On Monday at McKenzie Arena, the good guys wore black and won.
Rallying from down 11 in the first half, the Chattanooga Mocs, playing on Black Out Night, needed overtime to defeat Samford 62-59.
The Mocs are 2-0 in overtime games this season, both at home.
Freshman Gee McGhee led the Mocs with 14 points, followed by senior Drazen Zlovaric and sophomore Lance Stokes with 13 each.
Samford (8-17, 6-6) led the Mocs by 11 at 32-21 at 2:14 and by seven at halftime, 32-25.
Wearing all black trimmed in gold, the Mocs chipped away in the second half and went up by three at 42-39 (12:10) on a McGhee jumper to cap a 21-7 run.
Zlovaric had five points, two offensive rebounds and an assist in the first six minutes of the second half
"I had nothing to lose tonight and went all out," said Zlovaric who has now scored in double figures in four straight games.
"I have been playing a little tight of late and tried to be perfect and not make mistakes. But I only have a few games left in this my senior year so I told myself to give it my all and don't leave anything on the court at the end of the game."
Samford then erased a five-point Mocs lead (53-48) in the final 4:33 to tie the game at 55-55 and force overtime. Post man Tim Williams scored four, while teammate Tyler Hood connected on a three sandwiched around a Stokes layup.
Samford 3-Pointers Late: Samford's Raijon Kelly (19 pts.) had a 3-point attempt at the buzzer to win in regulation and a 3-point attempt to tie late in overtime, but missed both shots.
Overtime: Zlovaric scored the first two points in the extra five minutes, while McGhee and Ronrico White connected on a pair of clutch free throws each to give UTC 3-point leads twice in the final 22 seconds.
The Mocs improve to 10-15 overall and 5-7 in the SoCon. The Mocs have won two of three at home in the last five days and conclude the four-game home stand on Valentine's Night (Thurs.) with Furman.
"This was a huge win and gives us momentum as we move forward," said Stokes who had a career-high 13 points along with four rebounds.
"We are a little tired, but so are the players on the other teams in our league. So being tired is no excuse. We just have to suck it up and play tough down the stretch."
Next Game: Thurs. Feb. 14 - home vs. Furman ... 7:30 p.m.
Making Clutch Free Throws: After McGhee made the second of the two overtime charity tosses (5-6 on the night with 22 seconds remaining in overtime (as compared to 3-9 in Saturday's loss to UNCG) and with a Mocs timeout, he walked to the Mocs bench pounding his chest with his fist knowing that he had done what he said he needed to do after Saturday night's loss ... Those two free throws gave the Mocs a 60-57 lead with 22 seconds remaining, followed by White's two good free throws 12 seconds later to force Samford into shooting a 3-pointer to tie which Raijon Kelly missed.
UTC Coach John Shulman Comments: "After an exciting game on Saturday (lost 71-68 to College of Charleston) I had a bad feeling we would come out dead tonight and we did ... Samford scored 17 points in the first 5 plus minutes (led 17-6), but our fans kept us in the game ...
"At halftime I told our guys that they would have to find a way to win when you don't have your A game and they found a way ... We defended like crazy with a big advantage on the offensive glass (17-4) and had nearly twice as many rebounds overall (48-26)."
At Chattanooga, Tenn. (The McKenzie Arena)
CHATTANOOGA 62, SAMFORD 59
SAMFORD (8-17, 6-6 SoCon)
KELLY, Raijon 6-11 6-6 19; WILLIAMS, Tim 5-11 3-4 13; GEFFRARD, JR., Clide
4-10 3-4 12; HOOD, Tyler 3-12 0-0 7; HAYMAN, Brandon 2-2 1-2 5; MILLER,
Connor 1-3 0-0 3; WILSON, Russell 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 21-49 13-17 59.
CHATTANOOGA (10-15, 5-7 SoCon)
McGHEE, Gee 4-10 5-6 14; ZLOVARIC, Drazen 6-8 1-3 13; STOKES, Lance 6-10 1-6
13; WHITE, Ronrico 2-7 4-4 8; MASON, Z. 3-10 1-1 7; COBB, Farad 1-3 0-0 2;
BAREIKA, Martynas 1-4 0-0 2; WATSON, Sam 1-1 0-0 2; BRYANT, Jared 0-2 1-2 1;
ROBERTSON, Eric 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 13-22 62.
Samford....................... 32 23 4 - 59
Chattanooga................... 25 30 7 - 62
3-point goals--Samford 4-21 (GEFFRARD, JR., Clide 1-5; HOOD, Tyler 1-7;
KELLY, Raijon 1-6; MILLER, Connor 1-3), Chattanooga 1-14 (McGHEE, Gee 1-4;
WHITE, Ronrico 0-4; MASON, Z. 0-1; COBB, Farad 0-1; BAREIKA, Martynas 0-2;
ROBERTSON, Eric 0-2). Fouled out--Samford-None, Chattanooga-None.
Rebounds--Samford 22 (MILLER, Connor 4; GEFFRARD, JR., Clide 4; WILLIAMS,
Tim 4), Chattanooga 43 (MASON, Z. 9). Assists--Samford 15 (KELLY, Raijon 6),
Chattanooga 14 (WHITE, Ronrico 6). Total fouls--Samford 16, Chattanooga 15.
Technical fouls--Samford-None, Chattanooga-TEAM. A-2,976
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net