utilized its seventh different starting lineup this season: Gibson, Cherndall Weaver, Castro, Brandon Walker and Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"It was a disastrous 2nd half; we played well in the 1st half. They made a run at us to end the 1st half, but we still had a lead and I thought we were playing the right way and competing. In the 2nd half they just boat-raced us and we never could get anything going; credit to GCU – they just overwhelmed us in the 2nd half."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

GAME FLOW
Following a 10-0 run from the nine-minute mark to the six-minute mark, UTA built a 25-15 lead – the final six points which came off consecutive 3-pointers from Talbot.
 
After a Cash triple a few minutes later, the Mavs re-established their 10-point edge, 28-18, with a little over four minutes remaining before the Lopes closed on an extended push to only trail by two, 30-28, at halftime.
 
That marked the first intermission lead UTA possessed dating back to Dec. 19 in its win at San Francisco, and it came on the strength of 71-percent shooting from beyond the arc as the Mavs went 5-7 from deep.
 
Gibson converted a coast-to-coast layup to open the 2nd-half scoring to nudge the UTA advantage to 32-28, but after that GCU clipped off a 10-0 run to forge in front by its largest margin to that juncture, 38-32, at 16:30 mark and never looked back.
 
THIS AND THAT

• Wilson's hometown is Avondale – a Phoenix suburb about 20 miles from GCU's campus.
• UTA's bus got a flat tire on its way to the game, and the travel party had to take five different rideshare vehicles about 20 minutes to the arena, arriving about 15-20 minutes later than normal.
• This is UTA's first 0-5 start to a conference season since 1988-89. That year, the Mavs began Southland Conference play 0-7.
• UTA is the nation's 27th-least experienced team in terms of Division-I playing time with an average of 0.91 years per player, while GCU is the 44th-most experienced team (2.66), according to KenPom.
• The WAC is currently ranked as the 12th-best conference (out of 32) in the nation.

NEXT UP
The road trip doesn't get much easier for the Mavs as they next head to Las Cruces to face New Mexico State – picked to finish 2nd in the WAC – on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. Central (7 local). The Aggies are off to an unexpected 0-5 league start as well after winning the WAC Tournament last year and defeating UConn in the NCAA Tournament.
 
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).