NOTES | QUOTES

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 5) --- The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team survived a second-half swing in momentum and continued its winning ways on the road following an 85-64 rout over Lipscomb inside Allen Arena on Sunday evening in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
Chattanooga has now won its last 10 non-conference road games dating back to 2019 and improves its season mark to 7-1 following the victory. Lipscomb falls to 5-4 on the year.
 
After leading by 20 at the halftime break, Lipscomb used a 22-6 run to open the second half and cut the deficit to four. Chattanooga responded with a strong finish down the stretch to fend off the comeback effort.
 
"All road wins are good. It's a really good road team against a group that was hungry," said head coach Lamont Paris.
 
"They [Lipscomb] made a couple plays and next thing you know it's a single-digit game. You have to give them credit for that. All said and done, our guys did enough to win."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Chattanooga took an early 6-2 lead over Lipscomb in the game's first our minutes after a pair of Malachi Smith layups following a game-opening bucket from Silvio De Sousa. The lead grew to as much as seven (11-4, 14:28) in the early on a David Jean-Baptiste three ball.
 
After the hosts scored the next five points to cut their deficit to two, 11-9 with 11:28 left in the opening half, Chattanooga responded with a 17-3 run over the next five-plus minutes to grab a 28-12 (5:52) edge. Smith accounted for 10 points during that span which included a pair of threes.
 
The Mocs took a 38-18 lead into the break after finishing the half on a 6-0 run and holding the Bison scoreless over the final 2:27. UTC shot 48.3% (14-of-29) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and limited Lipscomb to a lowly 28.0% (7-of-25) mark which included an 0-for-8 performance behind the arc and a 21-11 advantage for the visitors on the glass.
 
Lipscomb raced out on an 22-6 run to begin the second half and held Chattanooga scoreless for nearly four minutes to pull within four, 44-40 with 13:07 on the clock. KC Hankton knocked down a crucial three to stop all momentum on the ensuing possession to put the visitors back up by seven, 47-40.
 
UTC immediately responded by scoring 18 of the next 28 points to build 15-point lead, 65-50, with a 7:00 remaining in the game. Over the span, Jean-Baptiste connected on three, three pointers to help spark the rally. It was all Chattanooga down the stretch as their largest lead of the game (21) came at the final horn, 85-64.
 
Smith led all scorers with 27 points on 12-of-20 shooting and included a filled stat line with seven rebounds and seven assists. Jean-Baptiste posted 24 points behind a career-high seven threes (7-of-10) while adding five steals and four rebounds. De Sousa reached double digits in scoring with 11 while Darius Banks cleaned the glass with a game-high 12 boards.
 
Chattanooga dominated in the hustle stat categories, edging its opponent in rebounds (46-26), second chance points (27-10), points in the paint (36-28) and bench points (18-10). UTC limited Lipscomb to a 23.5% (4-of-17) mark from three and a 38.8% (19-of-49) overall percentage from the floor during the win.  

RECORDS – Chattanooga (7-1) – Lipscomb (5-4)
 
SERIES – Chattanooga now trails the all-time series 12-17 after the win.

NOTES TO KNOW
- 20-point halftime lead (38-18) is largest against a DI opponent since +26 (48-22) against Alabama State in the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida on Nov. 29, 2019... best in a road game since +21 (50-29) at Wofford on Jan. 15, 2005.
 
- Limited their hosts to 38.8 percent shooting (19-49)… 4th opponent this season limited to less than 40 percent FG shooting… that included just four for 17 (23.5%) from three.
 
- David Jean-Baptiste scored 24 points on 8-12 shooting, 7-10 from beyond the arc… career high for 3s made...had 18 in the second half including making 5-6 from 3pt range… seven threes are the most by a Moc since Stefan Kenic's 7-7 in the OT win over Western Carolina last February… 11th 20-point effort.

Check out all the notes at the link above.

QUOTABLE
"It's not easy, on the road in particular. But just in a college basketball game. Anything can happen and we saw that already. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy and it won't pick or choose when to strike. I thought it was a good effort to just calm the seas back down, and it happened in a variety of ways. Between 19 offensive rebounds and the nine steals, that's 28 extra chances on offense." – head coach Lamont Paris on surviving Lipscomb's second-half run.
 
"Big time passes from my teammates and it was just the confidence my teammates and coaches had in me. Once I hit the last one, the ball kept finding me and they were a lot of good opportunities. They just started to fall." – David Jean-Baptiste on knocking down a career-high seven threes.

Check out all the quotes at the link above.
 
UP NEXT – Chattanooga at UNC Asheville – Wed., Dec. 8 – 5PM ET – 2021-22 Schedule
 
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