TUCSON, Ariz. – A tie game late in the 1st half had the UT Arlington men's basketball team in contention with #3 Arizona, but a bullish 2nd-half effort by the Wildcats gave the host side a 101-56 triumph Sunday inside the McKale Center.
 
The Mavericks went toe-to-toe with arguably the best team in the nation for the first 19 minutes of the contest, and had the game tied at 37-37 with just over a minute to play in the 1st half. However, Arizona closed the 1st half on a 6-0 spurt in the final 70 seconds to take a 43-37 halftime lead, and then commenced the 2nd half on a 14-0 run to take a 57-37 advantage five minutes into the 2nd half.
 
After out-shooting Arizona in the 1st half – 49% (14-29) to 46% (16-35) – and finishing tied with the nation's top rebound differential squad, 17-17, the Mavs had that script completely flipped on them in the closing frame. The Wildcats out-shot UTA – 58% (22-38) to 25% (8-32) – and cleaned up the glass to a tune of +15 edge (29-14) in the 2nd half.
 
Playing in front of several friends and family, Arizona native Shemar Wilson paced UTA offensively for the second-straight game with 19 points to finish as the lone double-figure scorer for the Mavs. Fifteen of those came in the 1st half, Wilson once again shot an efficient 8-12 from the floor and also grabbed three rebounds and tied a Division-I career high with three blocks.
 
Arizona – picked to win the Pac-12 Conference in its final year before departing for the Big 12 – was right around its season average of 99.3 points, but didn't reach its home average of 106. Still, the Wildcats out-scored UTA in the 2nd frame, 58-19, to turn a competitive tilt through one half into another big win for the home side.


BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The loss drops UTA to 2-2 on the year, while Arizona improves to 5-0.
• UTA utilized the same starting lineup for the fourth-straight game to start the year: Akili Vining, Brandyn Talbot, DaJuan Gordon, Dwayne Koroma and Wilson.
• Reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week Gordon was vying to be the first player in program history with four-consecutive double-doubles to begin a UTA career, but he finished with season lows of two points, four rebounds and four assists.
• Other UTA players with 5+ points included: Makaih Williams (7), Fabio Basili (6), Koroma (6) and Talbot (5).
• Darrius Miles scored his first points this season against a D-I opponent with three, and in the process knocked down his first-career free throw.
• UTA had a season-high six steals versus a D-I foe, three of which came from Koroma to tie a career high.
• The Mavs shot 60% (6-10) from 3-point range in the 1st half, but went just 1-15 (7%) in the 2nd half, with the lone make coming in the closing minutes by Kade Douglas.
• Conversely, Arizona went 46% (11-24) in the 2nd half from beyond the arc after the Mavs limited the 'Cats to just 4-13 (31%) in the 1st half.
• The Wildcats, who already own a road win at then-#2 Duke this season, had seven double-figure scorers, led by 15 from Oumar Ballo.

QUOTABLE
"We really competed and shared the ball and stuck to the game plan for the first 18 or 19 minutes of the 1st half and then we went off-script and started taking bad shots. That allowed Arizona to go on runs, and they're just too good of a team to take bad shots against. We told the guys at halftime that they would come out fast and we needed to out with intensity, but Arizona came out with more."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 

GAME FLOW
UTA jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held a 9-3 edge after a Talbot 3-pointer three minutes into the contest. Arizona responded and tied the contest at 11-all, but over the next five minutes neither team led by more than a bucket.
 
At the midway point of the period, Wilson spearheaded a 7-0 UTA spurt in a little over two minutes to take a 28-23 advantage, and the Mavs maintained a four-point edge, 32-28, after an Aaron Cash dunk off a feed from Basili with 4:30 remaining. However, a 9-0 outburst in less than two minutes gave the hosts a 37-32 lead before the Mavs responded thanks to five-straight points from Wilson – including just his fourth-career 3-pointer – to knot the contest back up, 37-37.
 
The final 70 seconds of the stanza proved to be critical for UTA as the explosive Wildcats closed the half on the aforementioned 6-0 run to carry the 43-47 cushion into the locker room.
 
The 14-0 blitz by Arizona out of the gate in the 2nd half created an unsurmountable 20-point hole for UTA, and the Wildcats' differential ballooned to as much as 48 in the closing minutes of the contest before settling for their fourth 30+ win of the campaign already.
 
THIS AND THAT

• UTA was again 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 on the strength of a trio of 3-pointers in his last action Nov. 11.
• Despite not finishing with a double-double, Gordon is one of only two UTA players in program history to begin his tenure with the Mavs by posting three-straight double-doubles with the other being Damon Johnson in 1994 (Nov. 26-Dec. 2). No player has ever had four-consecutive double-doubles to begin a UTA career.
• Arizona was UTA's seventh all-time top-3 Associated Press-ranked opponent and first since #1 Kentucky on Nov. 25, 2014. UTA's only win over a top-25 nationally ranked foe came at #12 Saint Mary's on Dec. 8, 2016, by a 65-51 margin.
• This was the first-ever meeting between UTA and Arizona. The Wildcats were actually a founding member of the WAC in 1962 along with Arizona State, Utah, BYU, New Mexico and Wyoming.

NEXT UP
UTA will begin a three-game homestand bridging Thanksgiving, beginning Wednesday, Nov. 22, against Alcorn State inside the College Park Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
   
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