Hot-shooting Panthers pound the Mocs, 71-48
Lamont Paris is used to seeing a fight in his team that no margin is big enough to overcome. He didn’t see that from his players Saturday.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team fell way behind early in an eventual 71-48 loss to Georgia State at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs, who trailed all but 40 seconds in the game, finished the nonconference portion of their schedule 6-7. They have a trip to Samford to start Southern Conference play this Saturday.
The Panthers used an 18-2 run midway through the first half to assume control of the game, led by hot shooting and solid defense. The Mocs shot 30 percent from the field for the game, and it took a 42 percent second half to reach that level. UTC was 5-for-27 from the floor in the first half against a unique defense that was continually trapping and causing confusion.
As the game wore on, fatigue may have played a factor as well. In the Mocs’ 70-67 victory at Jacksonville State on Thursday, all five starters played at least 35 minutes, and shots that normally are makable looks were just off against the Panthers.
“That’s going to happen from time to time,” said UTC junior Nat Dixon, a bright spot with 18 points. “We need to learn to fall back on our defensive effort when the ball isn’t going in.”
But the defense was off as well. Georgia State shot 59 percent from the field in building a 33-15 halftime lead, then started the second half with a 17-3 run to blow the game wide open.
The Panthers shot 62 percent in the second half. All game long they attacked the interior, scoring 40 points in the paint and making 29 of their 39 shots (74 percent) from inside 3-point range. Guard D’Marcus Simonds had 21 points, six rebounds and six assists to lead the Panthers
(9-4), who were coming off a 71-63 road win at Massachusetts — coached by former UTC coach Matt McCall.
Jordan Sessions was 5-for-6 from the field for his 12 points, while Jeff Thomas had 11.
Makinde London was the second-leading scorer for the Mocs, with eight points and nine rebounds. James Lewis and Makale Foreman each scored seven, but Lewis — the Mocs’ fifth leading scorer and second-leading rebounder for the season — went out with an injury with 13:07 to play.
Lewis returned to the bench later with an ice pack on his shoulder. The Mocs already are playing without freshman forwards Justin Brown and Duane
Moss, who are out with injuries, and senior Joshua Phillips, who joined the team after football season but has missed the past three games due to a violation of team rules.
Rodney Chatman, who entered Saturday’s game tied with Dixon for second on the team in scoring and coming off a 14-assist game against Jacksonville State, was scoreless and had only one assist.
“I thought we didn’t play that well,” Paris said. “There was a lot of different aspects that went into it. There is the basketball side and I tried to break it down to the guys, which is making and missing shots, finishing around the basket, things that are all basketball-related.
“There are some other things that we have control over: blocking out, playing by our rules, paying attention to detail. I didn’t think we did very well in that regard. I thought one or two plays could have made it a lot more manageable in our heads. We didn’t handle a lot of different situations well today.”
After the game, the players weren’t making excuses. Not fatigue, not injuries, nothing.
“We just didn’t bring it,” London said. “That’s what it boils down to. When we compete and play hard, we can play with anybody. We have to regroup and come back ready to go to work. No casualness or relaxation, we really have to go after this. We’re a young team: There’s nothing to get too high or too low over.
“It’s a whole process, and we’re trying not to get caught up in one stage of it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.