NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Erick Neal scored 37 points, Kevin Hervey added 17 and UT Arlington raced past Appalachian State 84-68 on Friday, advancing to the Sun Belt semifinals.

UT Arlington (20-12), the No. 4 seed, takes on top-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette (27-5) on Saturday. The Mavericks lost twice to Louisiana-Lafayette in the regular season.

The Mavericks led all the way, built a double-digit lead by the midpoint of the first half and held a 43-31 lead on Appalachian State by the break.

Neal was 13 of 18 from the floor, making six of eight 3-point shots, and sank all five free throws as well. Neal scored 13 in the opening 20 minutes, while Appalachian State shot 33 percent for the half and 34 percent for the game (23 of 68). The Mountaineers were just 2 of 22 from distance.

Griffin Kinney scored 22 points to lead No. 5 seed Appalachian State (15-18). Justin Forrest added 17.

UTA Notes
• Erick Neal was perfect from the field through the first 14:53 of the game, scoring 24 points on nine attempts (five of which came from behind the arc) as well as one free throw.
• With his two steals, Erick Neal now ties Ronnell Peters for the fourth most steals in program history.
• Erik Neal averaged one point a minute. scored 20 of UTA’s 27 points during a first half 27-11 run that lasted over seven minutes
• Erik Neal scored a combined 102 points in three games against the Mountaineers which accounted for just less than 20 percent of his season total.
• Since their 81-90 loss to Creighton on December 18, UTA is 10-0 when they have a better field goal percentage than their opponent.
• The Mavericks are 13-1 when they score 80 or more points and haven’t lost a game in 2018 when they’ve done so (9-0).

Appalachian State Notes
• With his second field goal at the 14:26 mark in the first half, Ronshad Shabazz surpassed Donald Simms for the ninth most made field goals in a single season.
• Griffin Kinney’s 22 points was his second 20-point game of the season.
• Appalachian shot a season-low 13.6 percent (3-22) from behind the arc.
• Despite securing nine more rebounds than the Mavericks (42-33), the Mountaineers ended the season 11-11 when they out-rebound their opponent.

Appalachian State Quotes

Head Coach Jim Fox

Opening Statement:
“Congratulations to Arlington, I thought they played very well.  Neal was incredible that first half.  It really put us on our heels and affected our game offensively.  You start trying to hit home runs, and when you try to hit home runs against a team like that, they make you pay.  I’m extremely proud of our guys.”

Despite the hot start by Arlington, you were just down by 12 at the break.  What did you tell your team?
“We had the shot at the end of the half and we executed pretty well.  Griffin (Kinney) took the three, and we had a little more time than he thought we did, but we knew we were right there.  When you do that, you can’t hope that they miss.  You have to make them miss; and they didn’t miss too often.  Our guys believed we were right in it and we had come back in a couple of games in the league before, so we had great belief coming out of the locker room.  They are a really good team – they were picked first at the beginning of the year for a reason and they have great players.  You are looking at a team in us that was picked last or next to last, and that wasn’t even close.  So I am proud of our team and the way they competed. ”

At the end of the first half you started to double-team Neal, and it worked.  Why did you stray away from that?
“We double-teamed him a lot in the first half, and in the second half.  Right in front of me at the end of the first half, there were two guys on him and he pulled up and made a 25-footer.  I’ll be interested to see the film and see if we made mistakes where he made us pay.  Sometimes the operation is a success and the patient still dies, and he’s a heck of a player.  And he’s probably ticked off that he got second-team all-league, and he made us pay for it.”

UTA Quotes

Head Coach Scott Cross

Opening Statement:
“I was really proud of our guys. I felt like we played a really good all-around game. We watched App State the day before yesterday and we knew from the way they played, the way they shot the basketball, that we were going to have to play great defensively. I think outside of the offensive rebounds that we gave up we played outstanding on the defensive end of the floor. Erick Neal had one of his best offensive games, but more importantly I think it was one of his best defensive games. He was guarding, in my opinion, a top five player in the league and he made it very difficult for Shabazz to get shots off. It just shows his competitiveness and I’m proud of these guys. Kevin did a great job of feeding Erick the ball when he was hot and telling me to run things for him. That shows their teamwork and selflessness and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I think the sky is the limit with this group and as long as they play together great things will happen.”

On the speed of the game:
“I think our guys knew that the level of intensity increases conference tournament time. Before the game we wanted to make sure we were the one who set the tone in terms of toughness and intensity. It was one of our better defensive games. It starts with Erick. You could tell he had that look in his eyes that he was going to play great defensively. Then the ball started dropping for him and once he gets in the zone he can shoot it as good as anybody in the country. It’s a testament to our guys. None of them got selfish. They kept giving him the ball. It’s also a testament to Erick. When he started missing some then we started going back to Kevin and Kaelon, and getting the ball where it needed to go. Our guys played the right way and I’m proud of them on both ends.”

On defensively taking away to three:
“Taking away the three is our defense in general. Unfortunately, at times teams do get the three-point shot off on us because we do gap it and try to keep them out of the paint. App State is a great three-point shooting team. They shot it extremely well in their first round game. And they did it against us a couple times this year. In both games they shot the ball really well. We just wanted to make sure everything was contested. Even in the first few minutes of the game, they hit a couple of shots that were contested. But over the course of time if you make them shoot tough contested shots, they’re eventually going to miss it. So our guys stuck to it. They didn’t panic. They kept defending and were able to get the stops down the stretch.”

Senior Guard Erick Neal

On playing harder for the tournament:
“We’re seniors so we know what it takes. We’ve fallen short every year and we’re not trying to do that this year. It’s our last go around and we’re trying to make it to the big dance.”

Senior Forward Kevin Hervey

On limiting turnovers:
“It’s a testament to the guy sitting next to me [Erick Neal]. He took great care of the ball today and he was hot. We kept giving it to him and just rode him to the win today. He played an excellent game.”

On playing harder for the tournament:
“We’re seniors. We have eight seniors. We’ve all played here before. You’ve got to raise your level of intensity when you play here. We’re just trying to play as hard and as tough as we can as coach preaches. As long as we play tough and we play hard and play defense I think the sky is the limit for us.”