UTC men’s winning streak ends vs. hot-shooting UNCG
Solid individual performances by Jamal Johnson and Demetrius Davis weren’t enough to keep the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from getting cut by a basketball buzzsaw Saturday afternoon at McKenzie Arena.
Johnson totaled 28 points and Davis added 20 as each was 8-for-14 (57%) from the field, but they were the only UTC scorers in double figures against UNC Greensboro, which shot 56% and won the Southern Conference matchup 93-76 to halt the Mocs’ winning streak at three games.
UTC (15-14, 7-9) fell into fifth in the SoCon standings with the loss. The Mocs are tied with Wofford, which defeated The Citadel 72-68 on Saturday and currently holds the seeding tiebreaker for the league tournament with one week remaining in the regular season.
The Mocs host firstplace Samford (20-9, 14-2) — a 96-61 winner over Virginia Military Institute on Saturday — at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Three days later, they’ll visit Wofford (15-14, 7-9) to close the regular season.
The Spartans (19-10, 13-3) had a size advantage at every position on the court Saturday, presenting a bad matchup for the home team. UNCG dominated every aspect of the game, outrebounding UTC 40-28 and forcing just 12 turnovers but probably more bad, contested shots by the Mocs.
UTC was just 41% from the field and had 14 points in the paint — 22 fewer than UNGCG — with most of the production coming from Johnson, who was 6-for-11 from 3-point range, and Davis, who has been up and down all season but had 16 of his career-high 20 points in the second half before fouling out with 5:29 to play. Johnson had 18 first-half points.
The rest of the team shot just 10-of-35 from the field.
The Spartans, who also beat the Mocs 73-61 in
early January, had four scorers in double figures: Bas Leyte (16 points), Keyshaun Langley (15), Kobe Langley (15) and Keondre Kennedy (13).
“Offensively, they just seemed to kind of go where they wanted, and we didn’t put up much of a fight,” UTC coach Dan Earl said. “We had a couple of guys make shots, but other guys struggled.”
Foul trouble didn’t help the Mocs, who have been without injured 7-footer Jake Stephens for the past nine games.
His absence is bad enough because he’s talented — the SoCon player of the week six times this season — but that also leaves UTC with just three players who stand at least 6-7: Davis, KC Hankton, who finished with eight points but was limited to 17 minutes due to three first-half fouls, and freshman Sam Alexis, who had a team-high nine rebounds to go with four points and three assists before fouling out with 2:13 left.
If you can’t hit shots and you’re already at a disadvantage on the other end, it’s going to be a long day.
“Yeah, it’s hard,” Johnson said. “They’re a physical team, so all credit to them, but we’ve got to do a better job. Everybody has to step up and guard, especially me, and help our bigs out and get some rebounds.
“A lot of people were off today, but we’re going to bounce back from that and be ready for the next game shortly.”