ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team erased a double-figure deficit with 5 minutes remaining on Thursday, tied the game with 4.5 seconds left but a New Mexico shot at the buzzer handed the Mavericks a heartbreaking 82-80 loss amidst a hostile environment inside The Pit.
Trailing by three, 80-77, with 12 seconds showing,
DaJuan Gordon drove down the right side of the paint and kicked to the opposite baseline where true freshman
Makaih Williams drilled a 3-pointer with 4.5 ticks to knot the contest at 80-all.
After New Mexico took its final timeout, the Lobos inbounded from under their own basket. UTA was without its key low-post presence in
Shemar Wilson as the 6-9 forward had fouled out a few minutes earlier, and UNM's Donovan Dent went right at the rim, finishing a layup just before the clock hit zero.
Wilson was arguably the best player on the floor, delivering a career-high-tying 29 points – his most against a Division-I opponent – on 11-13 from the floor and 7-9 from the free throw line. Wilson also grabbed 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. However, he was whistled for two technical fouls in the 2nd half, the last of which resulted in his ejection with 2:20 left in the game.
Reigning WAC Player of the Week Gordon produced his third double-double in as many games with UTA as the New Mexico State grad transfer scored 13 points, corralled a game-high 14 rebounds and passed out a game-high-tying five assists.
Williams notched his first double-figure scoring performance against a D-I team with 10 points – six of which came in the closing 30 seconds as the California native wasn't fazed at all by the 10,000+ in attendance. Adding to the gutty effort, Williams played a good portion of the 2nd half with back spasms.
UTA entered the tilt ranked in the top-10 nationally in rebounding, and the Mavs dominated on the glass, posting a +9 advantage (45-36) over the KenPom top-50 ranked Lobos. Fifteen of those came on the offensive end, and Wilson added to his 2nd-ranked national offensive rebounding numbers by securing seven; he now has 19 offensive boards in the first three games of the season.
UTA was without the services of
Freds Pauls Bagatskis, who is dealing with an ankle injury. The Georgia Tech transfer scored 11-straight points for the Mavs last time out on the strength of a trio of 3-pointers.
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- The loss drops UTA to 2-1 on the year, while New Mexico improves to 2-1.
- UTA utilized the same starting lineup for the third-straight game to start the year: Akili Vining, Talbot, Gordon, Dwayne Koroma and Wilson.
- Talbot scored seven points and contributed seven rebounds – his most opposite a D-I foe – while Aaron Cash and Fabio Basili also totaled seven points for the Mavs.
- After allowing UNM to shoot 50% (18-36) from the floor in the 1st half, the Mavs held the Lobos to just 36% (12-33) in the 2nd half en route to 43% (30-69) for the night.
- UTA finished the game at 46% (30-65) from the field despite going just 5-23 (22%) from 3-point range.
- Instead, the Mavs took advantage down low against the Mountain West Conference member, tallying a 48-44 edge in paint points and a 22-8 cushion in 2nd-chance points.
- There were six total technicals in the game: four for UTA (Wilson's two along with Basili and Koroma) and two for New Mexico.
- Jamal Mashburn Jr. (29) and Dent (25) accounted for 66% of New Mexico's points; JT Toppin added a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Combined, the trio was responsible for 84% of the Lobos' points as UTA finished with a 27-5 edge in bench points.
QUOTABLE
"We had a chance at the end of the game, but we made so many mistakes throughout the night. We had four technical fouls, which is just absolutely unacceptable, and those came back to cost us. New Mexico is a good team, but we've got to get better. We're going to fight until the end no matter what the score is; that's just our DNA."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
GAME FLOW
After an early UTA lead to open the game, New Mexico utilized a 7-0 run to take a 13-6 edge before the Mavs battled back to tie it at 15-all at the midway point of the stanza on a Wilson layup. From there, neither team led by more than four, and it was a one-point UNM advantage, 27-26, at the 4:30 mark before the Lobos closed the half on an extended 21-10 stretch to take a 48-36 lead into halftime break.
UTA had no answer for Mashburn Jr. in the opening 20 minutes as the son of the former NBA All-Star delivered 22 points, while Dent had 16 as those two accounted for 38 of UNM's 48 points in the 1st half.
The Mavs were mired in foul trouble in the opening period as Talbot, Gordon and Basili each accumulated two fouls – with Talbot's second occurring early in the half which resulted in him playing just 7+ minutes.
Coming out of the locker room to start the 2nd half, UTA was called for six fouls compared with none for New Mexico in less than four minutes. Despite that, the resilient Mavs carved into the 12-point halftime deficit and got it down to five on multiple occasions – the latest of which was a 60-55 margin with 11:30 to play following a Cash baseline reverse layup – but from the Lobos eventually re-built the halftime differential of 12, 69-57, with a little over nine minutes remaining.
It remained a double-figure margin, 75-65, with five minutes remaining before UTA continued to fight and crawl back into the contest. A Williams' and-1 finish with 27 seconds left cut the deficit to one, 78-77, and following a couple a charity-stripe trips which New Mexico made 1-of-2 each time, allowed the Mavs to tie the game inside of 5 seconds.
THIS AND THAT
- New Mexico received votes in the Associated Press Preseason Poll before falling at then-#23 Saint Mary's last Thursday, 72-58, and had no votes this week. The Lobos were picked 3rd in the Mountain West Preseason Poll.
- UTA is now 0-5 all-time against New Mexico.
- UTA was looking for its first 3-0 start to a season since 2011-12.
- Wilson is now UTA's seventh different double-figure point scorer of the season already.
- The double-double for Wilson was the 19th of his collegiate career.
NEXT UP
The Mavs will remain in the southwest before taking on the defending Pac-12 Champion Arizona Wildcats on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 5 p.m. CT on the Pac-12 Network. Arizona is currently ranked #3 in the nation – up nine spots from its preseason AP ranking after beating then-#2 Duke last week.
FOLLOW ALONG
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