The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball dropped an 83-63 decision at No. 4 Iowa State Mondayevening at Hilton Coliseum. The Mocs could not slow the Cyclones from long range as the hosts hit a season-high 14 three-pointers.
"I told the guys we could not let three-point defense catch up to us,” coach Matt McCall said.
“That is exactly what we did
tonight. It caught up to us. We have not done a good job defending the three all year. They come in and make 14 out of 29 and shooting 48%. We go five for 20. At the end of the day, that is the difference in the ballgame.
"We were pretty even on the glass. We had 12 offensive rebounds, which I am happy about. Playing on the road and a team makes 14 threes, you have no shot, especially against a top 5 team."
Senior Casey Jones led the Mocs with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. He scored his 1,000th career point on a jumper at 11:43 in the first half. He’s the first UTC men’s basketball student-athlete to tally 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 150 assists in a career.
"He was the one guy who was really aggressive in the first half,” McCall added. “I did not feel like he was intimidated at all. He tried to impose his will on the offensive end of the floor. He was aggressive.
“In a game like this, you need your seniors to be aggressive."
The Mocs got an early lead, but a flurry of three-pointers put the Cyclones in control. It was a single-digit score late into the first half when ISU went on a 14-3 run to go up by 19, 44-25, on three by Nazareth Mitrou-Long at1:52. Jones and Johnathan Burroughs-Cook scored the last two buckets to get it to 15, 44-29, at the break.
Mitrou-Long, who led all scorers with 24, hit his sixth 3pt of the contest at 15:25 to give the home team its largest lead of 23, 60-37. Dee Oldham’s back-to-back treys cut it to 17 at 14:19. But the Mocs could not develop a sustained run.
All-American Georges Niang and Monte Morris scored 19 and 14, respectively, for the Cyclones. Morris added 10 assists, two blocks and three steals.
Justin Tuoyo and Johnathan Burroughs-Cook added nine points apiece for the visitors from the Scenic City. Tuoyo added three blocks and a team-high seven rebounds as the Mocs matched ISU with 37 rebounds. Burroughs-Cook made a season-high four steals.
The road show continues this weekend with the Emerald Coast Classic. Alabama State is up next Friday at NoonEastern time in Niceville, Fla., at the Arena at Northwest Florida State College. Consolation (Noon) and Championship (2:30 p.m.) games are on Saturday with Chicago State and Jacksonville State in the other half of the bracket.
Check the men's basketball schedule page on GoMocs.com for links to audio and live stats. Follow @GoMocsMBB for live tweets from the contest.