PHOENIX – The UT Arlington men's basketball team put forth a valiant effort in a hostile environment Saturday night against the WAC preseason favorites, but a stout defensive effort down the stretch by Grand Canyon proved to be the difference as the Mavericks fell, 76-69, in a contest which saw three of their starters foul out.
 
UTA took a lead as large as 12 in the 2nd half, and held a five-point advantage, 67-62, with under four minutes remaining, but GCU locked in defensively from there on, closing the game on an extended 14-2 run to hand the Mavs a disappointing loss in a game they led for 22 minutes.
 
Fabio Basili came off the bench and delivered a career-high 15 points to pace a quartet of UTA double-figure scorers along with 10 each from DaJuan Gordon, Makaih Williams and Dwayne Koroma.
 
In a physical, aggressive contest for all 40 minutes, UTA was called for twice as many fouls as GCU (30-15), resulting in the hosts finishing with 28 made free throws compared with 15 for the Mavs. Three of UTA's four-leading scorers on the year didn't finish the game due to fouling out, and the fourth, Brandyn Talbot, did not score for the first time this year as he played just 10 minutes in part because of three fouls.
 
That diminished an otherwise strong defensive effort by UTA, which held GCU to just 29% and only six made fields (6-21) in the 2nd half; conversely, the Lopes went 25-32 from the free throw line compared with only 9-12 for the Mavs.
 
Facing a GCU team picked to the win the WAC by not only the league's coaches but a plethora of media outlets, UTA was unfazed and took it to the Lopes for the majority of the evening, expanding a four-point halftime lead to 56-44 after a six-point sequence by Basili in one second of game action.
 
After GCU got its deficit down to just two, 58-56, thanks to a 12-2 run over 5+ minutes, UTA responded and re-established multiple five-point leads, the last of which was the aforementioned 67-62 margin inside of four minutes remaining.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The loss drops UTA to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in the WAC, while the win moves GCU to 6-1 and 2-0, respectively.
• Shemar Wilson finished with eight points and five rebounds.
• Koroma added a team-high eight rebounds, but UTA was out-boarded, 37-29, including an uncharacteristic 17-9 on the offensive end.
• Kade Douglas knocked down three 3-pointers for nine points, and Aaron Cash tallied seven points for the Mavs.
• UTA finished at 46% (24-52) from the field, but shot 54% (15-28) in the 1st half compared with 38% (9-24) in the 2nd half. The Mavs held the Lopes to just 38% (21-56) from the floor.
• UTA utilized the following starting lineup: Williams, Talbot, Gordon, Koroma and Wilson. That quintet had only been used once previously this year, and that came in a win over Alcorn State.
• Tyon Grant-Foster recorded a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds to pace GCU, while Gabe McGlothan added 16, Ray Harrison contributed 11 and Josh Baker netted 10.

QUOTABLE
"We just didn't execute down the stretch. We had two freshmen out there, we just didn't make plays and we've got to get better in those situations. We knew it was going to be physical, and our plan was to keep them off the glass and the free throw line – and we did neither of those things. They were just more physical than us; we have to get tougher."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 

GAME FLOW
After trailing for the first seven minutes of the night, UTA rattled off consecutive 3-pointers from Williams and Cash to go from down five to up one, 18-17, for its first lead of the night at the 12-minute mark.
 
GCU quickly responded and built several leads as large as five, including 35-30 inside of four minutes to play, but the Mavs used a big 11-2 run over the final 3:39 of the stanza – seven of which came from Basili – to take a 41-37 advantage into the halftime break.
 
UTA came out of the locker and extended to what at the time was its biggest lead of the contest, 47-41, after a Gordon floater at the 16:30 mark, prompting a GCU timeout.
 
The margin remained six, 50-44, at the 14:40 mark when a combination of a shooting foul and technical foul on the Lopes sent Basili to the line for four free throws. He made all four, and then converted the baseline-out-of-bounds set to account for six points in about a second to move the Maverick cushion to a game-high dozen, 56-44.
 
From there, the Lopes methodically chipped away, carving into the deficit before eventually over-taking the Mavs in the closing minutes.
 
THIS AND THAT

• GCU (NCAA Tournament) was already UTA's fifth Division-I opponent out of seven possible this year which played in the postseason last year; the Mavs are now 2-3 against the those five (wins: Oral Roberts (NCAA) and Alcorn State (NIT); losses: at the buzzer against New Mexico (NIT) and then-#3 Arizona (NCAA)).
• For the sixth-straight game, UTA was without the services of Freds Pauls Bagatskis, who is dealing with an ankle injury.
• Gordon moved within nine points of 1,000 for his career. The New Mexico State grad transfer began his UTA career this year with 910 points across stops at Kansas State, Missouri and NM State.

NEXT UP
UTA will dive back into non-conference play when it hosts UNT Dallas on Wednesday, Dec. 6, with a special start time of 4 p.m.
   
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.
 
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