ARLINGTON – It took the UT Arlington men's basketball team a little while to turn on the offensive performance most expected on Wednesday night, but the Mavericks rarely trailed and used a 2nd-half run to dispatch of Alcorn State, 82-69, inside the College Park Center on Thanksgiving Eve.
 
After Alcorn State took its only two leads of the evening, the last of which was 48-46 with 13:30 left, UTA turned on the offensive afterburners and used an extended 19-5 run to create its first double-digit lead of the night, 65-53. That advantage eventually blossomed to as much as 17 as the Mavs toppled 75+ points for the third time already this year against a Division-I opponent after doing so just three times all of last regular season.
 
True freshman Kade Douglas came off the bench and delivered a team- and career-high 20 points on the strength of a career-best six 3-pointers to account for more than half of UTA's 36 bench points.
 
Reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week Shemar Wilson notched his second double-double of the year with 14 points and a game-best 12 rebounds. Dwayne Koroma recorded a D-I career-high 12 points, and Brandyn Talbot matched that total to finish as the fourth double-figure scorer for the Mavs.
 
UTA's two-leading scorers, Wilson and DaJuan Gordon – the WAC's only two Players of the Week this season, each played just 11 minutes in the 1st half as they picked up two fouls. The duo combines for nearly 30 points a game, but accounted for just three points in the opening frame.
 
That, in part, allowed Alcorn to hang around and despite leading the entire first 20 minutes, the Mavs possessed just a 36-33 halftime advantage thanks to seven 3-pointers, three of which came from Talbot.
 
In the 2nd half, UTA connected at a 56% clip from the field (15-27) to run away from the Braves, who were playing their second game in as many nights in DFW after falling to TCU on Tuesday.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The win moves UTA to 3-2 on the year, while Alcorn State drops to 1-6.
• UTA trailed for only 26 seconds all game.
• Akili Vining posted seven points, five rebounds and issued eight assists versus no turnovers in 28 minutes.
• Gordon finished with just three points, but secured eight rebounds and passed out three assists.
• Aaron Cash netted seven points and finished with a plus-minus of +13 – the 2nd-best on the Mavs.
• UTA had a 36-14 edge in bench points and a 21-6 advantage in second-chance points thanks to a 15-6 offensive rebounding edge and 45-24 overall against a team that out-rebounded TCU on Tuesday.
• The Mavs issued 24 assists on just 29 made field goals (29-61, 48%).
• After using the same starting lineup for the first four games of the year, the Mavs went with the following quintet: Makaih Williams, Talbot, Gordon, Koroma and Wilson.
• For Williams, it was the true freshman's first-collegiate start. He finished with five points.
• Koroma represented the eighth-different double-figure scorer for the Mavs this year.
• Wilson's 12 rebounds gave him four games of double-figure boards already this year.

QUOTABLE
"I knew Alcorn was going to play hard and scrappy. I didn't like our energy in the 1st half; we were lethargic and reactive to everything. But we picked it up in the 2nd half and started pressuring them defensively, and that was our game plan: to get our offense going from our defense, and we just didn't do that in the 1st half. I'm really please with the guys and how they responded and bounced back."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 

GAME FLOW
UTA scored the first four points of the night, and quickly extended the lead to seven, 13-6, just more than five minutes into the contest. The Mavs had that seven-point edge on multiple occasions over the next several minutes, and grew the advantage to as much as eight on two occurrences, the last of which came at the 3:30 mark, 34-26.
 
However, the Braves closed the stanza by out-scoring the Mavs by five from there on out, creating the aforementioned 36-33 scoreline in favor of UTA.
 
UTA maintained a lead for the first 5+ minutes of the 2nd half before Alcorn State took its first lead of the game with 14:08 remaining, 45-43, on a pair of free throws by Jeremiah Kendall.
 
Alcorn State took its first lead of the game with 14:08 remaining in the game, 45-43, on a pair of free throws by Jeremiah Kendall. Douglas answered right back with a 3-pointer for the Mavs, but the Braves rebutted with a deep triple of their own courtesy of Jeremiah Gambrell to give them a 48-46 lead.
 
That spearheaded the aforementioned counter-punch by UTA – initiated by a Douglas' 3-pointer – and over the next five minutes a quintet of different scorers for the Mavs partook in an extended 17-5 run, including a 9-0 spurt, to open up their biggest edge of the night, 65-53, with 8:30 left, and from there the edge margin just grew larger.
 
THIS AND THAT

• For the third-straight game, 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 on the strength of a trio of 3-pointers in his last action Nov. 11.
• This was UTA's fifth game of the year, and all five have been played on different days of the week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Alcorn State was UTA's fourth Division-I opponent this year, and all four played in the postseason last year: Oral Roberts (NCAA Tournament), New Mexico (NIT), Arizona (NCAA Tournament) and Alcorn (NIT; SWAC Regular Season Champions).
• This was the first-ever meeting between UTA and Alcorn State.

NEXT UP
UTA will be right back at work with practices on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday in preparation for a matchup with rival Texas State inside the College Park Center on Saturday, Nov. 25, at 2 p.m. It will be First Responders Day, with free tickets for all first responders by simply showing their ID/badge at the Box Office.  
PURCHASE TICKETS
Secure your seat all season long to see the re-energized UTA men's basketball program in action at the College Park Center. Purchase single game or season tickets at UTATickets.com, call 817-272-9595 or email boxoffice@uta.edu.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, follow the men's basketball program on X (formerly Twitter) (@UTAMavsMBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsMBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsMBB).