UTA's season came to an end - barring a surprise selection to the NIT - with a 64-55 loss to New Mexico State in the WAC Championship game, sending New Mexico State to the NCAA Tournament.
UTA likely finished its season at 19-13, just missing its fourth 20 win season in the program's history.
It also struck a surprising blow to the state, as not one school from Texas will be in the field of 68 getting into the NCAAs. UTA went into the game, which started at 10 pm Texas time, as the last school from the state with a chance to get in.
The Mavericks split the two games in the regular season with the Aggies, winning the opener at College Park Center 68-47 and losing the finale in Las Cruces 69-66.
But in the third game, they didn't have an answer for the combination of Sim Bhullar and Daniel Mullings. Both led the Aggies with 16 points, while Bhullar, despite looking traditionally sluggish at times, still managed to pull down 15 rebounds on his way to being maned the tournament MVP.
The Mavs fell into an early hole by going scoreless for the first four minutes, but came back to lead with 10 1/2 minutes to go in the first half and only trailed 32-30 at halftime.
But the tide seemed to turn for good with a debatable call with 8:36 to go.With the Mavs trailing 51-45, Karol Gruszecki drove for a shot and drew contact, but the officials waved off the basket and called him for a charge, fouling him out of the game.
UTA would get to within three points a couple of times after that but no closer.
The Mavericks dropped to 1-3 all time in conference championship games, with their only win coming back in 2008.
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