Paris pleased as depth does the job inside
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team posted its fifth consecutive win Saturday, defeating The Citadel 75-62 in Charleston, South Carolina, to remain atop the Southern Conference standings at the midway point of the league schedule.
The Mocs (18-4, 8-1) next face Samford (13-8, 3-6) at 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama, before back-to-back games against Mercer. UTC will host the Bears next Saturday at McKenzie Arena —ESPNU will televise the midday matchup — and the teams will meet again two days later in Macon, Georgia, in a game rescheduled from Jan. 1.
At The Citadel (9-11, 3-6), Malachi Smith led UTC with 19 points, adding eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Darius Banks had 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while David Jean-Baptiste scored 12.
Silvio De Sousa was riddled with foul trouble and fouled out in 10 minutes with just a pair of points and four rebounds, but forwards Avery Diggs (10 points, three rebounds and three assists) and Josh Ayeni (eight points) more than picked up the slack.
“I’ve said this once before, and I stick by it. I meant it then, and I’d say it to the end of the season: Either or both those guys (Ayeni and Diggs) are starters,” UTC coach Lamont Paris said on a postgame Zoom call. “Josh did just start every game for us last year, and Avery is a starting center, so they’ve been great about the role that they are in and attacking that position by committee with all three of those guys, but I feel extremely confident with those guys going in when they have to play or when I play them.
“It’s a great thing. Normally the depth at that position for a team at this level is a severe drop-off, and we don’t have that.”
The Mocs led for 90% of the game, taking an eight-point lead into the locker room at intermission and leading by as much as 19 in the second half to complete a season series sweep of the Bulldogs, who were paced by Tyler Moffe (21 points) and Stephen Clark (13 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, three blocks).