ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men's basketball team raced out to an 18-point 1st-half lead behind the energy from Grad Night festivities as the Mavericks claimed a 71-57 win over California Baptist on Thursday at the College Park Center.
 
The victory marked the sixth in a row to conclude the regular season for UTA, and also secured a 1st-round bye for the Mavs in the WAC Tournament. UTA is now 18-13 overall and 13-7 in the league, finishing 3rd in the conference standings and clinching a top-4 seed in the tournament.
 
UTA raced out to a double-figure lead not even seven minutes into the contest, and behind stalwart efforts on both ends built an 18-point margin, 24-6, at the midway juncture of the opening half. CBU battled back to tie the game in the 2nd half, but the Mavs responded brilliantly to post their fourth-straight double-figure win in a contest they never trailed and led for 38 minutes.
 
On an evening where UTA honored its four graduates pregame, it was true freshman Makaih Williams leading the Mavs in scoring with 13. Grad transfer DaJuan Gordon added 12 points, seven rebounds and a game-most four steals, fellow grad student Aaron Cash notched 12 points and eight rebounds and redshirt sophomore Dwayne Koroma contributed 10 points – all in the 2nd half – along with four rebounds to round out a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Mavs.
 
Additionally, with the victory KT Turner became the winningest first-year head coach in program history, surpassing Chris Ogden's 17 triumphs (17-16) in 2018-19. As a team, UTA's 18th win represents its most since going 21-13 in 2017-18; the Mavs reached the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Final that year.
 
The 18th number on the left side of the record column combined with a loss by Seattle U at Abilene Christian will result in the Mavs jumping the Redhawks in the WAC resume-seeding system when it is released on Friday. Despite having two more wins currently – and sweeping the season series from SU – the Mavs may still need another loss from the Redhawks at Tarleton State on Saturday to secure the #3 seed in the WAC Tournament due to resume-seeding system points; UTA's regular season is over, but the WAC's 10 other teams will play on Saturday.


BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• Graduate Shemar Wilson finished with six points, four rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Fellow grad student Akili Vining posted four points and grabbed three rebounds.
• Phillip Russell had an extremely balanced game with six points, a game-high seven rebounds and a season-most five rebounds.
• Brandyn Talbot (four) and Fabio Basili (four) rounded out the UTA scoring.
• In a matchup of the WAC's highest-scoring team in UTA and the league's stingiest defense in CBU, the Mavs shot 48% (30-63) from the floor while holding the Lancers to just 33% (16-49).
• UTA connected at 48% (16-33) in the 2nd half as well despite the conference's best 3-point shooting club going 0-11 from deep in the closing stanza.
• The Mavs finished with a 48-20 advantage in paint points and 24-8 edge in bench points.
• The loss drops CBU to 15-15 overall and 8-11 in the WAC; the Lancers have lost seven of eight, all of which have come with the league's 2nd-leading scorer, Dominique Daniels Jr., being sidelined with an injury.
• The Mavs started each of their graduates along with a freshman: Vining, Williams, Gordon, Cash and Wilson; Wilson is the only Mav to start all 31 games this season.

QUOTABLE
"I'm really happy with how our guys started the game; our starters set the tone for that beginning. I wasn't happy with how the half ended, but that's a microcosm of our season – we've had to grind out almost everything. CBU is a tough team, and I knew they weren't going to give up. But I'm happy and proud for our graduates, and I'm glad they had a special night."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner


GAME FLOW
A 3-pointer from Williams in the opening two minutes set the tone for not only him but the entire UTA offense as the Mavs jumped out to a double-figure lead, 15-4, at the 13:14 mark and grew the cushion to the aforementioned 18, 24-6, thanks to a 7-0 run which was capped by a Talbot 3-pointer.
 
That would be the largest lead UTA had all game, and it remained a double-figure cushion until CBU trimmed it to nine, 32-23, with 2+ minutes left in the stanza. The Lancers continued their push late in the half, and back-to-back 3s in the closing minutes pulled them within five before Russell hit an important triple of his own before the buzzer to give the Mavs a 37-29 halftime advantage.
 
Despite shooting just 30% (7-23) from the floor, CBU remained in the contest thanks to a perfect 13-13 effort from the free throw line. That allowed the Lancers to stay within shouting distance, and they took advantage early in the 2nd half to get the deficit down to four, 41-37, within the first few minutes.
 
CBU kept fighting and eventually tied the contest at 43-all at the 13:42 timestamp before the Mavs responded with a crucial 6-0 run as past of a larger 14-2 stretch to re-establish a double-figure edge, 57-45, with a little over eight minutes left.
 
From there, the Mavs didn't allow the Lancers to get any closer than eight, and they led by double digits for the final five minutes as they eventually built a lead back up of as much as 16.
 
THIS AND THAT

• UTA finishes the season with a 12-3 home record, which is its best since going 13-2 in 2017-18.
• The Mavs are now 9-2 over their last 11 games, with the only losses in that stretch coming by a combined three points, including a 64-63 setback to CBU in Riverside last month.
• All 18 of UTA's wins this year have come when it scores at least 70 points.
• The six-game winning streak is UTA's longest since an eight-game stretch Feb. 4-Mar. 2, 2017.
• This was UTA's first-ever win over CBU – the lone remaining WAC team the Mavs had yet to defeat (2-1).
• UTA recognized its four graduate students prior to the game: Vining, Gordon, Cash and Wilson. Additionally, Gordon, Cash and Wilson were presented with a 1,000-point ball as the trio reached the career milestone mark during the season.

NEXT UP
The bracket for the 2024 WAC Tournament will be unveiled on Sunday. UTA will begin postseason action at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday, Mar. 14.
   
FOLLOW ALONG
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