The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga scored a hard-fought 68-54 win over Eastern Kentucky in the championship game of the Dr Pepper Classic at the McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tenn., tonight. With the win, the Mocs improve to 8-6 on the year while the Colonels fell to 8-5. It is the 13th Dr Pepper Classic Championship for Chattanooga.
The game was much closer than the final score would indicate, but the Mocs seemed to have the upper hand in the early stages of the game. Chattanooga came out shooting three-pointers from all over the court. Eight of the Mocs first 10 shots were from long range with UTC hitting six of 20 (30.0%) in the first 20 minutes.
Leading 11-9 at the 12:38 mark, Chattanooga went on a 13-0 run over the next seven minutes to stretch the first half lead to 15. Senior Ty Patterson scored the last five points in that run and finished the first half with 13.
Chattanooga was up 30-15 with four minutes left in the period before EKU went on a tear to get back into the ball game. For the rest of the first period and the first seven minutes of the second half, the Colonels outscored UTC 23-7. Justin Stommes 3-pointer at 13:08 gave Eastern Kentucky a 38-37 lead.
The game stayed close for the next few minutes as Papa Oppong's three-pointer tied the score a 43 with 10:26 left for EKU. Patterson answered with a layup and sophomore Keegan Bell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to help UTC pull away. Each of Bell's threes in this stretch were from 5-6 feet behind the 3-point line.
EKU cut the lead to four, 55-51, with 4:47 left on a 3-pt. FG from Joshua Jones. However, the Colonels would only get one more field goal the rest of the way as the Mocs outscored 13-3 to close out the game.
Patterson earned Dr Pepper Classic MVP honors with his first career double-double tonight. He finished with a season-high 22 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. His two-game totals were 30 points 16 rebounds, 10 assists and no turnovers.
Bell also made the all-tournament team, scoring 20 points and a game-high six assists. He went 6-10 from behind the 3-point line, tying his career-high from most 3-pt. FGs in a game. Also on the all-tournament team were Jones and Stommes from EKU, Morgan State's Reggie Holmes and Long Island's Kyle Johnson.
Stommes finished with 14 points, but shot just 4-14 from the field. Jones added 12 points in the loss.
Morgan State won the consolation game earlier in the evening, defeating Long Island 87-70. Kevin Thompson led the Bears with 13 points and 17 rebounds. Holmes added 23 points as MSU improved to 8-5.
The Mocs will take a week off and be back in action on Jan. 6 when they travel to Georgia Southern. UTC will be looking to even their SoCon record when they visit the Eagles in Statesboro, Ga., with a 7:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) tipoff.
Catch all of the Mocs' action on ESPN Radio 105.1 FM with the Voice of the Mocs, Jim Reynolds, providing play-by-play. Live stats and live audio is also available on GoMocs.com.
