(St. George, Utah - Jan. 9, 2025) - Powered by a season-high 15 three pointers, the Trailblazers defeated UT Arlington, 74-62 to open WAC play on Thursday night at Burns Arena.

"We played really hard. We fought through it and we got stops when we needed to and we said all week, compete, compete, compete and tonight we did that," head coach Jon Judkins said after the victory.

Utah Tech (5-11, 1-0 WAC) was led by a season-high 24 points from Noa Gonsalves. The senior guard, who matched his career high with his performance, went 6-of-8 from three-point land, sank all four of his free throw attempts and added three assists.

"It is great to start WAC play with a win, we'll enjoy this tonight and get ready to go for Saturday against Tarleton," added Gonsalves. 

In addition, Gonsalves along with senior guard Hakim Byrd each passed the 1,000 career point mark on Thursday as Byrd finished with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Justin Bieker made it three Trailblazers in double figures chipping in 12 points, six rebounds and an assist in a season-high 37 minutes of action.

UT Arlington (7-9, 0-2 WAC) was led in scoring by Jaden Wells with 14 points while also getting double figures from Raysean Seamster (11 points) and Brody Robinson (10 points).

How It Happened
The Trailblazers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a layup by Beon Riley and never looked back in the opening 20 minutes.

Leading 16-15 after the first nine minutes of action, back-to-back three-pointers by Byrd and Bieker extended UT's lead to 22-15. The Mavericks roared back with a 7-0 run to knot the game at 22 after a layup with 8:39 to play.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Byrd, the second of which notched his 1,000 career collegiate point, and a pair of free throws by Bieker put the Trailblazers ahead 30-22.

Two more three's, one from Unisa Turay and one from Gonsalves, finished out the first half as the Trailblazers took a 40-27 lead to the break.

The second half saw the Trailblazers race out to a 55-38 lead after back-to-back treys from Gonsalves and kept leading by 17 (64-47) with 7:39 to play.

An 8-0 run for UTA over the next four minutes of action brought the Mavs within nine, but two more three-pointers from Byrd pushed the Trailblazers back in front, 70-57 with 1:24 to go as UT went on to win by 12.

Numbers to Know

• It was Utah Tech's first-ever win over UT Arlington in their fourth meeting against the Mavericks.
• Utah Tech won its WAC opener for a third straight season.
• The Trailblazers finished 15-of-26 from three-point range as the 15 made three pointers were a season high and the third-most in a single game in program history trailing only 21 vs. SAGU American Indian College (Dec. 15, 2021) and 16 vs. Denver (Dec. 11, 2021).
• The 57.7 percent shooting from deep was a season high and fifth-best in a single game in program history.
• Gonsalves tied his career high with 24 points set in a 89-76 win over New Mexico State on Jan. 21, 2023.
• Bieker reached double figures for the seventh time and it was Byrd's third such game this season.
• The Trailblazers shot 42.1 percent (24-57) from the field and 73.3 percent (11-15) from the free throw line and led the Mavericks in rebounds (38-34), assists (17-8) and second chance points (18-8).
• The Mavericks only committed 12 fouls to match a season-low for a Trailblazer opponent as Montana & Whittier also only committed 12 fouls.

What's Next
The Trailblazers are back in action on Saturday night hosting Tarleton State (7-10, 2-0 WAC) at 7 p.m. at Burns Arena.