The Chattanooga Mocs jumped out early and held on late in a 78-73 win over The Citadel in McKenzie Arena
Saturday evening. Chattanooga is now 15-8, alone in second place at 8-2 in the Southern Conference, while the Bulldogs fall to 8-13, 3-7 in the league.
Casey Jones scored a game-high 23 points in the win. That’s one behind his career high of 24 tallied Thursday at Mercer.
Ronrico White and Greg Pryor chipped in 14 apiece as White became just the sixth Moc of the DI era to make 300 career free throws.
Ashton Moore led a quintet of Bulldogs in double figures with 18. Brian White added 17, while Warren Sledge came off the bench for 12. P.J. Horgan and Quinton Marshall each had 10.
Jones scored the game’s first seven points as the Mocs got out the gate quickly. His 19 in the first 20 minutes staked the hosts to a 17-point halftime advantage, 47-30. Back-to-back three-pointers from White and Pryor opened the second half providing their largest advantage of 21 points, 53-32, with 18:24 to play.
“We were the aggressors for the first 20-22 minutes,” coach Will Wade said. “We attacked. I always tell them ‘chance favors the aggressor’. I thought we were the first half of the game. They were more aggressive the second half.”
The Bulldogs answered with seven unanswered points before Justin Tuoyo scored the next basket at 15:19 to get the lead back to 16, 55-39. The visitors kept the offensive pressure on, however. Marshall’s layup with 12:55 to go cut the margin to 10 capping a 13-2 spurt over a six-minute span.
A minute later, Sledge’s layup got it back to single digits, 57-49. White settled things down on the ensuing possession scoring a three-point play on a layup to make it 60-49. Lance Stokes’ jumper at 10:20 pushed it to a 15-point game, 64-49.
The Bulldogs chipped away, but the Mocs would not wilt. The five-point final margin came on a Sledge trey with a second to go to close out the 78-73 triumph.
“They’re a tough guard,” Wade added. “They run good stuff…they stir you up, and they have guys that can really drive, guys that are physical and can make plays. It’s a tough guard for us. I thought the first half we guarded them really well. Even though they scored 30 points, I thought 10 of them were really tough shots at the end of the shot clock. We really guarded them.
“Second half we were really lacking with our defense.”
Chattanooga shot 56.3 percent from the field, while The Citadel made 58.7 percent of its shots. The lack of misses led to just 22 rebounds for the Mocs, the fewest since grabbing 21 at Wisconsin. There were a mere 47 boards total in the contest.
White joins Stanford Strickland (401), Nicchaeus Doaks (367), Willie White (317), Brandon Born (312) and Keith Nelson (311) in the 300 free throw club. He made a season-high nine tonight and has 305 in his three-plus seasons.
“It’s a good accomplishment for me,” White stated. “Just getting there, going to the line and making free throws. But we got a lot more work to do. I more worried about team accomplishments rather than my individual ones.”
The Mocs are on the road for the next three games. The two next weekend start
Thursday at Furman before heading to Western Carolina
on Saturday. The Paladins game tips off at
7 p.m., in Timmons Arena. The games broadcast on the radio locally at US 101 the Legend at 96.1 FM. Gameday links to video (SoCon Digital Network), audio (MSN) and live stats are available on GoMocs.com. Follow @GoMocsMBB on Twitter for live updates.