The Chattanooga Mocs (5-2) five-game-in-10-day road show ended Monday night with a 64-54 loss at ULM (3-2). The squad shot a season-low 35.3 percent (18-51) in the loss.
"I felt like we had good shots, especially in the first half,” coach Matt McCall said. “We were getting down the lane and guys were just flat out missing layups. Everyone for the most part was getting in the lane. We had some wide-open three's in the first half, and the ball just didn't go in the net.”
Senior Casey Jones led the Mocs with 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
The three blocks tied his career high, while the nine boards is a new season best. Chuck Ester and Tre’ McLean each added nine points with Ester grabbing six rebounds.
The Warhawks’ Majok Deng had a game-high 22 points. He was joined in double figures by Nick Coppola (14) and Travis Munnings (11).
The Mocs came out of halftime down eight, but still in the fight. They held ULM without a field goal for more than five-and-a-half minutes cutting the margin to four, 31-27, on a Duke Ethridge layup. Munnings ended the drought with a jumper at 14:23, but the visitors kept charging back.
A Jones layup was followed by another defensive stop with a big block from Ester. Johnathan Burroughs-Cook’s layup on the ensuing possession was backed up by an Eric Robertson steal. McLean drilled a trey from up top for the first lead since early in the contest, 35-34, with 11:20 to go.
The two teams traded the lead and with the game tied 39-39 with 8:22 to go. ULM made its move. Coppola capped an 11-2 spurt with a layup at 5:09. The Mocs cut it to five twice, but could get no closer as Coppola scored nine of his 14 points in the final five-plus minutes keying the win.
“You've got to be able to bring it every single night for 40 minutes,” McCall added. “You can't just turn it on and turn it off. No team out there is that good to be able to do that. We showed some fight in the second half getting back into the game and taking the lead a couple of times. Towards the end of the game, we couldn't keep them out of the lane and our rotations on defense were really bad.”
A key to the game was rebounding as ULM entered with a +9.3 margin on the boards. They won the battle by three tonight, 36-33, but were +8 (20-12) in the second half.
Chattanooga led by four early before the Warhawks took over. Down 6-2, the home team went on a 15-0 run capped by Munnings jumper at 9:57. Jones’ basket 26 seconds later ended a nearly eight-minute scoreless skid for the Mocs.
ULM went up 12, 24-12, on Prince Cooper’s free throw with 4:27 until the break. The teams traded baskets before Alex Bran’s triple from the corner with 38 seconds left provided the halftime mark.
The Mocs are off until Tuesday, Dec. 8, when they welcome Tennessee Wesleyan to McKenzie Arena. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
Check the men's basketball schedule page on GoMocs.com for links to video, audio and live stats. Follow @GoMocsMBB for live tweets from the contest.