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COOKEVILLE---The Chattanooga Mocs closed the second half strong in a 62-54 road win at Tennessee Tech. They utilized a 14-2 run to move to 2-0 on the season, and it all started with a spark from Lamont Paris.
 
Tech took a 52-48 lead with 4:57 on the two Keishawn Davidson free throws from a technical foul called on the Mocs head coach. The next Golden Eagles points came with 10 seconds to play. The Mocs reeled off nine straight stops.
 
"It was very important," sophomore guard Malachi Smith shared when asked about the team coming together. "Sometimes shots aren't being made and that's not something you can control. You can only control things on the defensive end, and I think after coach's technical, we huddled up, and we knew it was going to take a full team effort to get the stops to finish the game out."
 
Smith kick-started the run with an and-one take to the basket at 4:14. His two free throws 17 seconds later gave his squad the lead for good, 53-52. That began a stretch of four scores in five trips that turned into a prolonged 14-2 spurt to the buzzer.
 
Trey Doomes jumper made it three-point lead while Stefan Kenić continued the run with a jumper at 2:41. All the final points came at the line as the Mocs pulled away to the seemingly easy victory. It was anything but as the frigid air outside made its way to the visitors' offense.
 
"There's always lessons that you'd like to learn," Paris shared on a postgame zoom press conference outside the Mocs locker room. "If you can't win a game by 20, then the next best thing is to have a game like this. Where you must inbound the ball against pressure, where you must get a stop when you need it, where you must make big free throws or it's going to be nip-and-tuck down the stretch.
 
"I thought it was good that we could learn a lesson in a game where we still came out with a win."

Chattanooga shot just 30.8 (20-65) percent from the field. That's the second-lowest shooting percentage in school history in a win behind 30.4 percent (21-69) in a 67-51 December 1998 triumph over West Virginia State.
 
"We weren't shooting too well all game and at the end, we needed some aggressive plays going to the rim and that's what I like to do," Doomes noted. "I knew we weren't getting the three going much in the first half, so I wanted to try and bring a spark to the team.
 
"It was very important for me to keep everyone together during the game and make sure we were making the right plays down the stretch and that's what we were able to do."
 
Smith led the way with 15 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. He's the only Moc to start a season with back-to-back double-doubles in the DI era after an 18-point, 10-rebound performance in the opening win over Lander. He also registered a career-best five steals.
 
David Jean-Baptiste added 12 points, five rebounds and four steals. Kenić chipped in 11 points and seven boards. Davidson led TTU with 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
 
The Mocs stay on the road this weekend heading to Murfreesboro Sunday. Links for video, audio and live stats for the Middle Tennessee game will be on the men's basketball schedule page.
 
RECORDS
Chattanooga 2-0 | Tennessee Tech 0-2
 
QUOTABLE
"I'm so oblivious to stuff like that. We sure didn't [know if we would see it this year]. There was a lot hanging in the balance, and we've talked to our team about it. We want to play well, we want to win and we want to compete. That's why we're here. But more important than that, it's just the ability to get out here and play. Our guys are grateful for it." – Paris on his 100th career game as a head coach
 
"I was frustrated with our overall performance, I thought we would play better basketball than that. But sometimes it's like that. We're fortunate enough to come out with a win on the road and those are always good no matter what. We're not giving that back." – Paris on the overall performance
 
"I think that it just feels good knowing that when things aren't going right, you can still pull a game out. It's easy to celebrate when all the shots are going in and everything is going your way; but being able to grind out a win and play defense, doing the stuff you can control, I think it's a good stepping stone for us to build off of." – Smith's takeaway from tonight's win
 
Check out all we heard at the link above.
 
3 NOTES TO KNOW

• Tied for 10th longest series (60 games) with VMI...3rd-longest with a team that the Mocs never shared a conference with behind Tennessee Wesleyan (68) and Sunday's opponent Middle Tennessee (65)...record is now 20-40, 6-28 in Cookeville.
• 14.3 percent (3-21) is the worst 3pt shooting night since 6.3 percent (1-16) at South Alabama on Nov. 16, 2018.
• First win in Cookeville since Dec. 15, 1988, a 90-86 overtime battle. It was just the 17th meeting in the Mocs 44 seasons at the DI level with a 10-7 advantage to the good guys over that span.

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

• Smith has 33 points, 24 rebounds, seven assists and seven steals over his first two games as a Moc.
• +10 in turnover margin giving up just 10 while forcing 20 by the Golden Eagles. Held a 16-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
• As cold as the group was from the field, it was strong at the line making 19 of 22, 86.4 percent. That included 8-8 in the key run including 5-5 between Kenić and Smith in the final 17 seconds.

Take a deeper dive into the numbers at the link above.

SOCON SCOREBOARD
Western Carolina 96, Piedmont 58
Mercer 86, at Georgia State 69
 
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