DENTON, Texas – A typically strong UT Arlington offense went cold in its final game of the calendar year on Saturday at North Texas as the Mavericks fell to the hot-shooting Mean Green, 78-52, inside the Super Pit.
 
UTA had played the nation's 19th-hardest schedule entering the day – including now six postseason teams from last year – but the Mavs struggled to get anything going offensively against the 2023 NIT Champions, finishing with a season-low 52 points while UNT made a season-high-tying 12 3-pointers.
 
With the game tied at 7-7, UNT commenced an extended 35-6 run over the majority of the 1st half as UTA couldn't get a bucket to fall and the Mean Green reached their season 3-point average just 10 minutes into the game. That eventually produced a 42-13 lead for the hosts, who didn't allow UTA to get any closer than 22 the rest of the day.
 
Shemar Wilson paced UTA with 20 points – his third 20+ point performance of the season. The senior also added five rebounds while going 8-9 from the free throw line.
 
Coming off a season-high 16 points on Thursday at Texas Tech, Akili Vining notched nine against UNT while registering a team-best two steals. Playing in his third game with the Mavs after getting eligible last week, Phillip Russell – who averaged 23 points in the first two contests – tallied just seven on Saturday and added a team-most four assists and three rebounds.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The loss drops UTA to 6-6 overall, while the win improves UNT to 6-5.
• UTA was without Brandyn Talbot (7 ppg) following a concussion suffered in the Air Force game last Saturday. Talbot's 16 3-pointers this year are the 2nd most on the Mavs.
• DaJuan Gordon pulled down a game-high-tying seven rebounds as UTA finished with a 35-33 edge on the glass. Freshman Makaih Williams added a career-high six boards.
• UTA shot a season-worst 30% (15-50) from the field and finished with its second-fewest 3-points makes (3-19) and percentage (15.8) this year.
• The Mavs allowed a season-high 53% (28-53) shooting from the floor as UNT connected at a 62% (16-26) rate in the 1st half alone.
• Jason Edwards led UNT with 26 points, while CJ Noland (13), Rubin Jones (13) and John Buggs III (12) rounded out the quartet of double-figure scorers.
• Five of UTA's six losses this year have now occurred when the Mavs fail to score at least 70 (exception: 82-80 at New Mexico); conversely, all six of UTA's wins have come when scoring 70+ points.
• UTA used the same starting lineup for consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 25 and 29: Russell, Williams, Gordon, Dwayne Koroma and Wilson.

QUOTABLE
"They're a really good team, but we expected to compete a lot better than we did; to be honest, we're embarrassed with how we played. We didn't play with any energy or fight and that needs to change moving forward. UNT's a program with a lot of pride and we need to get there."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 
GAME FLOW
UNT jumped out to a 7-0 lead as UTA started 0-7 from the floor before Russell found an alley-oop connection with Wilson for an and-1 finish which spearheaded a 7-0 response by the Mavs to tie the contest.
 
That didn't last long, however, as UNT countered with an immediate 11-0 run as part of an extended 20-1 stretch to create a 27-8 lead thanks to an uncharacteristic 7-10 beginning from the 3-point line. During UNT's three-game losing streak the Mean Green didn't make more than five 3s in any of those games, and made 14 total triples during that stretch; they had half that many in the first 10 minutes on Saturday.
 
That hot 3-point shooting continued as the Mean Green – who average 7.6 triples per game – knocked down nine in the 1st half alone (9-15, 60%) en route to a 44-19 halftime lead. That was by far UTA's largest deficit at the break this season (previous: 14 at Texas Tech on Thursday) and fewest points (25 at Tech).
 
UTA made it a 22-point margin about five minutes into the 2nd half – a similar juncture in the game to the 20-point hole it faced on Thursday before mounting a comeback to make it a two-possession contest in the closing minutes – but the Mavs had no such resurgence on Saturday as they dropped their fifth in a row to the Mean Green.
 
THIS AND THAT

• North Texas (93rd) was the second of three straight top-100 KenPom opponents for UTA, and also the second of three consecutive NET Quad 1 or 2 opportunities for the Mavs (at Texas Tech (Dec. 21): Quad 1, at North Texas: Quad 2 and at Texas (Jan. 1): Quad 1).

NEXT UP
UTA will return to the court on New Year's Day with a 1 p.m. tilt in Austin against Texas to close out its non-conference schedule. The Longhorns are currently ranked #19 in the nation.
   
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