ARLINGTON – Taking on a team that won 30 games and played in the NCAA Tournament last season, the UT Arlington men's basketball team overcame a double-figure 2nd-half deficit and claimed a thrilling 75-71 win over Oral Roberts Monday night inside the College Park Center to give head coach
KT Turner his first-career victory.
Trailing by as much as 11 early in the 2nd half, UTA methodically chipped away and eventually re-claimed a 56-55 lead with just over 7 minutes to play on a behind-the-back move and baseline finish by
Fabio Basili.
The Mavericks continued to feed off the momentum, and eventually carved open a six-point edge, 65-59, with under 4 minutes remaining. UTA remained in front for the duration – icing the contest with a pair of
DaJuan Gordon free throws with under 5 seconds showing.
Gordon was the standout for UTA on opening night as the graduate transfer delivered career highs of 24 points and 14 rebounds, and in the process eclipsed 500 career boards. Fellow grad transfer
Akili Vining netted 14 – including multiple clutch 3-pointers as part of the UTA 2nd-half surge – and
Brandyn Talbot tallied 11 points to round out the trio of double-figure scorers.
UTA shot just 35% percent – something that Turner believes won't be the norm for the Mavs this year – but they were able to overcome it thanks to a dominant effort on the glass, out-rebounding ORU 55-34, including a massive 22-7 edge on the offensive end.
Shemar Wilson matched Gordon's rebounding total with 14 of his own – six of which were offensive.
Dwayne Koroma also secured six offensive boards as part of 11 overall. The three individual double-figure rebounding performances for UTA are tied for the 3rd most in a single game in program history (four players on two occasions).
The collective effort produced a win in Turner's first game as a head coach. Hired to lead the Mavs this past March, Turner was greeted by a water shower from his players upon entering the locker room post-game, and was presented with the game ball by Director of Athletics Jon Fagg.
The victory also represented the 800th in the Division-I history of the program. UTA's inaugural NCAA campaign took place in 1959-60 after transitioning to a four-year D-I school.
BOX SCORE NUGGETS
- UTA Starters: Akili Vining, Brandyn Talbot, DaJuan Gordon, Dwayne Koroma, Shemar Wilson.
- Wilson narrowly missed a double-double with eight points.
- Gordon's double-double was the sixth of his career; he had previously scored between 15-19 points 12 times.
- Gordon now has 507 career rebounds across stops at Kansas State, Missouri, New Mexico State and UTA.
- Talbot issued a game-high six assists to go along with knocking down three 3-pointers.
- True freshman Makaih Williams came off the bench to score eight points and pass out five assists against no turnovers.
- Basili finished with six points, and perhaps more importantly had a game-best plus/minus of +12.
- After shooting 29% from the floor in the 1st half, UTA connected at 41% in the 2nd half. Conversely, the Mavs allowed ORU to shoot 43% in the 1st half, but locked down in the 2nd half in holding the Golden Eagles to 37%.
- Kareem Thompson led a quarter of ORU double-figure scorers with 23.
QUOTABLE
"We were playing a little selfish to start the game, and I thought ORU was playing tougher than us, but we turned it on in the 2nd half. We locked in and started sharing the ball. These guys just kept fighting and crawling back. All we talked about was trying to get the win, and they showed some pretty high character and I'm proud of them."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
GAME FLOW
Vining tallied the first points of the season for UTA off a 3-pointer in the opening minute to give the Mavs a 3-0 lead, and from then on it was a tightly contested first 20 minutes.
Neither team led by more than five points in the 1st half, the contest was tied on four occasions and the lead changed hands three times. UTA had a chance to tie – or take the lead – in the closing seconds of the stanza; however, the Mavs couldn't convert, and Thompson pulled up in transition from beyond the arc just before the buzzer to give the Golden Eagles a 36-31 cushion at the break.
ORU commenced the 2nd half on a quick 7-1 spurt to open up a 43-32 advantage a few minutes into the period. Unfazed, the Mavs methodically responded and eventually tied the contest back up, 54-54, on a Wilson free throw with 8:30 to play.
From there, both teams traded blows over the next few minutes before Vining knocked down a triple off a feed from Basili and Gordon followed a layup to turn a 60-59 UTA lead into a 65-59 edge with under 4 minutes to play.
THIS AND THAT
- UTA was without Phillip Russell, and the junior transfer will likely be ineligible all season as a result of being a two-time Division-I transfer (Saint Louis and Southeast Missouri). The NCAA denied his immediate eligibility, and UTA's subsequent appeal was also denied. Russell scored 1,019 points the last two seasons alone at SEMO.
- The game featured a pair of first-time head coaches against each other in UTA's Turner and ORU's Russell Springmann.
- UTA is now 20-4 in home openers this century.
NEXT UP
UTA will remain at home and face UT Tyler for Homecoming on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 5 p.m.
A memorable night.
FOLLOW ALONG
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