(This is a look back at one of the best performances of the 2023-24 season.) Mar. 15, 2024

LAS VEGAS –

A 3-pointer by Brandyn Talbot that UT Arlington men's basketball fans will remember for a long time, if not forever, transpired in the wee hours Friday into Saturday to cap a frenetic comeback effort by the Mavericks and send a resilient UTA side to the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Final.
 
Trailing by as much as 13 in the 2nd half, Talbot hit the game-winning triple with 3.3 seconds remaining to give the #3-seeded Mavs an 87-84 victory over #2 Tarleton State in the WAC semifinals Friday inside Orleans Arena.
 
With the win – UTA's eighth in a row – the Mavs advance to face #1 Grand Canyon for the WAC Championship on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. CT (8:30 local). The Lopes won the league's regular-season title outright for the first time in their Division-I history this year at 17-3, and sit at 28-4 overall following an 80-72 win over #4 Seattle U in the other semifinal on Friday.
 
Talbot's 3-pointer capped an incredible closing 20 seconds which gave UTA its 20th win of the campaign. With the game tied at 81-81, Talbot corralled an offensive rebound and fed a pass to DaJuan Gordon in the corner, and the WAC First Team member drilled a 3-pointer to put the Mavs up 84-81 with 18 seconds remaining.
 
On the ensuing possession, Tarleton State's Devon Barnes converted a traditional and-1 finish with 13 seconds left to re-tie the contest at 84-all. UTA head coach KT Turner called a timeout in an attempt to ice Barnes before he attempted the free throw, and in the process also drew up an offensive set.
 
That offensive set resulted in WAC Sixth Player of the Year Phillip Russell pushing into the frontcourt and making a play. Russell drove to the middle of the paint and attracted three defenders before kicking to Talbot on the baseline in front of the UTA bench. The junior pump faked, took one dribble to his right as a defender flew by to his left and calming rose up to deliver a seminal moment in his career.

Still, UTA needed to get one more stop to punch its ticket to the WAC Final. Electing not to foul after Tarleton took a timeout, the Mavs defended brilliantly and forced Jakorie Smith into an extremely difficult and contested off-balance long-distance 3-point attempt which glanced off the backboard and fell harmlessly on the other side of the hoop.
 
Lost in the craziness of the finish was Shemar Wilson tying a career high with 29 points on 12-16 shooting. The senior also pulled down five rebounds, had three blocks and issued a pair of assists in 38 minutes.
 
Russell's dish to Talbot on the game-winner was his 10th of the contest to go along with 18 points, representing his fourth-career double-double and first this season as the 10 dimes also tied a career high reached twice previously.
 
Gordon also registered a double-double – his WAC-leading 13th of the campaign – with 16 points and a game-most 11 rebounds. Dwayne Koroma continued his late-season offensive emergence with a season-high-tying 12 points. That is now the fourth time in the last five outings he's reached double-figure points after accomplishing the feat just twice in the season's first 27 contests.
 
Facing an 11-point deficit with under nine minutes remaining, the UTA offense came to life with back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers from Russell, Akili Vining and Gordon, and a few seconds later on a pair of Russell free throws the Mavs tied the contest in fewer than two minutes, 71-71. That stretch was pivotal in UTA getting back into the ballgame as the Mavs eventually took a lead, 79-77, with three minutes left for the first time since it was 21-20 at the 8:48 mark of the 1st half.
 
Saturday's WAC Tournament Final will be broadcast live on ESPN2, streamed on ESPN+ and also heard nationally on SiriusXM 380/970, in addition to locally on 102.5 FM, 620 AM and the Varsity Network App. The Mavs lost each game to GCU this year (76-69 and 67-61), but in both contests they had double-figure 2nd-half leads and were tied with 90 seconds remaining.
 
BOX SCORE NUGGETS

• The win moves UTA to 20-13 on the season, while the loss drops Tarleton to 23-9.
• The Mavs are now a perfect 10-0 this season when Talbot makes 2+ triples in a game. Talbot finished with six points, but they were arguably the six most important of the entire contest.
• UTA shot 56.1% (32-57) from the floor – its 3rd-best mark of the season after notching a season-high 58.7% (37-63) in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
• After turning the ball over seven times in the 1st half, UTA committed just four 2nd-half giveaways.
• The Mavs utilized the following starting lineup: Russell, Makaih Williams, Gordon, Aaron Cash and Wilson; Wilson is the only Mav to start all 33 games this season. That starting quintet is now 5-0 this season.

QUOTABLE
"I didn't like how we played the majority of the game – it felt like we weren't together or connected, but this team has been through a lot this year and we stuck around and gutted it out. Now we've got a chance to play in a championship game for the right to go to the NCAA Tournament. As for the game-winning shot, we wanted to give Phil the ability to make a play, and that's what he did. He made a great pass to BT (Talbot), and he knocked the shot down."
– UTA Head Coach KT Turner
 
GAME FLOW
Unlike UTA's quarterfinal matchup the night before when it raced out to a 12-0 start just a few minutes into the contest, neither team led by more than four on Saturday until the Texans hit three free throws coming out of the under-8 timeout to jump in front by five, 26-21.
 
Behind Wilson, the Mavs responded with an 8-3 stretch, and on the senior forward's traditional and-1 finish re-tied the contest at 29-all at the 5:49 mark. However, the Texans countered with a 6-0 surge to create either side's biggest lead of the opening half, 35-26.
 
Unfazed, UTA fought back and knotted the tilt inside of a minute on a Koroma layup before Tarleton took a 41-29 edge into the halftime break with both teams shooting better than 50% from the floor (UTA: 57.1; TSU: 51.7).
 
Coming out of the locker room, the Texans stormed to a 9-2 start and eventually took a 56-43 lead just more than four minutes into the half – the biggest of the contest. The Mavs still trailed by 11, 71-60, with under nine minutes remaining before mounting the aforementioned comeback.
 
THIS AND THAT

• The Mavs are now 11-2 over their last 13 games, with the only losses in that stretch coming by a combined three points.
• The victory avenged two regular-season losses by a combined four points to Tarleton.
• The eight-game winning streak is UTA's longest since equaling that total Feb. 4-Mar. 2, 2017. It is also tied for the 7th longest active stretch in the nation.
• All 20 of UTA's wins this year have come when it scores at least 70 points.
• This is UTA's first 20-win season since going 21-13 in 2017-18.
• UTA is now 4-2 all-time in three WAC Tournament appearances: 2-1 in 2013, 0-1 in 2023 and 2-0 so far in 2024.
• This will be UTA's first conference tournament final appearance since going back-to-back in 2018 and 2019 as a Sun Belt Conference member.
• UTA also competed for the WAC Tournament Final in 2013.

 
FOLLOW ALONG
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