STATS | NOTES | QUOTES | ABOUT CHATTANOOGA BASKETBALL
 
BIRMINGHAM---Jerry Johnson, Jr., tied his collegiate career high with 26 points in an 80-76 overtime loss at Samford. Johnson's eight 3pt made is one less than the school record.
 
Kevin Easley added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Mocs. Thomas Smallwood had 12 points off the bench, while David Jean-Baptiste scored 11. Josh Sharkey led Samford with 27 points. Ruben Guerrero chipped in 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
 
Jena-Baptiste's jumper in the lane with 1:34 to go gave the Mocs a three-point cushion, 67-64. While the defense made four straight stops, Ramon Vila made it a two-possession game hitting one of two free throws with 47 seconds to play.
 
Sharkey broke the scoring drought five seconds later cutting the lead to two, 68-66. Samford entered the final minute with just four team fouls so it fouled three straight times finally sending Vila to the line with 27 seconds on the clock.
 
He missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Jean-Baptiste stepped into Sharkey's throwing lane on a drive-and-kick for the steal. He was quickly fouled and missed the front end as well. Sharkey got fouled with 8.4 seconds left. He made one of two as the Mocs clung to the 68-67 advantage.
 
The ball got loose on the inbounds and ended up in Sharkey's hands. Robert Allen missed the free throw but the clock reached 1.1 seconds, a foul was called on Myron Gordon's prayer on the baseline. The 86.1 percent free throw shooter made the first but rimmed out the second to send it to overtime.
 
"When you feel like you had the game, it takes a couple of things," Coach Lamont Paris shared. "One, you have to play. You have to come out there and just make shots, then it doesn't matter. Or you have to really know, be veteran, or experienced or confident enough that we can wipe away that we just gave the game away, and we have to play five more minutes. 
 
"That is hard to do. To do it, you have to fake like you are excited about overtime. We should have been excited about overtime. The guy missed one free throw. If he makes both, we have to go the full length of the court down one with 1.whatever seconds left.  We were fortunate to get into overtime."
 
Sharkey and Gordon scored on the Bulldogs first two possessions for the early lead. Johnson cut it to one, 72-71, with his seventh three of the game. Sharkey and Jean-Baptiste traded baskets as the clock ticked inside a minute and Samford up three. Free throws by Guerrero came before another Johnson three with 37 seconds left.
 
The Mocs chose to defend down two. Allen missed a jumper and in the scrum for the ball, it rolled out of bound with 2.2 ticks remaining. The initial call was Samford ball. The replay appeared to show the ball was out off of Allen going through Jonathan Scott's legs without touching. But there was not conclusive evidence in the only angles afforded the officials so the call stood. Starkey hit two free throws after the inbounds for the final tally of 80-76.
 
Chattanooga and Samford are tied in fifth-place in the league at 6-8. Wofford (15-0) is in first ahead of UNCG (11-3), ETSU (11-4) and Furman (11-4). Mercer (4-10) is seventh followed by Western Carolina (4-11), The Citadel (3-11) and VMI (1-13).
 
The Mocs stay on the road next weekend traveling to The Citadel Thursday and on to Mercer for a late Saturday afternoon matchup. Thursday's game time in Charleston is 7 p.m., on ESPN3, 96.1 FM in Chattanooga as well as online at GoMocs.com and the TuneIn app.
 
RECORDS
Chattanooga 11-16/6-8 | Samford 16-11/6-8
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW
Check out the full complement of notes at the link above.

• 99th meeting between Chattanooga and Samford…most frequent opponent in school history…60 series wins over the Bulldogs is third all-time behind 66 against Western Carolina and 64 vs. The Citadel.
• Jerry Johnson, Jr.'s eight three-pointers made ties for the third most in school history...ninth time a Moc has made eight…Omar Wattad was the last to do it on Jan. 13, 2011...record of nine was set by Chattanooga native Wes Moore against Wofford on Nov. 15, 1997....matched by Stephen McDowell against Niagara in the championship game of the 2008 Dr Pepper Classic on Dec. 30.
• Kevin Easley tied the freshman record for points in a season with 398…that matches Keith Parker's effort in 1977-78…Mocs played the last 4:29 of regulation and all five minutes of OT without Easley due to a lower-body injury.

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

• +5 rebound margin today with 45 compared to 40 for Samford…14 on the offensive glass led to a 15-5 advantage in second chance points.
• +12 scoring advantage at the free throw line for the Bulldogs…they made 18 of 25 (72.0%) vs. six of 12 (50.0%) for the visitors.
• Samford shot 43.9 percent (25-57) in regulation but 80 percent (4-5) in overtime…Chattanooga shot 37.5 percent (3-8) in the extra period, 39.7 percent (29-73) overall…0-4 this year shooting less than 40 percent, 1-13 the last two seasons.

 
QUOTABLE
Check out all of what we heard at the quotes link above.
"A lot of things. The free throws down the stretch. You have to rise in certain moments on some things and any one thing would have been able to do it for us. Including just getting the ball inbounds and being strong. You have to make some plays, and we didn't make any plays. The body of work was what it was, but at the end we missed two front-ends of one-and-ones in game-winning time." – Coach Lamont Paris on close plays that impacted the game.
 
SOCON SCOREBOARD
at Western Carolina 103, The Citadel 82
at ETSU 88, Mercer 69
at Furman 96, VMI 62
at Wofford 80, UNCG 50
 
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Feb. 21 at The Citadel, 7 p.m.
Feb. 23 at Mercer, 4 p.m.
Feb. 28 vs. Wofford, 7 p.m.
 
SOCON TOURNAMENT TICKETS
The Ingles Southern Conference Tournament Presented by General Shale is March 8-11 in Asheville, N.C. Tickets are available here on GoMocs.com as well as the Gate 1 Ticket Office at McKenzie Arena. Chattanooga Tournament Headquarters is at the Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park.
 
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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