ARLINGTON – A hot-shooting UT Arlington team overcame an early deficit and cruised to an impressive 86-71 conference-opening win Wednesday night over Abilene Christian inside the College Park Center.
 
A 10-0 run late in the 1st half by UTA turned a four-point deficit into a six-point lead, and the Mavericks led for the final 26 minutes of the contest thanks to a season-best 57% from the floor – the best any UTA team has shot against a Division-I opponent since 2018.
 
Shemar Wilson registered his third double-double in the last four games with 13 points and a game-best 11 rebounds, but it was the offensive performances of DaJuan Gordon (16) off the bench, a season-high 14 from Brandyn Talbot on the strength of 4-6 from beyond the arc and a season-high-tying 14 from Akili Vining that propelled the Mavs to a fourth home win of the year already.
 
Aaron Cash notched a season-high eight points – including a momentum-changing and-1 throwdown dunk in the 2nd half – and also grabbed a season-most six rebounds off the bench as UTA finished +6 on the glass for the game (31-25).
 
After UTA got up by as much as 12 early in the 2nd half, ACU trimmed its deficit down to just four, 62-58, with eight minutes remaining and was riding a mini 5-0 run. However, Cash slammed the door on with a thunderous transition dunk off a feed from Kade Douglas, was fouled and made the free throw to spearhead a 11-2 response by the Mavs which for all intents and purposes sealed the game.
 
True freshman Douglas also came off the bench to post nine points on a trio of 3-pointers as part of 12-22 effort (54.5%) by UTA from 3-point range, which also represented a season-best percentage from beyond the arc. In fact, that 54.5% clip is tied for the 7th best in single-game program history (minimum 10 makes).
 
The Mavs also distributed the ball to the tune of 25 assists on 27 made field goals. Only three other teams in the nation since 2015 have had 25+ assists on 27 or fewer makes: Minnesota in March of 2023, Davidson in February of 2020 and Pittsburgh in February of 2017.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The win moves UTA to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in the WAC, while the loss drops ACU to 3-4 and 0-1 in the league.
• True freshman Makaih Williams passed out a season- and career-high eight assists to go along with seven points, three rebounds and two steals.
• Gordon had scored five points total in his previous three games, but exploded for the aforementioned team-high 16 on Wednesday while also adding five assists and a career-high-tying four steals.
• Dwayne Koroma finished as UTA's final scorer with five points in only 10 minutes.
• UTA shot 65% (13-20) from the floor in the 2nd half while holding ACU to 43% (12-28) in the closing stanza and 45% (25-55) for the game.
• UTA's 41 1st-half points were a season high versus a D-I opponent (previous: 37 at then-#3 Arizona), and its seven-point lead, 41-34, also represented its largest against a D-I foe this year (previous: 3 vs. Alcorn State).
• The Mavs had a season-high nine steals – six of which came in the 1st half – to also represent
• UTA utilized the same starting lineup for the second-straight game: Makaih Williams, Brandyn Talbot, Akili Vining, Dwayne Koroma and Shemar Wilson.
• Hunter Jack Madden scored a game-high 19 points for the Wildcats, while Airion Simmons added 17 and Ali Abdou Dibba netted 14 to round out the trio of double-figure scorers for ACU.

QUOTABLE
"I'm pleased with how our guys competed tonight – that's something we didn't do a good enough job of against Texas State on Saturday. We did a good job of following the scouting report. Abilene Christian is a great team, but we did a good job of getting paint touches and moving the ball – I think it's the best we've moved the ball all year. We took good shots, had intensity and overall I'm just very pleased with our guys."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 

GAME FLOW
ACU raced out to a quick 6-0 start and built a lead as large as seven on three different occasions in the opening five minutes – the last of which was 13-6. However, the Mavs settled down and methodically chipped away, eventually tying the contest at 19-all on a Gordon layup and then taking their first lead of the night, 28-27, following a pair of Vining free throws with just over six minutes remaining in the half.
 
Those charity-stripe conversions by Vining were part of a larger 10-0 run by UTA to turn a 27-23 deficit into a 33-27 lead which eventually grew to as much as seven twice, last of which came after a set of Gordon free throws in the closing second to give the Mavs the aforementioned 41-34 intermission advantage.
 
UTA came out of the locker room and scored the first two buckets, giving the hosts their first double-figure edge of the game, 45-34, and the Mavs' lead extended to as much as 12, 48-36, a couple of minutes into the stanza.
 
The Wildcats – who won at Oklahoma State in the season opener – responded with an extended 11-1 run, including a 9-0 surge, to cut the deficit all the way down to two, 49-47.
 
Unfazed, UTA responded with an offensive onslaught while simultaneously locking in on the defensive end. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Talbot made it an 11-point cushion, 71-60, and Cash triple a few minutes later made it a 14-point margin, 76-62, with five minutes to show, and it remained a double-figure contest the rest of the night.
 
THIS AND THAT

• For the fifth-straight game, UTA was without the services of Freds Pauls Bagatskis, who is dealing with an ankle injury.
• This was UTA's earliest conference game in program history; the previous record was Dec. 7, 2000, when the Mavs played at UTSA in the 2000-01 Southland Conference opener.
• Talbot has now made at least one 3-pointer in all seven games this year.
• UTA and ACU were both founding members of the Southland Conference in 1963. UTA remained in the league until 2012; ACU left the league in 1973 to join the Division-II Lone Star Conference before re-joining the Southland and D-I in 2013, and the WAC in 2021.
• UTA has now scored 75+ points four times this year against D-I competition; the Mavs accomplished that feat just four times all of last season (regular and postseason). Furthermore, UTA has tallied 80+ in regulation three times already; that occurred three times total in the previous two regular seasons.
• Josh Sours, the Voice of the Mavs, called his 300th all-time UTA men's basketball radio broadcast on Wednesday.

NEXT UP
UTA will travel to Phoenix to face the defending WAC Tournament Champions and preseason favorites this year in Grand Canyon. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT (6 p.m. local) on Saturday, Dec. 2.
   
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