The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
3-3
UT Arlington
5-2
Men's Basketball defeats UT Arlington in overtime, 80-73
12.01.2015 | Men's Basketball
Kerwin Roach dunk sparks team, and Isaiah Taylor scores all of his game-high 21 points in second half and overtime.
AUSTIN, Texas — Junior Isaiah Taylor led all scorers with 21 points, and senior Javan Felix posted a season-high 18 points to lead Texas to an 80-73 overtime victory against UT Arlington inside the Frank Erwin Center on Tuesday night.
Taylor scored all his points in the second half and overtime, including a 13-of-17 mark from the free throw line. Felix hit four 3-pointers and recorded three assists against just one turnover in 35 minutes, while senior Cam Ridley added 10 boards, four blocks and seven points in 31 minutes.
As a team, the Longhorns shot 46.4 percent from the floor and held the Mavericks to a 32.9 shooting percentage. Despite only holding the lead for 15:57 minutes, Texas was able to close out the game behind an 11-for-31 (.355) effort from beyond the arc.
Texas would start the night with some early downtown baskets from Felix and Conner Lammert to make it 10-5 in favor of the Longhorns. The Mavericks would then go on a 9-0 run to take a four-point advantage and force a Texas timeout at the 12:44 mark.
Texas found some momentum off a Tevin Mack three, and Ridley followed with a traditional three-point play to give Texas the 16-14 advantage. UTA held the Horns scoreless for nearly eight minutes to take a 29-19 lead, its largest of the first half, with 2:58 remaining. The Longhorns would cut into the deficit and close out the half on an 8-2 run, featuring a monster dunk from freshman Kerwin Roach, Jr., to make the score 31-27 at the break.
UTA would continue to hold onto a slim margin until Lammert drained a three-pointer to tie the score at 38-38 at the 16:02 mark. Texas would take its first lead of the half after a layup from Roach with 14:04 remaining, but UTA would continue to answer basket for basket.
It remained a four-point margin or less in the second half until a Felix jumper made it 65-60 Texas at the 3:44 mark. The Mavericks would capitalize on free throw opportunities to close the gap, tying the game at 67 and sending it into overtime.
After trading layups and free throws, the score was tied at 71 with 2:09 remaining in the extra session. After forcing a Maverick shot clock violation, Texas used back-to-back three-pointers from Lammert and Eric Davis, Jr. and pulled away for the 80-73 win.
The Longhorns continue their five-game homestand on Friday, Dec. 4, when they host Samford. Tip is set for 8 p.m. Central at the Erwin Center, and the game will be broadcast nationally on Longhorn Network.
Texas Basketball Postgame Notes
Texas 80, UT Arlington 73 (ot)
December 1, 2015
Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
Attendance: 9,646
Team Notes
Texas improved to 11-0 all-time against UT Arlington. All 11 contests have been held at the Erwin Center. This marked the fifth straight season that the Longhorns have played UTA.
UT improved to 193-26 at the Erwin Center in the last 14 seasons (dating back to the start of the 2002-03 season).
Texas improved to 47-50 all-time in overtime games. UT is now 21-24 in home overtime games, including a 14-15 mark in OT games in the Erwin Center. Texas has won its last two overtime games, as the Horns defeated Baylor 61-59 in overtime on March 2, 2015 in its most recent OT contest.
Texas set a team season high in three-pointers made (11-of-31).
Reached double figures in scoring (season-high 18 points) for the fourth time this season and 47th time in his career (105 games)
He is now just 46 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point milestone (954 career points).
Tied his career high in three-pointers made (3-of-8)
Reached double figures in rebounds (10 rebounds) for the fourth time this season and 23rd time in his career (108 games)
Topped the 20-point mark (21 points, all in second half and overtime) for the second time this year and 10th time in his career (65 games).
Reached double figures in scoring for the fifth time this year and 49th time in his career
Set a career high in FT made (13-of-17).All his FT attempts came in the second half and overtime. His previous career high in FT made was 11 (at Kansas State on Feb. 7, 2015)
Post Game Quotes
Texas Head Coach Shaka Smart
On how the team pulled off the win: I'm proud of the guys. In the arena, there was a heavy feeling of, 'uh-oh, what's going to happen?' I think Snoop's [Kerwin Roach] dunk helped get some people going in the crowd and on our team. We've got to go out and play with an aggressive, confident, loose approach towards attacking the game. We've got to go after the win as opposed to playing not to lose. As the game wore on, we did a better job of that and our guys made some plays at the end of the game.
On Isaiah Taylor being aggressive: We weren't moving the ball in the first half. UTA did a really good job changing their defenses up. Isaiah did a nice job in the second half just running the play, attacking, moving the ball, and we got a lot of open 3-point shots or drives from him or one of his teammates.
On what makes UT Arlington hard to beat: Coach Cross has done a really good job instilling a mindset of approach goals. Those guys go after it. You've got to give them credit. They went to Ohio State and won. They went to Memphis and won. It's a good team, he gets them playing with confidence. They have some really good pieces to fit their system. [Kevin] Hervey, to me, could play anywhere in the country.
On coming from a mid-major program: Those are the games you circle. At VCU, if we were coming down here to play, we would be talking about this game all summer long, and preseason long. We would make sure that we knew a whole lot more about that opponent than they knew about us, and that was an advantage. UTA certainly came here to win. They played that way. Give our guys credit to battle through that and get the win.
Freshman Guard Kerwin Roach, Jr.
On the team not scoring for seven minutes in a row, and what were you thinking: Just coming off the bench you want to provide something, and I provided the energy. I woke everyone up this game.
On his dunk surprising him: That even really surprised me to make that play. I just want to provide energy for our team and get us going.
On why did that play surprise you: I was in the moment. I felt like the team needed something and I provided something.
On what can this game do for your confidence going forward: It really boosted it. Once again like I said, it just provided energy coming off the bench and just being that difference maker off the bench and coming in with energy.
Junior Guard Isaiah Taylor
Kerwin [Roach] gave me energy. He gave the crowd energy. He gave the Frank Erwin Center energy. He gave our team energy. I think that dunk for me personally put me in a good frame of mind to just go out and be myself the second half. Javan [Felix] did great hitting open shots. We did get in foul trouble, but I do think they did a great job of crashing the boards and taking advantage of shots.
On what did you do in the second half that allowed you all to shoot so much better: Coach [Shaka Smart] said go play. We came out from the locker room into the second half and he said go play. We know that we have a lot of talent on this team, and we just used it in the second half.
On knowing you have to make something happen this month after a tough start to the season: We know that we struggled early. We knew that we were not going to be perfect. We didn't expect this start, but it happened and we are going to battle back from it. We know that we have some games coming up. We have Samford next, so we are taking this one game at a time.
Senior Guard Javan Felix
On do the coaches give you permission to just go shoot the ball: They give me permission to shoot open shots. My teammates encourage me to shoot open shots, so that is what I do and I am going to continue to do that.
On how sweet was the win tonight: This win was great for us. We knew that they were going to be competitive. We knew that it was going to be a fight. They went into Memphis and Ohio State and got wins. So we knew that they were a really good team and we knew what they were capable of. Coach [Smart] wrote on the board before the game 40 minutes, and it took more than that tonight.
UT Arlington Quotes
UT Arlington Head Coach Scott Cross
Opening Statement: Our guys played extremely hard. I am proud of them and how hard they played tonight. It was a very good basketball game. We did a great job on the boards. I didn't even realize that we out-rebounded them by 13. That's a credit to our guys. This guy right here, Kevin Hervey, he just has an unbelievable nose for basketball. Our guys really, really fought. In the second half, we didn't play quite together enough as a basketball team. I think that may have hurt us. We are really good when we move the basketball. In the first half, there were times that we moved that play around, spun it, move around, and had some wide open looks. We did a great job executing our offense, but we got stagnated a little bit. Obviously, the credit goes to [the Longhorns]. Coach [Shaka] Smart does a great job. He changed up the defenses. He went from his 2-2-1 back to his 2-3. It got us stagnated a little bit, but they did some great things. Obviously, the two big three's there in overtime were back breakers for us.
On Texas's Isaiah Taylor's unstoppable charging dribble: He is tough to guard. He gets low. He gets his shoulder in our guy's hip. He drives the ball extremely well. They did a great job attacking us and getting the ball in the paint. We had some possessions where we had them in the last five or six seconds of the shot clock, and then they just drove us in there and drew the foul. It was frustrating, but it is a credit to them. They are basketball players who made plays, so the credit has to go to them.
On the closing final minutes of play: It confirms that we do have a good basketball team. It was not a fluke in Memphis and Ohio State. This is a legit team. It is tough to play on the road, especially against a team that has great size, great talent. Our guys did a great job going toe-to-toe with them. I am proud of them for that, and I think if we can figure out how to consistently play together as a basketball team, then we could have something really special.
Sophomore Forward Kevin Hervey
On the takeaway from tonight: They are an extraordinary team. It was a crazy atmosphere, and we played as hard as we could and we fought as hard as we could. But they came out the better team. Overall, I respect their team. They have a great coach, but they just got us tonight.
On the last five games for UTA: We have been taking it one by one, not focusing on the last win or the last loss, but just who we play next. Tonight we came into the game confident we would win the game and we played as hard as we could, and we came up short.
On Texas' Connor Lammert playing defense against you: He is a really good defender. He knew where I wanted to go, and beat me to my spots. When I caught the ball, he knew exactly where I was going to throw it and where I wanted it to go offensively. He had to watch a lot of film or something, because he played some really good defense.
