The Chattanooga Mocs and Furman went down to the wire with first-place in the Southern Conference on the line in Timmons Arena Thursday night. The Paladins escaped with a 60-56 victory.
The Paladins led 54-52 after Devin Sibley made two free throws with 5:32 to play. Chattanooga tied it almost three minutes later, 54-54, on Tre’ McLean’s layup on one of Justin Tuoyo’s career-high-tying four assists. After Johns Davis III missed the front end of a one-and-one, Casey Jones put the visitors up two, 56-54, with 2:10 to play.
Daniel Fowler’s two free throws on the ensuing possession knotted the score with 1:48 remaining.
The two squads traded empty possessions for two straight trips before Furman had the ball with a three-second difference between the shot and game clock. Kris Acox scored on a jumper in the paint with 5.6 on the clock.
The Mocs immediately in-bounded the ball and Greg Pryor darted to the basket getting fouled as he crossed the free throw line. With 0.4 on the clock, Pryor’s first free throw was a tad long. The intentional miss on the second led to a foul call on the rebound on the Mocs. Furman hit two free tosses with 0.3 to go for the final margin.
Johnathan Burroughs-Cook led all scorers with 16. Tuoyo had 13 points and a game-high seven rebounds, while McLean netted 12. Sibley had 13 points and six rebounds for the Paladins. Davis added 12 points, as Fowler chipped in 10.
It was a quick start for UTC scoring the nine of the first 11 points. Furman turned the tide and had a four-point lead, 29-25, with 4:04 until intermission on a Davis layup. Two Rodney Chatman free throws got the Mocs started on a 14-4 spurt that ended with a Burroughs-Cook buzzer-beating triple.