ARLINGTON – Facing one of the nation's most prolific offenses, the UT Arlington men's basketball team instead turned in its best offensive performance of the season on Thursday night as the Mavericks led for all but 45 seconds en route to a dominant 85-73 win over UT Rio Grande Valley inside the College Park Center.
 
UTA delivered season highs against a Division-I opponent in points, 3-pointers made (11) and assists (26) as the Mavs shot a blistering 62 percent (16-26) from the floor in the 2nd half.
 
With its leading scorer for the year, Shemar Wilson, saddled in early foul trouble and never getting into a rhythm, UTA didn't miss a beat as it received a plethora of unseen contributions this season from throughout its lineup.
 
Aaron Cash went 6-7 from 3-point range to tie for his most triples in a single game at any collegiate level on his way to a team-high 20 points – the most any UTA player has scored against D-I competition this season – and he did that in just 14 foul-plagued minutes.
 
Montez Young Jr. came off the bench and narrowly missed what would have been his first career double-double by a single rebound, but the sophomore still set a career high with 14 points and set a season best with nine rebounds in 23 minutes.
 
Pedro Castro established a season high with 12 points in a starting role, while Kyron Gibson passed out a season-best 12 assists – one shy of getting into the top 10 in program single-game history. The junior also scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds.
 
UTRGV took a 3-2 lead on a 3-pointer just a minute into the game, but Gibson responded with a triple of his own 45 seconds later to put the Mavs back in front, 5-3, and they led for the final 38 minutes en route to picking up a second straight win.
 
Facing a UTRGV team that leads the nation in offensive efficiency and tempo, and ranks 2nd in terms of quickest possessions, UTA held the Vaqueros to just 23 1st-half points en route to a 16-point halftime lead and limited them to nine below their season average of 82 per contest. Seventeen of those 73 points for UTRGV occurred in the final 4:30 once the game's outcome for all intents and purposes was already decided.


BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the win, UTA improves to 7-13 and 2-5 in the WAC, while UTRGV drops to 10-9 and 1-5.
• Brandon Walker scored nine points and corralled six rebounds off the bench.
• Fellow true freshman Chendall Weaver notched eight points and totaled a career-high six assists against just one turnover.
• Wilson – who leads UTA in scoring (11) and rebounding (8.6) for the year – finished the night with five points and seven rebounds.
• Brandyn Talbot established a career high with five assists to go along with five points.
• Dario Domingos registered five points to round out the UTA scoring.
• UTA finished with a 39-28 rebounding edge, and a 19-7 advantage in second-chance points.
• UTA scored 39 1st-half points – its most in an opening stanza against a D-I foe this season.
• Young Jr. entered the game with 20 points and 29 rebounds for the entire season in 15 games.
• Cash knocked down six triples in a game several times during his one season at Grayson College (JUCO) in 2020-21.
• After missing UTA's win at New Mexico State on Saturday with a knee injury suffered a week ago at Grand Canyon, Marion Humphrey played 11 minutes for the Mavs on Thursday but did not score. UTA's starting point guard, Humphrey entered the contest leading the Mavs in steals (1.4), ranking 2nd in assists (2.9) and averaging 6.6 points.
• Justin Johnson led UTRGV with 30 points, while Will Johnston (14) and Sherman Brashear (12) were the other double-figure scorers for the Vaqueros, who shot 50 percent (24-48) from the floor, but just 64 percent (16-25) from the free throw line.
• UTA utilized its same starting lineup as Saturday in Las Cruces: Gibson, Weaver, Castro, Cash and Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"Our guys did a really good job tonight of listening to the game plan and being locked in against a good team – one that can really, really score the ball. I was proud of our team and our ability to execute offensively so well. Any time you have 26 assists and 12 turnovers that's a sign of a very unselfish team that's committed to doing the right things."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 
GAME FLOW
UTA was doubling up UTRGV after just a few minutes, 10-5, but both Wilson and Cash picked up two fouls by the under-16 timeout, and that duo – which had combined for six points and three rebounds to that juncture – didn't play the rest of the half.
 
Unfazed with two starters sidelined, the Mavs received contributions elsewhere and extended their lead to 10 on multiple occasions nearing the midway point of the stanza, the last of which came following a Talbot 3-pointer at the 11:28 mark to make it a 23-13 contest.
 
The Maverick lead ballooned to 14, 32-18, after a Domingos traditional three-point play with just under six minutes remaining in the half, and UTA didn't let up from there as it took a 39-23 lead into the halftime break.
 
Following Cash's fifth triple of the night not even 90 seconds into the 2nd half, UTA established its largest cushion of the night to that moment at 19, 45-26.
 
The margin got as big as 20 on several occasions from there, the latest of which came inside of five minutes before UTRGV clipped off a 13-0 run in under three minutes to pull within seven, 76-69, before Castro converted an and-1 finish with 1:40 remaining to stop the surge, and the Mavs were never threatened the rest of the way.
 
THIS AND THAT

• UTA's first five WAC games were against teams in the top-6 of the current league standings. This was the second of six out of seven straight WAC opponents for the Mavs against foes in the bottom half of the conference standings, and UTA is now 2-0 in that stretch.
• Beginning with UTRGV, four of UTA's next five games are at home.
• The WAC is currently ranked by KenPom as the 12th-best conference (out of 32) in the nation.

NEXT UP
UTA will make a day trip to Abilene to face Abilene Christian on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 6 p.m. The Wildcats are 9-10 overall and 1-5 in the WAC following a road loss to Utah Valley on Wednesday night.
 
That will represent the only road tilt for the Mavs in a five-game stretch as UTA will return to the CPC for its next three games after that, beginning on Jan. 25 against California Baptist.
 
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).