ARLINGTON – Marion Humphrey and Aaron Cash each scored 17 points, UT Arlington shot 56 percent from the floor in the 2nd half but the Mavericks couldn't overcome Southern Utah's staunch offense in an 86-76 loss to the Thunderbirds Thursday night inside the College Park Center.
 
Playing without its leading scorer (10.9) and rebounder (7.8) in Shemar Wilson for the fourth-straight game due to a hip issue – and under the guidance of interim head coach Royce Johnson for the first time at home – UTA struggled to keep pace with the nation's 4th-highest scoring team.
 
Entering the game averaging 84 points per game, Southern Utah put that on display as UTA gave up a season-high 86 points – just the second time since 2015 that the Mavs have allowed an opponent to score at least that amount in a regulation home contest.
 
Humphrey tied a season high with his 17 points, while Cash's 17 represent his 2nd-most in WAC play this year. Those two led a quintet of double-figure scorers for UTA as Kyron Gibson (13), Brandyn Talbot (12) and reigning WAC Freshman of the Week Chendall Weaver (10) joined them.
 
UTA never led, and SUU shot 53 percent (28-53) from the field for the game, taking advantage of 18 Mav turnovers which led to 27 points for the Thunderbirds.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the loss, UTA drops to 10-18 overall and 5-10 in the WAC, while SUU improves to 19-9 and 11-4.
• With his 17 points, Humphrey posted consecutive double-figure scoring games for the first time since Nov. 12 and 15. Humphrey also passed out a team-best five assists.
• Talbot reached double digits in the scoring column for the first time since delivering a career-high 15 against Northern Kentucky on Nov. 22. In that contest he also made a career-best five 3s; the four triples on Thursday were the 2nd most of his career.
• Cash added four assists for the Mavs, and Gibson also issued four helpers to go along with three steals.
• Weaver – who extended his season-long stretch of double-figure point games to six – contributed five rebounds, and Brandon Walker corralled a team-best seven as the pair of true freshmen accounted for 46 percent (12 of 26) of UTA's non-team rebound total.
• SUU converted two different four-point plays in the 2nd half.
• UTA utilized the following starting lineup: Gibson, Weaver, Pedro Castro, Cash and Walker. That's just the second time this season that quintet has started a game (California Baptist on Jan. 25).

QUOTABLE
"We knew that Southern Utah was an explosive offensive team, and I thought at times we applied a little bit of pressure but there's no defense for turnovers. We had several turnovers against Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston and found a way to split those; we can't do it against good teams, and our last three opponents are all good teams. We have to find a way in a short time to clean that up."
– UTA Interim Head Coach Royce Johnson
 

GAME FLOW
SUU executed well at both ends out of the gate, jumping to a 13-4 lead just over six minutes into the contest before the Mavs put together a 7-0 run and pulled within two, 13-11, following a Humphrey contested finish at the 11-minute mark. The Thunderbirds responded with an 8-0 stretch of their own, keeping UTA scoreless for nearly four minutes while opening up their first double-figure lead of night at 21-11.
 
The Mavs once again crawled back, and on an emphatic, highlight-reel one-handed alley-oop finish by Marion Humphrey made it a 24-20 contest at the five-minute mark. But, just more than 60 seconds later the T-Birds had gone in front by their largest margin to that point at 11, 31-20, before eventually taking a 12-point halftime lead, 42-30.
 
The 42 1st-half points were the most allowed by the Mavs this season as SUU got 19 of those off a dozen UTA turnovers and shot 53 percent (16-30) from the floor while holding the hosts to 38 percent (11-29).
 
SUU commenced the 2nd half in the same manner as it did the 1st, extending its lead to 18, 51-33, just two minutes into the period. It remained at 14, 54-40, with 15 minutes remaining before UTA stormed its way to a 7-0 run in 50 seconds after another Humphrey statement dunk and a Talbot triple to force SUU into a timeout.
 
But, the game of runs continued as Southern Utah countered with a 6-0 response to create a 60-47 margin at the 11-minute juncture, and kept the Mavs at a distance from there, not allowing them to get any closer than nine the rest of the way
 
THIS AND THAT

• The game was delayed by 30 minutes waiting on the arrival of a replacement official.
• This was the third overall game of Johnson's tenure after replacing Greg Young on Feb. 10.
• UTA is averaging 18 turnovers per game over its last three outings – four above its season average.
• Wilson is tied for 2nd in the WAC with five double-doubles this season, and he ranks 11th nationally by averaging 3.6 offensive rebounds per game.
• This was the first-ever meeting with Southern Utah, which entered the night as the 3rd highest-ranked WAC team in the NET Rankings at #104.
• The WAC is currently ranked by KenPom as the 11th-best conference (out of 32) in the nation.

NEXT UP
UTA will honor graduate students Castro and Cash as part of Grad Day on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. versus Utah Tech for the final home game of 2022-23.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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