SPARTANBURG, S.C.---Road wins are hard to come by, especially in Southern Conference play. They’ve proven to be even more difficult in Wofford’s Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Chattanooga Mocs found a way snapping the Terriers’ 11-game home win streak with a 56-46 triumph Thursday night. The win raises the Mocs to 17-9, 10-3 in the league, while Wofford drops to 20-6, 11-2 in the conference.
Chattanooga did it with defense. It limited the Terriers to 46 points, two more than their season low of 44 at West Virginia.
“It was a tough, hard-fought game at both ends,” coach Will Wade said. “I was proud of the passion we played with and our spirit. We played like we were on a mission tonight.
“Now we just have to stay on this mission for the rest of the season.”
Casey Jones led the Mocs with a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds. Duke Ethridge added nine points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Wofford was led by Karl Cochran and Justin Gordon with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Chattanooga’s one-point halftime lead swelled to nine mid-way through the second half on an Ethridge dunk. It was seven with 4:40 to go when the Terriers scored on two of three possessions to cut it to three, 44-41, on a Cochran layup with 3:38 to go.
The Mocs slammed the door shut with a 10-0 run extending the margin to 13, 54-41, on two Ronrico White free throws with 34 seconds to play. The exclamation point came half-way through the spurt as Jones’ slam dunk three-point play made it a nine-point game with 1:22 to go. White (4-4) and Greg Pryor (2-2) combined to make all six free throws in the final minute to stave off any comeback hopes.
“Tonight’s energy was definitely better,” Jones said. “We didn’t have this spirit when we played Western Carolina. I don’t know why, but we’re correcting it. It was big for us tonight having that spirit. I looked over at the bench, and they we’re going crazy and that’s really big for us.”
Wofford got off to a quick start with Cochran’s three-pointer providing a 7-2 advantage at 16:51. It would be eight-and-a-half minutes before they’d make another shot. Turnovers plagued the visitors though as they trailed 10-8 on Gordon’s dunk at 8:12.
Jones scored on three straight possessions to get the Mocs their first lead, 14-12. Ethridge’s layup with 46 seconds to go until intermission gave his squad the lead for good, 19-18.
Chattanooga shot 47.7 percent (21-44), but just 22.2 percent (2-9) from 3pt range. It limited the Terriers to 30.4 percent (17-56) from the floor, 20 percent (4-20) from beyond the arc.
The Mocs return for a three-game home stand starting Saturday with Samford. The game is the night-cap of a double-header with the women tangling with UNCG at 3 p.m. The men’s game tips at 6 p.m., and broadcasts locally on the radio at US 101 the Legend at 96.1 FM.
UTC 19 - 37 - 56
Wofford 18 - 28 - 46