ARLINGTON, Texas – Kevin Hervey tallied 25 points and 13 rebounds and scored 22 points in the second half to lead UT Arlington to a 92-72 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball victory over Georgia Southern Saturday night in College Park Center.
Mike Hughes scored a career-high 24 points and added three assists, three rebounds and four steals for Georgia Southern (4-8, 0-2).
Tookie Brown scored 17 points, and
Ike Smith netted 10.
Jake Allsmiller finished with nine points.
Hervey was 9 of 11 from the floor, made all four 3-pointers he shot and pulled down 10 rebounds in the second half for the Mavericks (11-2, 2-0). Drew Charles finished with 16 points and six rebounds, while Erick Neal collected 12 points and eight assists. Kaelon Wilson scored 10.
The Mavs shot 56 percent and made 8 of 15 from 3-point range in the second half. After making 9 of 21 from behind the arc in the first frame, Georgia Southern connected on just 2 of 13 in the second stanza.
The storyHervey scored 18 points in a decisive 30-8 Maverick run over 9:11 in the second half. A 25-foot triple by the sophomore forward made the margin 74-49 with 9:46 left in the game. UTA held Georgia Southern to four of its first 15 from the field in the period. The Eagles ripped up the nets in the early going of the contest, making nine of their first 10 shots and 7 of 8 from 3-point range. Allsmiller knocked down three triples, and Georgia Southern made five in a row from downtown at one point to open a 25-14 lead, its largest of the game. UT Arlington regrouped and used a 13-2 run, capped by consecutive triples by Charles and Kennedy Eubanks, to tie the score 27-27. The Mavs pushed out to a 42-37 lead, but Hughes drove to the basket for a tough layup as the first-half horn sounded, and the Eagles trailed 42-39 at the break.
Quotable from Coach Mark Byington"They came out and tried to press us, which has been their style. I thought the guys did a good job of handling it and being aggressive, and we were finding the open guy. They ended up packing it back in and zoning us some and mixed it up with some switching man-to-man. Offensively, I thought we were fine. The second half wasn't as good; I thought we got stagnant against the zone and missed some opportunities."
"The game got away from us on the defensive end. In the first half, I was really proud of the guys. We went after the 50-50 balls, we showed some toughness, we rebounded, we competed and we took charges. We played how I think these guys can play and did what will give them a chance to win. We somehow lost it in the locker room. It wasn't anything schematic; we didn't bring it."
"I'll be comfortable with the score as long as we just compete and play as hard as we can because I know that at the end of the day if we do that, then the score is going to be in our favor a lot of nights."
Next upGeorgia Southern opens a four-game Sun Belt homestand against South Alabama Jan. 7, in Hanner Fieldhouse. It's Youth League Night and Throwback Thursday, and the doubleheader with the women's team begins at 5 p.m.
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