QUOTES | NOTES

MURRAY, Ky.  (December 18) --- The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team allowed 53 second half points and saw an 11-point first half lead evaporate during an 87-76 loss on the road at Murray State inside the CFSB Center on Saturday evening.
 
Following the loss, Chattanooga has lost its last two and falls to 9-3 this season. Murray State improves to 10-1. UTC and MSU entered the game No. 7 and No. 10, respectively, in the latest Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll.
 
The Mocs held a three-point lead at the half, 39-36, before momentum turned in favor of the home team in the second half. A tough environment to play in, Murray State has now won its last 22 games at home against non-conference competition.
 
"It was two good teams. I don't have any issue with how hard we played, we wanted to win and felt that," said head coach Lamont Paris postgame.
 
"I felt that energy. Now transferring that into what you do on the court is the challenging part. You must channel that desire into discipline."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Chattanooga jumped out to a 13-8 lead with 14:50 left in the opening half after David Jean-Baptiste knocked down a pair of threes in the early going. The two treys were accompanied by two Malachi Smith buckets and a Josh Ayeni fadeaway jay.
 
Murray State answered with the next six points to grab a 14-13 lead with 11:54 left in the half, a 6-0 run that was capped off by a Tevin Brown four-point play in the corner. Jean-Baptiste connected on his third three in as many attempts to halt the run with 10:57.
 
After leading 16-14, Chattanooga rolled on a 12-2 run highlighted by a three from Jamaal Walker and baskets from Smith and Silvio De Sousa to force the Racers to call timeout with 8:10 left in the half up by a 26-18 count. The Mocs grew the lead to 11, 34-23 at the 3:24 mark, before allowing a 11-3 run to close the half to ultimately hold a 37-34 lead at the break.
 
The Mocs shot an even 50.0% (13-for-26) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes while limiting the hosts to a 38.2% (13-of-34) tally. UTC turned the ball over seven times in the half and in result, trailed the points off turnover category 10-0.
 
Murray State opened the second half connecting on four of their first five attempts from three to take a 48-47 lead with 14:35 remaining. Smith scored eight points himself during that hot shooting span to keep things within a possession. Two more Smith free throws put UTC back in front 58-57 at the 9:48 mark, but that would be the last lead for the guests.
 
Back-and-forth action saw the teams separated by two, 70-68 MSU, with under five minutes left to play. From that point, the Racers responded with a 14-0 run to pull away 84-68 with just 1:29 on the clock, eventually clinching its way to an 87-76 final.
Smith finished with a career-high 36 points on 14-of-17 shooting including a perfect 7-for-7 performance at the free throw, in addition to bringing down six boards. Jean-Baptiste ended with 12 points, all on three balls, while the team save seven-point efforts from De Sousa and Ayeni.
 
Chattanooga finished with a 50.0% (29-for-58) tally from the field which bested Murray State's mark of 48.4% (31-for-64), however, the Racers knocked down 37.9% (11-for-29) of its shots from beyond the arc in comparison to UTC's 30.8% (8-for-26) clip.

RECORDS – Chattanooga (9-3) – Murray State (9-2)
 
SERIES – Chattanooga now trails the all-time series 2-7.

NOTES TO KNOW
- Malachi Smith extended his DI era school record streak of 20pt road nights to eight. The longest prior streak was five set by Eric Smith (Jan. 14-31, 1981), Gerald Wilkins (Feb. 4-Mar. 24, 1985) & Rashun Coleman (Jan. 17-Feb. 7, 2000)…Smith's current streak dates back to the road finale last season at Mercer.
 
- Murray State's bench certainly had a lot of star power on it or my just Scenic City Famous...it featured 2,143 points, 671 assists and 256 steals between the former Mocs duo of Casey Long (2004-07) and Ronrico White (2012-15) who now serve as assistant coaches for the Racers.
 
- 7th straight game with a 20pt scorer...Malachi Smith (5x) & Silvio DeSousa (2x)...last time with seven straight games of at least one 20pt scorer? Jan. 10-Feb. 16, 2004 (10 games): Ashley Champion (6x), Jason Rogan (5x), Chris Brown (1x) & Alphonso Pugh (1x)…Brown (31 vs Western Carolina, Jan. 24) and Ashley Champion (30 at Charleston, Jan. 19) had one 30-point night each.

Check out all the notes at the link above.

QUOTABLE
"It was a frustrating end for sure. They made some plays down the stretch but in the critical moments in the game, we didn't have shots go down and we had some turnovers. They had a guy who made a couple shots and that's why you have to play 40 minutes. It takes all 40 minutes. I think the end of the first half hurt us a bit too, it's all momentum. It's a long game but the psyche changes. It's just a different mindset and it effects guys in how they play." – head coach Lamont Paris.
 
"They're a good team and they made some tough shots which allowed the crowd to get into it a bit. We were solid most of the game but got a little loose in the second half which allowed them to pull away. We just have to be better minimizing some of those runs and try to pull a full 40 minutes together on the defensive end." – A.J. Caldwell.

Check out all the quotes at the link above.
 
UP NEXT – Chattanooga vs. MTSU – Wed., Dec. 22 – 7PM ET – 2021-22 Schedule
 
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