ARLINGTON – Playing the extremely rare Monday matinee after their matchup last Wednesday was postponed due to weather, Tarleton pulled away from UT Arlington late to claim a 69-64 victory over the Mavericks inside the College Park Center.
 
After UTA's Brandon Walker converted an and-1 finish to tie the contest at 56-56 with three minutes remaining, the visiting Texans scored four straight and nine of the next 11 points to open up a 65-58 lead that they would not relinquish.
 
Chendall Weaver continued to add to his WAC Freshman of the Year résumé as the guard delivered a team-high 19 points, pulled down three rebounds and notched two steals. The Mansfield, Texas, native drilled four 3-pointers to tie a career high and represent his most against a Division-I opponent.
 
UTA led for the first 26 minutes of the game before Tarleton opened up its first lead with 14 minutes remaining, 43-40. UTA responded with a 9-0 surge to go back ahead, 49-43, but a 10-0 Tarleton counter punch made it a 53-49 margin and the Texans never trailed the rest of the way.
 
Kyron Gibson recorded 14 points and issued a game-best six assists while also issuing two steals – one of three Maverick players with a pair of thefts.
 
Montez Young Jr. once again provided a key spark for the Mavs as he neared in on what would have been his first career double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Over his last five games, Young Jr. has now scored 42 points and grabbed 31 rebounds after totaling just 20 points and 29 rebounds all season prior to Jan. 19.
 
Coming off a 54-percent shooting performance as part of a 70-58 win over Sam Houston on Saturday, UTA connected at just a 40-percent clip (23-57) from the floor. However, it was Tarleton exploding in the 2nd half, converting at a blistering 68 percent (15-22) en route to a 50-percent performance (22-44) for the game – the fourth time in the last five games UTA has allowed an opponent to reach at least 50 percent.
 

BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• With the loss, UTA drops to 8-16 overall and 3-8 in the WAC, while Tarleton improves to 13-11 and 6-5.
• Shemar Wilson finished with nine points and five rebounds for UTA. Aaron Cash registered seven points.
• Weaver had never made more than one 3-pointer against a D-I foe prior to Monday.
• UTA utilized the same starting lineup as it did on Saturday: Marion Humphrey, Gibson, Weaver, Young Jr. and Walker.
• Freddy Hicks led all scorers with 22 points and also secured six rebounds. Jakorie Smith netted 19 points to finish as the only other double-figure scorer for the Texans.
• Tarleton out-scored UTA in the paint, 32-24, and also had a dominant 39-16 edge in bench points.

QUOTABLE
"We just weren't good enough today – we didn't defend well enough in the 2nd half after starting to turn a corner on Saturday but reverted back to not being a good defensive team. We made too many mistakes with the ball and lost too many possessions, but we've got to shake it off and bounce back Thursday at UTRGV."
– UTA Head Coach Greg Young
 

GAME FLOW
UTA raced out to a 10-2 start following back-to-back baseline 3-pointers from Weaver from nearly the identical spot. Tarleton responded and pulled back within one on a trio of occasions before finally pulling even, 17-17, with five minutes to play in the half.
 
However, UTA surged back and executed a 9-0 run over the next three minutes – accentuated by a viscous Cash two-handed dunk – to build a 26-17 lead before taking a 29-24 halftime advantage. Both offenses awoke late in the period as the two teams combined for 34 points in the 15+ minutes and 19 in the final 4:40.
 
UTA remained in front until the 14-minute mark when Tarleton took its first lead of the game on a Javontae Hopkins contested finish at the rim to make it a 41-40 contest and eventually extended to 43-40 as the Mavs went more than four minutes without a field goal.
 
That drought ended when Weaver dialed up his fourth 3-pointer of the day to re-tie the game at 43-all at the 12-minute juncture, and he added a traditional three-point finish on the next trip to spearhead a 9-0 UTA push to go back in front, 49-43, inside of 10 minutes.
 
Tarleton head coach Billy Gillispie called a timeout to try and halt the momentum, and that stoppage did exactly that to the Mavs as the Texans retorted with a 10-0 scoring stretch to tie their largest lead of the game to that point, 53-49.
 
Walker's aforementioned and-1 finish made it 56-all, but Tarleton's closing stretch was too much for UTA to overcome as the Mavs could not continue their momentum from an upset win over Sam Houston on Saturday.
 
THIS AND THAT

• This game was rescheduled from Wednesday due to icy precipitation that blanketed North Texas last week.
• The win for UTA avenged a 70-63 league-opening loss at Tarleton on Dec. 29.
• The game was the second of a doubleheader, with the UTA women knocking off Southern Utah – which was a perfect 9-0 in the WAC – on a Starr Jacobs putback buzzer beater.
• The WAC is currently ranked by KenPom as the 12th-best conference (out of 32) in the nation.

NEXT UP
UTA will play its third game in six days after having 10 days in-between games when the Mavs head to UT Rio Grande Valley to face the Vaqueros on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. The Mavs will then have another extended break with six days off before returning to the court at Sam Houston on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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