ARLINGTON – DaJuan Gordon reached 1,000 career points, the UT Arlington men's basketball team grabbed 26 offensive rebounds and the Mavericks used one of its best defensive games in program history to race past UNT Dallas inside the College Park Center Wednesday, 74-37, in their non-conference home finale.
 
While Gordon reached the milestone mark, it was Aaron Cash delivering the performance of the game with a season-high 17 points and a career-best 17 rebounds. Twelve of those rebounds came on the offensive end to tie for the most in single-game program history, and the dozen were also the most by any player in the nation this season.
 
Defensively, the 37 points UTA held UNTD to represented its 2nd-fewest allowed in any game in program lore behind only a 36-point effort at SMU on Dec. 16, 1989.
 
The 26 offensive rebounds for the Mavs are tied for the 6th most in single-game program history, and the most in any game since 1996. Additionally, those 26 o-boards are tied for the 2nd most nationally this season, trailing only 28 South Dakota pulled down.
 
Gordon entered the contest needing just nine points to reach 1,000 for his Division-I career, and wasted little time in getting to that mark as he knocked down three 3-pointers in the first nine minutes, the last of which gave him exactly 1,000 points. Gordon finished with 13 points and narrowly missed his fourth double-double of the campaign with nine rebounds.
 
Cash – who played all 40 minutes – became the 10th different UTA player to reach double-figure points in a game this year, and he paced a balanced offensive attack which saw the Mavs shoot 52% (13-25) from the floor in the 2nd half.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The win improves UTA to 5-4 overall; the contest was an exhibition tilt for NAIA member UNT Dallas, but all stats for the Mavs are official.
• Darrius Miles appeared poised to make it 11 different Mavs with 10+ points this season, but all nine of his points came in the 1st half.
• Other UTA scorers included: Shemar Wilson (8), Makaih Williams (8), Brandyn Talbot (5), Fabio Basili (5), Sterling Gaston-Chapman (5) and Akili Vining (4) as nine of the 10 Mavs who played scored.
• Basili passed out a career-most six assists to lead all players, while Williams added five helpers.
• The Mavs posted a 56-29 edge on the glass, with the +27 margin tying for the 12th best in program annals.
• Gordon delivered a team-best three steals as the Mavs notched a season-high 10 thefts.
• UTA held UNTD to just 25% (12-48) from the floor, and no Trailblazer had more than six points.
• UTA utilized its fourth-different starting lineup this year: Williams, Talbot, Gordon, Cash and Wilson. Cash got his first start of the season on his birthday as the 7th-oldest player in D-I basketball turned 25 on Wednesday.

QUOTABLE
"We came into the game trying to work on details and get better, particularly on the defensive end, and I felt like we did that. We wanted to share the ball as well – like we always talk about – and we did a good job of that, particularly in the 2nd half. I was pleased with the effort tonight, and obviously the rebounding was terrific."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner


GAME FLOW
Williams knocked down a baseline 3-pointer in front of the UNTD bench on the first possession of the game, and that put the Mavs' offense in motion as they never trailed. The Gordon triple which gave him 1,000 career points propelled UTA a 17-3 lead, and the margin grew from there to as much as 23 in the 1st half with the Mavs taking a 39-18 lead into halftime thanks in large part to a 20-3 edge on the offensive glass which led to a 17-2 discrepancy in second-chance points.
 
Coming out of the locker room, Talbot knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game, and UTA eventually extended its edge to 30 for the first time, 54-24, after a pair of Wilson free throws with just under 14 minutes to play. From there, the hosts led by as much as 37 en route to moving its home record this year to 5-1.
 
THIS AND THAT

• #3 Gordon finished the game wearing jersey #45.
• The game began at 4 p.m. thanks to a campus-wide team-building event encouraging faculty and staff to attend the contest.
• Gordon is a New Mexico State grad transfer who began his UTA career this year with 910 points across stops at Kansas State, Missouri and NM State.
• UTA will now have 36 days until its next home tilt on Jan. 11 against 2023 NIT semifinalist Utah Valley. That 36-day gap will be the second-longest stretch in-between home games of any team in the nation this year (Delaware: 38).
• For the seventh-straight game, UTA was without the services of Freds Pauls Bagatskis, who is dealing with an ankle injury and will be out indefinitely.
• Dwayne Koroma also did not play for UTA (rest).
• UNTD is coached by former NBA All-Star and Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard
• This was UTA's first-ever meeting with UNT Dallas, which began play for the 2020-21 season.

NEXT UP
UTA will break for final exams before returning to action on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth when the Mavs square off against Air Force in the first game of a tripleheader of action at the US LBM Coast-to-Coast Challenge. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster, and UTA's dedicated sections are 104 and 105. The game is presented by LBL Architects.
   
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).