ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington men's basketball (11-5, 3-1 WAC) defeated Abilene Christian (10-7, 2-2 WAC) 82-72 Saturday afternoon at the College Park Center. The Mavs had four players in double figures and cruised to their third consecutive win, and second straight game where they scored 80-plus points.
Senior guard Marcell McCreary followed up his career-high 39-point night on Jan. 3, at Southern Utah with a 20-point output and six rebounds on Saturday to lead the Mavericks in scoring. Sophomore guard Bahsil Laster poured in a career-high 18 points off the bench, sophomore guard Cash Chavis had 15 and senior forward Raysean Seamster added 10 to go along with five boards in the win.
"One thing we wanted to focus on was getting off to a good start," head coach KT Turner said following the win. "We felt like we didn't against Southern Utah, felt like we did against Cal Baptist, which was a big thing. I felt like we did and then wanted to get off to a good start in the second half, but we did come out flat. but did get it together and start guarding. Just pleased with this team and how we can guard and what we're capable of doing on the defensive end. On the offensive end, we're playing good ball and getting good shots, so I'm pleased with these guys and we've got to keep it going."
UTA had a very strong opening half, taking an eight-point lead into the break. That was buoyed by a stretch of eight consecutive made field goals. McCreary scored the team's first seven points, and finished with 12 in the opening half. Sophomore guard Tyran Mason added six points in the first half, an open triple and a strong three-point play where he finished through contact to make it 25-19.
Sophomore guard Cash Chavis found sophomore forward/center Miles Goodman for a transition alley-oop to put the Mavs up 10, 29-19. UTA led by as many as 14 at 37-23, but it was a 6-0 run to close the half for ACU to cut it to that eight-point deficit.
ACU continued that run into the second half, and it reached 11 unanswered to cut things as close as 37-34. They got as close as three on a couple more occasions, but the Mavs were able to pull away, thanks to back-to-back possessions that saw Laster draw contact and hit four straight free throws. The Philadelphia native was 9-of-10 from the line, and the Mavericks finished 25-of-29 from the line (86.2%).
UTA has made marked improvement at the charity stripe during the three-game winning streak, hitting 64-of-77 over that stretch at an 83.1% clip. Saturday's 86.2% performance tied for ninth-best in a single game in program history (they were also 25-of-29 vs. Texas State on March 1, 2016).
McCreary then had a six-point run of his own to stretch the lead to double figures. He fought through contact to finish a three-point play from about 12-feet out on the baseline, and then buried a corner three to make it 59-47. The win was punctuated by a pair of Seamster slams, one on an alley-oop from Laster and the other on a backdoor cut fed by McCreary. That span saw the Mavs hit 5-of-6 from the field and build a double digit lead they wouldn't relinquish.
UTA is at the 11-win mark (Jan. 10) the quickest in a season since 2017-18 (Jan. 6, when Scott Cross' team was 11-6). That team reached the Sun Belt Championship Game and won 21 games.
The Mavs are also now 6-1 at home this season, improving Turner's record at the College Park Center to 27-8 during his two-and-a-half years at the helm of the program.
The Mavs hit the road to the Beehive State when they travel to take on Utah Tech (9-8, 2-1 WAC) in St. George, Utah, at 8 p.m. CT from Burns Arena. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and on the radio on the Varsity Network App with Will Conerly on the call.
-- #BuckEm –
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).
