STATS | NOTES | QUOTES | PHOTOS | ABOUT CHATTANOOGA BASKETBALL
 
CHATTANOOGA---The Chattanooga Mocs cruised to a 79-45 win over Bryan Friday afternoon in the Roundhouse. The win send the squad into the holiday break on a high note before returning to full-time Southern Conference action in a little over a week.
 
Kevin Easley led the way with 17 points and nine rebounds. Jerry Johnson, Jr., and Ramon Vila each had 12, while Donovann Toatley and Thomas Smallwood chipped in 11 and 10, respectively. E.J. Bush led the Lions with 14 points and nine boards tying Easley for game-high honors.
 
Brandon Thomas's layup with 5:01 remaining in the first half had the Lions thinking upset cutting the home squad's lead to nine, 32-23. But the Mocs had other ideas, specifically defensively. They kept Bryan off the scoreboard for 11 straight possessions extending the lead to 20, 43-23, on back-to-back Easley layups at the start of the second half.
 
The Lions battled back to get within 13, 47-34, on a Bush mid-range jumper at 12:25. The Mocs just stayed solid offensively. They score six of the next seven trips down the floor to almost double the lead to 63-39 on Smallwood's lay-in with 8:36 to play.
 
The margin reached 30-plus on Jonathan Scott's layup off a nice feed from David Jean-Baptiste with 3:17 to go. The largest lead of 35 also came on a Scott basket as his layup made it 79-44 with 1:28 to play.
 
"I think we did a good job (defensively)," Coach Lamont Paris shared in the post-game press conference. "I think we had 10 straight possessions at the end of the first half where they didn't score. Even though I wasn't pleased on some things, we were able to at least do that at the end of the half and that was good.
 
"Our defense has been feast or feminine all season as far as just pure points on the board," he continued. "We've had really good halves, and we had halves where we'd like to forget. It doesn't matter who you play, if you're defending, you're defending.
 
"You have to finish it off with rebounds and I think we did a decent job of that. I'm just happy overall."
 
This ends the Mocs pre-holiday and non-conference schedules. Next up is a 3-game road trip to return to SoCon play. Chattanooga heads to UNCG on Saturday, Dec. 29, followed by a weekend jaunt to Western Carolina (Jan. 3) and ETSU (Jan. 5).
 
They return to the Roundhouse on Saturday, Jan. 12 with a visit from Samford. Tickets are available on GoMocs.com or by calling (423) 266-MOCS (6627).
 
RECORDS
Chattanooga 6-8 | Bryan 6-8
 
SERIES
12-1 series lead…6-0 at home.
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW
Check out the full complement of notes at the link above.

• This is the 13th meeting between the schools separated by less than 40 miles. It's an "old-school" matchup. All 12 prior battles came in the 1960s with the last coming in the 1968-69 campaign.
• 45 points allowed today are the fewest against the Mocs since March 1, 2014 when App State managed 44 in the final regular season game of 2013-14.
• The Mocs are 44 of 76 (57.9%) over the last two games INSIDE the arc. That's one more field goal than UT Martin (24) and Bryan (19) managed overall.

 
3 STATS TO KNOW
Check out the full stats at the link above.

• Five Mocs reached double digits today – Kevin Easley 17, Ramon Vila 12, Jerry Johnson 12, Donovann Toatley 11 & Thomas Smallwood 10 – which is the second time this season five or more topped double figures in a contest (at Georgia State).
• Second straight game shooting 50 percent or better making 32 of 62 today (51.6%). The squad's shot 50.8 percent (63-124) over that span.
• 11 3pt made (47.2%, 23 att.) marks the fifth time in the last six contests that the Mocs hit 11 or more beyond the arc.

 
QUOTABLE
Check out all of what we heard at the quotes link above.
"It's great to have him back, and we need him in the post. It's a level of experience you gain from him playing internationally and playing at Arizona State for a year while getting good minutes. It's a level of experience we needed, and it's done a lot of good for us. He has a lot of unselfishness to him and that's something we try to go for as a whole unit. The more unselfishness guys you can put in, the better it is for everyone." – Grad student Thomas Smallwood on addition of Ramon Vila to post rotation.
 
"Today, the clear advantage for our team was to play in the post and we just took advantage of it. It's going to help us raise our confidence and be able to help the team in the future." – Sophomore Ramon Vila on the squad's post play today.
 
DRIVE FOR 25
The Mocs Club began its "Drive for 25" campaign recently. It aims to raise $25,000 in scholarship funds for UTC student-athletes to which an anonymous donor has generously agreed to match. There is also a "Drive for 25" raffle. For each gift at the below giving levels, donors will automatically be entered into drawing for the Mocs Club Raffle:
$250 and above donors: Official UTC gear (2 winners)
$500 and above donors: Signed Terrell Owens football (2 winners)
$1,000 and above donors: 2 courtside seats to a mutually agreed upon home basketball game (2 winners)
$2,500 and above donors: Official UTC Helmet (1 winner)
$5,000 and above donors: Accompany the UTC Men's Basketball team to one mutually agreed upon away game
 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Saturday, Dec. 29: at UNCG, 5 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 3: at Western Carolina, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 5: at ETSU, 4 p.m.
 
GOMOCS.COM IN A WORD FEATURE SERIES
David Jean-Baptiste – Engaged
Thomas Smallwood – Dad
Rod Johnson – Mayor
Kevin Easley – Goofy
Justin Brown – Waffle
Jerry Johnson, Jr. – Buckets
Jonathan Scott – Energy
Keigan Kerby – Hair
Duane Moss – Dwight
Ramon Vila – Everyman  
 
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