The Chattanooga Mocs used its deepest weapon to capture the first road win of the Lamont Paris era. The squad nailed 12 triples in the 70-67 triumph at Jacksonville State.
Makale Foreman tied his career high of 18 points. Nat Dixon added 19, while James Lewis, Jr., chipped in 15 points and nine rebounds.
Rodney Chatman posted 10 points and a career-high 14 assists. Malcolm Drumwright led the home team with 17 points, with Christian Cunningham came off the bench for 14 points and 12 boards.
Foreman hit a career-best six, three in each half. His last was the dagger shot.
Cunningham gave JSU the 67-64 lead following his own miss with 1:38 to play. It took just 19 seconds for Dixon to answer. His short jumper at 1:19 included a trip to the line as Norbetas Giga got him on the arm during the stroke.
Dixon knotted it t 67-all. After the Gamecocks missed on their end, Lewis cleaned the glass. The Mocs worked the offensive plan. Chatman distributed to Foreman whose sixth 3pt was true with 29 seconds to go.
"I knew it was going to go in,” Dixon said. “We try to play unselfish basketball and Rodney [Chatman] drove and gave him a great kick-out. Balls tend to go in a lot more when you are playing a team game.
“When you play the right way, things start going your way."
After a timeout, Drumwright passed to Giga who missed from 3pt range. Makinde London kept the ball in play to Foreman who was quickly fouled with 10.5 remaining. The in-bounds pass went to Chatman who was quickly fouled with a little more than nine seconds on the clock.
His one-and-one was off the mark, but the Mocs got back on defense. All the Gamecocks could muster was a hotly-contested three which fell short into the waiting arms of Foreman as time expired.
"That was just a regular shot I shoot every day,” Foreman recalled about the game-winner. “It's just the ability to be ready to shoot the ball during crunch time. You just have to always be ready in that situation."
Beyond the 3pt marksmanship, the Mocs took care of the ball. They made a mere three turnovers in the second-half surge out-scoring the Gamecocks 45-35 over the final 20 minutes. The nine total are the fewest against a DI opponent this season.
“We had to make 12 three’s today like we had to make 10 last time,” Paris shared on the post-game radio show. “You have to stretch the floor a little bit to soften them up inside. You have to throw some punches to get them off balance. We competed so much harder in the second half.
“I thought there was a lot of growth today. We did a good job of executing and I felt like we were in the right place to do what we wanted to do for majority of the game."