STATS | NOTES | QUOTES | PHOTOS | ABOUT CHATTANOOGA BASKETBALL
 
CHATTANOOGA---The Chattanooga Mocs dropped a 71-50 decision to visiting Furman Saturday afternoon in McKenzie Arena. The Paladins pulled away in what had been a close contest.
 
There were eight lead changes, all in the first half. Jonathan Scott's three-pointer with 3:44 before the break gave the Mocs a 25-23 advantage. Furman kept their hosts off the board scoring the last seven to take a 30-25 advantage into intermission.
 
It was still in reach when David Jean-Baptiste drove through the Paladins defense for a layup at 9:18. It marked back-to-back buckets for the sophomore from Miami cutting a 16-point deficit to 12, 49-37.
 
Four different Furman players to stretch the lead to 21, 58-37, after Noah Gurley's layup with 6:27 to go. The advantage never grew larger, but the Mocs got no closer than 16 the rest of the way.
 
It was Senior Day in McKenzie Arena as the Mocs honored graduate student Thomas Smallwood. Smallwood joined the program this summer as a grad transfer from UAB. He is slated to graduate in May with a Master's in Public Administration.
 
"We were really excited about the fact that Thomas decided to come here for his last year," Coach Lamont Paris shared. "He has meant a lot to the team. He has been a great role model in a lot of ways. One is just from a pure time management standpoint and a commitment to pursue academic excellence.
 
"His attitude," he continued. "We started off the year not sure what Justin (Brown) was going to be able to do with his back and Ramon (Vila) wasn't available until the semester break. Thomas was starting and playing a lot of minutes, then he has had some time where he didn't play much at all. A lot of it was matchups and personnel, but his response to that was a good thing for the guys to be able to see.
 
"Sometimes it is not all about you and you have to take a pill that you don't want to swallow. That is a bitter pill, but just deal with it. He has done that and been ready. When his number was called, he performed really well."
 
Paris concluded, "We are very thankful that Thomas came here. He is a great young man. He has a really bright future in whatever he decides to do. We are very fortunate to have him be around us."
 
The Mocs are back in action Saturday in Asheville in the quarterfinals of the Ingles Southern Conference Championship presented by General Shale. Their matchup depends on the outcome of the UNCG-Mercer contest played after press time. If UNCG wins, the Mocs are the five seed meeting No. 4 ETSU at 2:30 p.m., next Saturday. A Mercer win moves Chattanooga into the six seed facing No. 3 Furman at 8:30 p.m.
 
RECORDS
Chattanooga 12-19/7-11 | Furman 24-6/13-5
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW
Check out the full complement of notes at the link above.

• Kevin Easley set the school's freshman record for points with his 3pt early in the first half…403 points on the season…broke tie at 398 with Keith Parker who set it during the initial DI campaign in 1977-78.
• It's David Jean-Baptiste's seventh game in a row scoring in double figures…averaging 12.7 ppg over that span.
• 88th meeting with Furman with the Mocs leading 54-34…30-9 in Chattanooga…48-31 in regular season conference matchups.

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

• The Mocs shot 27.3 percent from 3pt range today making six of 22…2-21 (9.5%) in the second half of the last two games getting out-scored 80-48 over those two halves.
• Furman shot 48.3 percent (29-60) today, 32.1 percent (9-28) from 3pt range…the Paladins connected on 62.5 percent (20-32) INSIDE the arc…Chattanooga made 38.9 percent (14-36) on two-point attempts.
• Six steals today for the Mocs…second most this season in a SoCon contest behind eight at ETSU in January…David Jean-Baptiste has seven of the 14 totals between the two contests.

 
QUOTABLE
Check out all of what we heard at the quotes link above.
"Any time the second half starts, you have new life. Once we got down, then there wasn't real, true confidence on some guys' faces that we could come back. I am not talking about when it was 20, I am talking about when it was 14. We haven't had a lot of games where we got down 14-15 and did comeback.  We have done it a couple of times this year, in the second half even. But we haven't had that many where we have done that." – Coach Lamont Paris on second-half struggle.
 
"There were some good stretches. I thought Jonathan was very energetic. Once the lead had grown, he made a couple of real effort plays. Dave did some stuff offensively where he was attacking. That sends a message as to what your mindset is." – Paris on positives from today.
 
SOCON SCOREBOARD
at VMI 81, The Citadel 78
Wofford 85, at Samford 64
Western Carolina at ETSU, 4 p.m. (Late)
UNCG at Mercer, 4:30 p.m. (Late)
 
SOCON TOURNAMENT TICKETS
The Ingles Southern Conference Championships 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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