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PROVO — After a defensive-minded road win at Princeton, the BYU men's basketball team returned home to a critical non-conference matchup with Texas-Arlington — the same team that eliminated them from the first round of the postseason National Invitation Tournament last March.
Saturday night was more of the same.
Kevin Hervey poured in 23 points and 9 rebounds, and UT Arlington shot 54 percent from the field in rolling BYU to its first home loss of the season, 89-75 Saturday night in the Marriott Center.
Erick Neal added 21 points and 10 assists for the Mavericks (2-0), who drained 12 3-pointers in a rematch of last March’s NIT game in Provo. Nathan Hawkins supplied 11 points for UT Arlington.
"This team is good — it’s a really good team and a good test for us," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "They had us pretty good. But the kids kept fighting, we closed it a little bit, but we’ve got a lot to do.
"A lot of possessions, we did everything exactly right — and then they just had a guy jump up and make a shot. They were good."
Elijah Bryant scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the first half for BYU (2-1), and Yoeli Childs supplied 12 points and five rebounds for the Cougars.
Dalton Nixon supplied a career-high 15 points and eight rebounds for BYU, which got 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists from TJ Haws. Nixon, who had just two points in the first half, knocked down 5-of-6 field goals in 19 minutes off the bench for his career night.
After falling behind 8-2 to start, the Mavericks went on an 8-0 spurt to ty the game at 10-10 on a 3-pointer by Neal at the 14:44 mark. UT Arlington then took advantage of BYU’s nearly-four-minute scoring drought to go ahead 27-17 on Hervey’s jumper with 5:56 left in the half.
"We came out with a really good mindset and a really positive attitude," Rose said. "But as the game went on, it was hard for us. We needed to get more stops and more scores, and we had a hard time getting that ball in the basket."
The Cougars went seven minutes without a make from the field until Dalton Nixon put in a layup with 4:01 left in the half. By then, the Mavs led 32-19 as Hervey hit double-figures in scoring.
"He's really long, and a really good shooter and really good off the bounce," Nixon said. "That team uses him really well to dribble drive and find him in open spots where he would work.
"There were times when we were in the right position, but they hit some really tough shots tonight."
In all, the Mavericks knocked down six first-half 3-pointers, shot 55 percent from the field, and used a 20-4 run in the first half to bury the Cougars, 43-28 at halftime.
"They just hit shots, and we didn't," said Bryant, who was 1-of-9 from 3-point range. "We shot horrible from the 3-point line. They executed their stuff really well, and they are a really good team."
Nathan Hawkins knocked down his third 3-pointer of the game to give the Mav a 20-point lead, 54-34 with about five minutes into the second half.
The Cougars cut it close late, with Nixon leading the charge and Payton Dastrup added eight points, including a pair of late 3-pointers that trimmed BYU’s deficit to as low as 10 points.
But it was too little, too late in the Cougars’ first home loss of the 2017-18 season.
"They've got three pros on their team, and that's an NCAA (Tournament) team," Bryant said. "We would guard their stuff, and hit a big one, but we've still got to come more prepared on defense."
