UTA Mavericks hold off Bradley on road for eighth straight victory

The UT Arlington men’s basketball team overcame a cold shooting night with stout defense at Carver Arena to defeat the Bradley Braves 56-51 on Friday night.

Junior forward Kevin Hervey scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, one short of his career high, to lead the Mavericks to their eighth straight victory. Bradley fell to 5-6.

Junior point guard Erick Neal scored 13 points and had five assists for UTA, which shot only 33.3 percent (17 of 51) from the field and 23.1 percent (6 of 26) on 3-point attempts.

Bradley, however, made only 16.7 percent on 3s and 33.9 percent overall (19 of 56) from the field. Sophomore guard Antoine Pittman led Bradley with 14 points.

Hervey’s jumper with 14 seconds left gave UTA its five-point margin. The Mavs had taken a 50-42 lead with 4:16 left on Jalen Jones’ 3-pointer, 28 seconds after Neal’s 3-point play on a layup put UTA up 46-42.

UTA raced to a 12-0 lead, holding Bradley scoreless for the first 7:38 of the game. But the Braves answered with on a 16-3 run. UTA led 31-24 at halftime.

The Mavs play their final nonconference game of the regular season Thursday when at Loyola Marymount.

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 9:16 PM with the headline "UTA Mavericks hold off Bradley on road for eighth straight victory."