STATS |
NOTES |
QUOTES |
ABOUT CHATTANOOGA BASKETBALL
LEXINGTON, Va.---The Chattanooga Mocs built a big second half lead and then held on at the end in a 71-64 triumph at VMI.
Matt Ryan's 18 points led a quarter of Mocs in double figures.
Maurice Commander joined him with 15 points, with
Trey Doomes adding 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Ramon Vila chipped in 12 points and seven boards as Ryan led the rebound effort with eight. Sean Conway paced the home team with 15 points off the bench.
The Mocs led 37-20 at the break. VMI scored the first six points before the Mocs steadied. The lead reached 19, 50-31, on two
Trey Doomes free throws. The Keydets surged again scoring eight in a row to get with 12, 50-38, on a Louis Tang layup.
"I had to call timeout in that stretch even though I wanted them to play through it," Coach
Lamont Paris noted on the First Bank postgame radio show. "It exposed some stuff on our end for sure. It was all about how can we respond. There were some areas that we failed in tonight, quite frankly.
"To get through some of those situations, that's good experience. I've always said that, if you can draw up every win as a close win, it helps your team's growth."
Paris got the response he wanted. Eight straight Mocs points included this big Commander three.
The lead reached 20 first on a Jean-Baptiste drive into the paint and again the next possession on a Commander layup. Leading 60-40 with 6:20, Chattanooga could put it on cruise control. Not so fast.
Back-to-back Tang layups got the margin to nine heading into the final minute. It got interesting from there with the Mocs making just five of eight free throws in the final stretch as the Keydets scored on six straight possessions but six would be as close as it would get helped by this Commander to Doomes hook up on the break.
The regular season finale is Saturday afternoon hosting UNC Greensboro for Senior Day. It has a lucrative vibe with one fortunate soul's challenge to win $25,000. The innovative "pick-a-spot" promotion makes its first appearance in the Roundhouse. The contestant picks one spot, anywhere on the court, to shoot for the $25k. The catch is they take two shots, one at each goal. Make them both, and they're the stuff of legends.
Ticket offers abound as well. Not only is it Sequatchie County Day with $10 lower level seats for our friends and neighbors there, it's also Leap Year Day. Fans can purchase Two, 300 level General Admission tickets for ONLY $9 or they can also purchase 4 Lower Level seats for ONLY $29. There's also the new
"All You Can Eat" option.
RECORDS
Chattanooga 18-12/9-8 | VMI 8-22/3-14
QUOTABLE
"That was great to get off to a good start. We were very fortunate, we did not play well during a stretch, and we were extremely fortunate to be up double figures at that point. We had some stuff that we did not do well early in the game, and they didn't capitalize. Sometimes it's like that. They missed some shots they usually make. We were very fortunate to be in the position we were at the half." –
Coach Lamont Paris
"They competed until the end it showed. We were up big, and they came back and made a run for it, we had to do the little things. There's some stuff at the end we emphasized that we should have done better, but after we figured that out, we continued to keep playing." –
Sophomore Trey Doomes
Check out all we heard at the link above.
3 NOTES TO KNOW
- Chattanooga clinched a top six spot with tonight's win and Wofford's loss. It can still finish anywhere from fourth to sixth sitting one game behind Western Carolina and Mercer. Via tiebreakers, the Catamounts and Bears are guaranteed the four and five seeds. The Mocs will play UNC Greensboro in the 3/6 game opposite Furman and Wofford/The Citadel.
- The average margin of victory between the two schools is 3.8 points in the six matchups in Cameron Hall. The Mocs are 5-1 in those contests: 2015 (86-82 2OT), 2016 (67-65), 2017 (74-68), 2018 (65-68) & 2019 (71-70) prior to today's seven-point cushion.
- The win marked a winning conference road mark at 5-4 and clinched the 13th .500 or better record outside the Chattanooga city limits in 43 seasons at the DI level.
Check out all the notables at the link above.
3 STATS TO KNOW
- Chattanooga shot a season-high 35 free throws and tied the top number made with 23. The previous high was in the home win over VMI (23-24). The visitors were +17 at the FT stripe.
- The Mocs shot 39.6 percent (21-53) which is the lowest shooting percentage in a win since 35.0 (21-60) in the home opener over Tennessee State (59-57).
- VMI came into the contest leading the SoCon making 10.8 3pt per game. It made just four tonight shooting just 16 percent on 25 attempts.
Take a deeper dive into the numbers at the link above.
SOCON SCOREBOARD
Mercer 73, at The Citadel 57
Furman 81, at UNC Greensboro 67
at Western Carolina 109, Samford 78
ETSU 60, at Wofford 54
MBB UPCOMING GAMES
Feb. 29: UNC Greensboro (DH), 4:30 p.m. | Current Rec.: 23-7/13-4 | Next Opp:
at Chattanooga (Feb. 29)
March 6-9: Ingles SoCon Championships presented by General Shale at Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville
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