SEATTLE – UT Arlington men's basketball (11-13, 4-6 WAC) fell 67-65 in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday at Seattle U (10-13, 5-4 WAC) courtesy of a John Christofilis corner three at the buzzer. The Mavs had four players in double figures and had erased a 12-point second half deficit, but it was the Redhawks who left with the victory, splitting the regular season series with UTA.
 
Guard Kade Douglas paced the Mavs with 15 points on 5-of-6 from distance and also added six rebounds. Guard Darius Burford added 13 and six rebounds, while forward/center Lance Ware had 12 points and seven boards and forward Raysean Seamster posted 12 points and eight rebounds.
 
"These guys competed tonight," head coach KT Turner said following the game. "I'm really proud of how they competed from Thursday night. But we've got to do it every game, you just can't pick and choose when you want to compete. We competed and I feel like these guys played their hearts out, it was a hard loss, a tough loss. It's hard to win a game like that when you have 19 turnovers, it's unacceptable. That's 19 times we didn't get a shot up, so that hurts when you lose by two."
 
The Mavericks got off to a strong start, taking a 13-9 lead early, thanks in part to an alley-oop from guard Brody Robinson to forward/center Lance Ware, as well as a triple from guard Brandon Talbot. Robinson and Ware connected once more on an alley-oop, and UTA built a 17-12 advantage early.
 
Seattle U then went on a 13-2 run to take a 25-19 lead, it's largest of the half. The Mavs responded as guard Darius Burford scored seven of his 10 first half points late, including a buzzer-beating corner three to cut the deficit to 29-28 at the break.
 
The Redhawks went on an 11-0 run early in the second half and built their biggest lead of the game, 48-36, mostly behind the three-point shooting of Brayden Maldonado, who led all scorers with 26 points, and went 7-for-10 from beyond the arc. UTA responded with an 11-0 run of its own, fueled by four straight points from guard Brandyn Talbot, who finished with seven, to cut the lead to 48-47. The Mavs could not however get over that hill for the time being. Seattle U responded by rebuilding its advantage to 58-49.
 
Seamster helped get the Mavs back on track with a tough finish inside, followed by a corner three to cut things to 58-54. Douglas buried back-to-back threes to cut the lead to 62-60, and then a Ware dunk tied things at 62.
 
After a few defensive stops, it was Burford, who knocked down a corner triple to give the Mavs their first lead since the first half, 65-62. The Redhawks hit a layup, and then UTA missed a pair of free throws on two consecutive one-and-one situations at the line. With 7.1 to go, Seattle went the full length of the court and found Christofilis in the corner for the game-winner as the buzzer sounded.
 
UTA turned the ball over 19 times to Seattle U's six, and finished 4-for-13 from the free throw line, negating a 54.3% shooting night that saw the Mavericks go 11-of-24 from three-point range.
 
The Mavs return to Arlington and host California Baptist (12-11, 5-4 WAC) on Thursday, Feb. 13, on EECU Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day. The game tips off at 4 p.m. CT, and will be broadcast live on ESPN+, and on the radio on the Varsity App, 102.5 FM and KTNO 620 AM. Cal Baptist had a big win on Saturday at home over Grand Canyon, 85-71.
   
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