Ricky Taylor and Ridge McKeither combined for 40 points in leading Chattanooga (3-3) to a 74-70 win over Longwood (0-7) in the South Padre Island Invitational Saturday afternoon. The Mocs overcame a six-point halftime deficit to stop a three-game losing skid.
Taylor scored a career-high 21 points with a hot shooting hand making six-of-11 from the field and four for six from three-point range. McKeither scored 19 points to go with seven rebounds.
Antwan Carter and Dana Smith each scored 18 points for the Lancers.
The duo combined for 14 boards, eight for Carter and six for Smith. The Lancers out-rebounded the Mocs 40-36 including 17 offensive rebounds.
Longwood jumped out to a 9-4 lead early, but the Mocs answered and quickly scoring on four straight possessions, all on three pointers. Josh Odem hit two of the four threes to give the Mocs a 16-14 lead at 13:31.
The Lancers surged back to a 25-17 lead when Chattanooga went on an 11-0 run over the next 2:51. The run started with another four-possession spurt, with seven points coming from McKeither. The run put the Mocs up 28-25 with 6:23 to play in the half.
UTC held the Lancers almost four minutes with a field, but they finished the half with a flurry entering the break up 37-31.
It was a quick start to the second half. Jeremy Saffore scored on the Mocs’ first three possessions including a thunderous dunk on a set play to start the half to cut the lead to 40-37.
In what was becoming typical for the game, Longwood answered and pulled back out to a eight-point lead, 47-39, on a Kevin Swecker three-pointer at 16:18. But the Mocs scored the next 10 points, the first seven by Taylor, to take a 49-47 lead on Dontay Hampton’s layup at 13:05.
Once again, the Lancers battled back to take the lead as the game swung back-and-forth. A Smith layup with 3:56 made it 66-63. That’s when Taylor took over.
The sophomore found his range as he scored nine of the Mocs final 11 points hitting three-pointers at 3:30 and 2:29, the latter giving the Mocs the lead for good, 71-68. The punctuation came on a great drive by Keegan Bell with 30.2 seconds remaining scoring over tight defense to make it 73-70. After two missed three-pointers by Swecker,
Taylor iced the game at 5.1 seconds make the second of two free throws to set the final score of 74-70. He scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half.
Bell notched a career high with 11 assists and made his third steal of the night on the final play of the game. Martiz Washington hit four three-pointers for the Lancers in scoring 12 points on the day.
The Mocs return home Sunday, but are back on the road Tuesday heading to nearby Jacksonville State with an 8 p.m. (ET) start. Chattanooga returns home in one week next Saturday, hosting its Southern Conference opener against Elon at 7 p.m.