CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team opened Southern Conference play in convincing fashion with an 81-69 win over visiting Appalachian State in McKenzie Arena Thursday night.  Chattanooga improves to 3-5, 1-0 in SoCon play, while the Mountaineers fall to 2-3, 0-1 in the league.

Junior Omar Wattad (Johnson City, Tenn.) led the Mocs with 21 points tying his career high with five three-pointers.  Fellow junior point guard Keegan Bell (Hazel Green, Ala.) dominated play with a career high of his own by dishing out 13 assists with just two turnovers.

Donald Sims led App State's effort with 28 points.  Omar Carter added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers.

The Mocs jumped out early leading by as many as eight in the first half, 17-9 at 12:52, on a Wattad three.  ASU answered scoring 10 of the next 11 points as Sims made one of two free throws to take a 19-18 lead at 9:16.  The lead see-sawed back-and-forth the rest of the half before the Mountaineers scored the last six points to take a 36-32 advantage into intermission.

Sims gave App State its biggest advantage of the game at five points, 43-38, on a three-pointer at 16:42.  That could not break the Mocs' momentum. 

Chattanooga scored on 11 straight possessions as part of a 28-12 run as the Mocs took control of the game.  UTC hit six of its 10 treys during the stretch capped by a Josh Odem (Johnson City, Tenn.) three-ball for a 62-50 lead at 10:58.

App State scored the next eight points to cut the margin to four, 62-58, as Sims made one of two free throws at 8:47.  After trading baskets, the Mocs took back momentum behind Wattad and senior center DeAntre Jefferson (Bloomington, Ill.).

Wattad hit a pair of free throws followed by a powerful Jefferson slam.  Jefferson then hit a jumper on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to 10, 70-60, with 5:40 remaining.  Two Andre Williamson free throws and a Sims trey cut it to five, but the Mocs were not to be denied.

Ricky Taylor's (Brownsville, Tenn.) three-point play extended the margin back to eight, 75-67 at 2:33.  Chris Early (Huntington, W. Va.) added a layup and two free throws to get the lead up to 10, 79-69, at 1:21.  Two Odem free throws closed the scoring and the door on an 81-69 win.

Taylor's 13 points gives him 500 for his career at Chattanooga.  He added five rebounds and two assists as he was one of five UTC players with five or more boards.

The Mocs won the battle of the boards 42-33 despite the 11 from ASU's Carter.  Early led UTC with seven boards, while Jefferson and Jahmal Burroughs (New Orleans, La.) each grabbed six.  Bell had five as well.

Early scored 13 points to go with his seven boards.  Jefferson chipped in 11 points off the bench, with 10 coming in the second half.

UTC's bench was pivotal in the win out-scoring its counterparts 24-9.  The Mocs out-scored the Mountaineers in the paint 32-26 and had 18 second-chance points on 12 offensive boards.

Defensively, Chattanooga limited ASU to 39.1 percent shooting, 34.5 percent in the second frame.  App State shot a paltry 22.6 percent from three-point range making seven of 31 attempts.

The Mocs, however, got better as the game went on.  As a team, UTC shot a season-high 48.3 percent from the floor, 51.6 percent in the decisive second half when it out-scored the Mountaineers 49-33.  The Mocs made 10 of 25 from beyond the arc, a season-high 40 percent clip.

Chattanooga hosts Western Carolina on Saturday as part of SoCon Saturday televised on SportSouth.  Game time is 1:06 p.m., and fans can access live audio and stats on GoMocs.com.  The game will also be broadcast on the Mocs Sports Network on ESPN 105.1 FM in the Chattanooga area with the "Voice of the Mocs" Jim Reynolds.