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CHATTANOOGA---Junior Ramon Vila's 17 points led five Chattanooga Mocs in double figures in tonight's 92-69 triumph over The Citadel in McKenzie Arena Wednesday night. He and his amigos broke open a 12-point halftime margin to cruise to the Southern Conference victory.
 
Matt Ryan's three-pointer at the buzzer sent the Mocs into intermission ahead 52-40. The Mocs came out of the break on fire. They scored on eight of their first nine possessions resulting in a 17-2 spurt to jump out to a 69-42 lead capped by an A.J. Caldwell three.
 
Derek Webster, Jr., got it back to a 24-point margin, 76-52, with a layup at 11:09. Chattanooga answered with a Caldwell layup and David Jean-Baptiste triple as the lead reached its zenith at 29, 81-52. Two Trey Doomes free throws and a Grant Ledford layup pushed it back to 29 late before a flurry of Bulldog baskets ended it at 23, 92-69.
 
Joining Vila in double figures were Ryan and Jean-Baptiste with 12, while Caldwell and Stefan Kenić each tallied 11 off the bench. Kaiden Rice had 11 to pace The Citadel.
 
"Yeah, Coach [Paris] told us that they're a team that plays great in and out of transition," Caldwell explained when asked about the importance of the quick start to the second frame. "They play fast, and they score a lot of points. The game they played against NC State, NC State was up 20 or 25 points, and all of the sudden it was 10 points because they can score so quickly.
 
"For us to have that 12-point lead and kind of squash the bug and get up from there was big."
 
Coach Lamont Paris definitely saw something he liked in the second half.
 
"In the second half, we had such a good defensive effort," Paris offered. "We held them to 29 in the second half and that's with 11 points scored in the last three minutes with substitutions. We shot the ball well, ran a good offense.
 
"I thought we did a really good job of chasing over their screens on some of their good shooters. It made us more disciplined. I thought our whole defensive makeup was much better in the second half."
 
The Mocs are back on the road for the next two making shorts trips to ETSU Saturday and Samford next Wednesday. They're back in the Roundhouse on Saturday, Feb. 1, hosting Western Carolina.
 
It's reunion weekend with this year's model welcoming back the legends who built the most dominant program in the SoCon over the past 40+ seasons. Tickets are available on GoMocs.com or consider the new "All You Can Eat" option.
 
RECORDS
Chattanooga 13-7/4-3 | The Citadel 6-12/0-7
 
QUOTABLE
"It'll be an aggressive and good team [ETSU]. An aggressive team. We'll have to come out and match that aggression with aggression. I don't think you can be passive against a team like that." – Paris on Saturday's trip to ETSU
 
"We were more concentrated on what we needed to do in order to win this game. We knew that this team shoots a lot of threes, actually the most in the league, and make a lot of them. They score really fast in transition, taking threes in transition, so we knew if we wanted to win today we had to stop them in transition, which we did in the second half." – Kenić on the difference between tonight & Saturday's loss
 
Check out all we heard at the link above.
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW

• 84th meeting between the two schools with a 66-18 mark the Mocs way. It's the fifth-longest running series in school history behind Samford (100), Western Carolina (94), Furman (88) and ETSU (88). Tied for most wins against any opponent with Western. 62 regular season conference wins over the Bulldogs are the highest total followed by 54 over the Catamounts.
• Largest lead was 29. That's the fifth time this season the Mocs have led a DI opponent by 28 or more points: Samford (40), Wofford (30), Alabama State (30) & South Alabama (28) are the other four.
• David Jean-Baptiste became the 16th Moc to record multiple 3pt in seven straight games. He's shot 53.1 percent (17-32) over that span joining Eric Robertson '16 as the only ones with seven or more to do it convert 50 percent or better over their streak. Robertson went for nine straight (Nov. 27-Dec. 29, 2015) making 28 of 50 (56%).

Check out all the notables at the link above.
 
3 STATS TO KNOW

• Made 42.9 percent from 3pt range tonight (12-28). Hitting treys at a 45.5 percent clip over the last four home games (46-101) while making 11.5 per contest.
• +14 on the boards tonight with a 45-31 advantage. Best rebound margin vs a DI opponent this season and top number since +26 against Samford (55-29) on Jan. 24, 2018.
• Five players reach double figures – Vila 17, Jean-Baptiste & Ryan 12 and Caldwell & Kenić 11 – for the first time since last Jan. 31 against Western Carolina.

Take a deeper dive into the numbers at the link above.
 
SOCON SCOREBOARD
at Furman 101, Samford 78
at Mercer 85, Western Carolina 79
at Wofford 66, VMI 54
 
MBB UPCOMING GAMES
Jan. 25: at ETSU | Current Rec.: 17-3/6-1 | Next Opp: Chattanooga (Jan. 25)
Jan. 29: at Samford | Current Rec.: 8-13/2-5 | Next Opp: UNC Greensboro (Jan. 25)
Feb. 1: Western Carolina (Reunion Weekend) | Current Rec.: 12-6/4-3 | Next Opp: Wofford (Jan. 25)
 
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