Azle grad’s career-best effort propels UT Arlington past BYU in NIT

A spot-up shooter in the backcourt is something every team hoping to make a postseason run needs. Preferably one with enough experience or enough headstrong confidence not to wither in the big moment.

For UT Arlington, enter Drew Charles.

A year ago, the heady guard from Azle notched one of the best games of his career, scoring 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting in a 75-59 victory at Savannah State in the College Invitational Tournament opener.

On Wednesday, with the end of his basketball career looming, the fifth-year senior was everywhere, going 10-of-17, including five 3-pointers, for a team-high 28 points in the Mavs’ 105-89 win over BYU to extend the basketball calendar at least one more game.

“I’m just kind of an all-or-nothing type dude — play for keeps,” Charles said. “Playing that game, knowing it could have been the last time I put on a UTA jersey, motivated me somehow.”

The Mavericks, 26-8 and a sixth seed in their quadrant, will host No. 7 seed Akron (27-8) at 7 p.m. Monday at the College Park Center. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

By executing about as well as the team has all season, Charles and the Mavericks earned one more dose of love from a home crowd, another chance to play and delay the harsh realities of the end of a season and of careers.

UTA shot 63.4 percent from the field in the first half and 55.5 percent for the game, and limited BYU big man Eric Mika to six points in the second half after he scored 23 in the game’s first 20 minutes.

“We gave Jorge [Bilbao] a little bit of help off their third-best shooter,” UTA coach Scott Cross said. “That’s how we were able to contain him a little better in the second half.”

The Cougars never really found an answer for the 6-foot-2 Charles, though.

“Erick [Neal] looked at me and said, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to keep shooting,’ ” Charles said. “When your point guard has trust in me like that, and never hesitated to get it to me for my third shot, and you see that one and the next couple start to fall, you start thinking, ‘OK, this may be my night.’ ”

UTA struggled to keep its shooters involved in the Mavericks’ 83-62 loss to Texas State in the Sun Belt semifinals.

“That’s one of the things I regretted from that loss, not getting [Charles] more shots,” Cross said. “We have a couple wrinkles in the offense where we can get him shots. We need to use them, even if the team is struggling offensively, because he’s one of those guys with ice in his veins.”

Neal, a junior out of Dallas Lincoln, also had a career night against BYU. But on a late night with gaudy offensive numbers and three Mavericks scoring more than 20 points, Neal’s 13 assists kept the UTA machine humming.

WEDNESDAY’S LATE BOX

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Azle grad’s career-best effort propels UT Arlington past BYU in NIT."