UTC men keep on rolling
UTC’s Darius Banks drives past Western Carolina’s Ahmir Langlais for a basket Thursday night at McKenzie Arena. The Mocs rallied to an 89-81 overtime victory for their sixth win in a row and a sweep of the season series.
Stefan Kenic was amazing Wednesday night.
The rest of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team was equal parts horrendous, lackadaisical — and amazing when it needed to be.
And the Mocs’ winning streak is still alive.
UTC forced overtime against Western Carolina with a 12-0 run to end regulation play at McKenzie Arena, then after falling behind by four in overtime, the home team finished the period with a 12-0 run to win 89-81, sweep the Southern Conference season series with the Catamounts and push its streak of victories to six.
UTC (18-5, 9-5) is a game out of first place with four games left in league play, with an important matchup at first-place UNC Greensboro (15-7, 10-4) set for 5 p.m. Saturday.
Kenic, a 6-foot-9, 223-pound senior forward, was a UTC-record 7-for-7 from 3-point range and finished with a careerhigh 29 points. Malachi Smith added 20 points, including a game-clinching dunk in the final moments after a steal, and grabbed seven rebounds and four steals. David Jean-Baptiste and Darius Banks added 12 points each — Jean-Baptiste with seven steals — and K.C. Hankton had 12 rebounds for UTC.
For the Catamounts (9-13, 2-11), the leading scorers were Cory Hightower (19 points), Brad Halvorsen (17), Sin’cere McMahom (15) and Xavier Cork (14), who had 12 rebounds, two blocks and two assists.
MOCS STAR
Kenic was on fire on offense, but he also defended well and grabbed six rebounds in just 27 minutes.
KEY STAT
The Mocs — who had defended well during the streak but struggled Wednesday — held the Catamounts to six points over the final 9:09, which included overtime.
TURNING POINT
The consecutive 3s in OT made by Kenic and Hankton, who finished with seven points, turned a four-point deficit into a two-point advantage with 1:36 to play, and that was followed with a layup by Smith and a steal and a dunk by the 6-foot4 sophomore guard to put the game away.
FINAL THOUGHT
From an excitement standpoint, Wednesday was everything the Mocs and their fans would want. But from an execution standpoint, the Mocs definitely want to improve on the performance, because UNCG won’t allow them to get back in it like a young Catamounts team missing its best player – preseason firstteam All-SoCon selection and leading scorer Mason Faulkner wasn’t available — did Wednesday night.