NACOGDOCHES, Texas – UT-Arlington defeated Stephen F. Austin 75-70 as they split the season series against each other and each take a victory in the opposing team’s home court. The Mavericks improve to 10-17 (WAC 5-9) and the Lumberjacks fall to 17-10 (WAC 9-5).
Both offenses started off with a slow, steady pace of scoring in the early going, but with 13:41 remaining in the first half, the ‘Jacks flipped the switch. After going down briefly 8-7, they went on a 13-point run, got the lead to 20-8 and held the Mavericks from scoring within the next five minutes. The Mavericks then responded in a big way and nailed six three-pointers in the span of five minutes to tie the game back up at 30. The ‘Jacks tightened up their three-point defense and was able to get a little bit of momentum going into the half with a 39-34 lead.
Once again, both teams struggled to make any buckets coming out of half, until the ‘Jack’s finally made a bucket 2:13 into the half. Then unfortunately, the ‘Jacks would only make one more shot from the field in the next seven minutes as the Mavericks went on an impressive 17-point run to regain the lead at 53-43. During that run, the Lumberjacks missed ten shots from the field and committed five fouls. However, the ‘Jacks didn’t give in, and fought back with a 16-6 run to tie the game at 59. Both teams traded blows all the way down to the final minute as the score was tied at 67 with 1:09 left on the clock. But the Mavericks got the upper hand in the end and made back-to-back shots to give them a four-point lead with less than 30 seconds remaining which forced the ‘Jacks to foul to stop the clock. UTA went 4-for-4 on free throws in the final seconds and came away with the 75-70 win.
AJ Cajuste led the scoring for the Lumberjacks, dropping 14 points on the night. Sadaidriene Hall picked up his fifth double-double of the season by recording 13 points and ten rebounds. Latrell Jossell put 12 points on the board tonight along with four steals and four assists. Nigel Hawkins also scored 12 points on the night and was four rebounds short of a double-double. Nana Antwi-Boasiako tied Hall with ten rebounds on the game, scored six points, and had two defensive blocks.
The ‘Jacks struggled from beyond the arc tonight as they only made six shots on 20 attempts, while the Mavericks made exactly half of their 22 shots from deep. The difference in successful three-pointers made the difference between a win and a loss in tonight’s match. The Lumberjacks were still able to outscore the mavericks in: points off turnovers (28-14), points in the paint (34-22), and fastbreak points (21-17).
The Lumberjacks now hit the road to take on the Wildcats in Abilene on Wednesday, February 22nd with tipoff at 7:00 p.m.