Aryanna Gilbert shoots under the goal for UTC.
photo by M. A. Locke
There was good news and bad news from UTC’s McKenzie Arena Saturday.
The good news is that Chattanooga’s Lady Mocs overcame a poor shooting performance to defeat Western Carolina by a 47-32 final in the first game of a doubleheader.
The bad news is that the Chattanooga men got thumped by a really good team from East Tennessee State. The final score was 85-66, but it really wasn’t that close.
The Lady Mocs improve to 11-5 overall with their third straight win and they remain in a tie for first place in the Southern Conference with a 2-0 record. The Lady Mocs will be on the road for their next three games, including next Friday at ETSU.
Chattanooga’s men are still experiencing growing pains as they dropped to 6-10 overall and 0-3 in conference play. The Mocs will be back at home on Wednesday to host Furman before playing three straight on the road.
LADY MOCS 47, WESTERN CAROLINA 32: This game should have never been as close as it was as the Lady Catamounts entered Saturday’s play at 3-12, having lost five of their last six games and nine of their last 11.
But on a day when Chattanooga’s shots were simply not falling, Western hung around for most of the game. The visitors had a 19-18 lead at intermission and were only down by a point 29-28 when the fourth stanza began, but the train jumped off the track and the Lady Mocs took charge in the last 10 minutes.
“I’m happy that we won and I guess that’s the biggest thing, but we didn’t shoot the ball very well,” said Chattanooga coach Jim Foster afterward.
“Our defensive energy in the fourth quarter was big. The good news is that we got the win, but we just had to grind it out,” he added.
Western Carolina coach Stephanie McCormick could only shake her head when the final horn sounded.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game in the world as neither team played very well. I’m not at all happy with the way we played as we’re much better than that. We just need to be ready to play every time we step on the floor,” she began her post-game comments.
“Chattanooga came out and did what they had to do to win, but I really didn’t see any positives on our side. We were missing our top three scorers, but that’s not an excuse for us,” she added.
Julia Brown scored seven of her nine points in the first four minutes of the game as the Lady Cats built a 7-3 lead. The Lady Mocs responded with a 9-0 run in the next three minutes for a 12-7 lead following a three-point play by Aryanna Gilbert with 2:47 left in the first stanza.
Emily Hatfield scored on a putback in the final minute as Chattanooga’s lead was 12-9 at the first break.
The Lady Mocs scored six of the first eight points in the second to lead 18-11 with 7:26 to play, but Western then scored eight straight points the rest of the way while holding Chattanooga scoreless for an improbable 19-18 lead at the half.
Western’s lead stretched to 26-20 with 6:09 left in the third on another putback by Hatfield before the Lady Mocs closed out the quarter on a 9-2 run for a 29-28 lead with one quarter remaining.
Chattanooga then put the game away with an 11-0 run in the first six minutes of the fourth as the Lady Catamounts were only one of 14 from the field in the final stanza as the Lady Mocs finally pulled away for the victory.
Keiana Gilbert scored 16 points to lead the Lady Mocs while her sister Aryanna was also in double figures with 11. Lakelyn Boldin, who entered the game averaging more than 13 points per game, finished with just seven after hitting just two of 15 shots from the field.
Hatfield was tops for Western Carolina with 14 points while Brown was next with nine.
Chattanooga hit 28.6 percent of its shots from the field on 16 of 56 and were even worse from long range as they only hit two of 21 from 3-point range for 9.5 percent.
Western Carolina was equally as cold with 26.9 percent from the field on 14 of 52 and 23.1 percent from long range after hitting just three of 13.
Chattanooga also had a 43-35 advantage in rebounds as Bouldin grabbed eight for the Lady Mocs. Arianne Whitaker, Keiana Gilbert and Aryanna Gilbert all snagged seven apiece.
Hatfield had 10 to lead the Lady Catamounts.
EAST TENNESSEE MEN 85, UTC 66: This game was never really close as the Buccaneers sank two 3s in the first minute and had a 9-0 lead before Joshua Phillips sank the second of two free throws for Chattanooga’s first point with 17:27 left in the first half.
It was indeed an impressive start for the visitors from Johnson City as they sank 20 of 31 field goals in the opening 20 minutes for a blistering 64.5 percent and the Bucs were never seriously challenged after building a comfortable 48-27 halftime lead.
Jason Williams canned a 3 from the wing with 5:21 showing to give ETSU a 39-18 lead before the Mocs responded by scoring seven straight points.
ETSU answered in a hurry with a 9-0 run and the lead was its largest at 48-27 after Chattanooga’s Rodney Chatman scored on a reverse layup right before intermission.
The Mocs never quit and even had a 39-37 advantage scoring in the second half, but that early hole was simply too deep as the Buccaneers improved to 12-4 overall and 3-0 in SoCon play.
It’s been one road trip after another for the Bucs in the first half of the season as nine of their 16 games have been away from home. Saturday’s win was ETSU’s sixth straight and 10th in its last 11 games. ETSU coach Steve Forbes will be thrilled to get back home.
“Our strength this year has been our numbers as we have good depth, but we came out ready to go today and I was really glad to see that,” he said in the media room afterward.
“Playing on the road has really toughened our team, but it will be nice to get back home.
“I was really happy with the first half as we got on a roll early, although it got a little sloppy in the second half. I was most worried about their outside shooting as I didn’t want their crowd to get involved, but I thought we did a nice job defending the 3-point line,” he added.
Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris felt like the Buccaneer defensive pressure in the first half may have been the difference in the game.
“It was physical and there were a lot of fouls early. Their defensive pressure caused us to make some bad decisions as we didn’t do a very good job of reacting to what they were doing,” the first-year coach suggested.
“We were much better in the second half and there were times when we competed hard. We could have made a few more plays to make it interesting in the second half, but we didn’t. We were shooting free throws early in the first half and not really able to capitalize, but it’s just a matter of maturing and growing up,” he added after his team sank just nine of 17 from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes.
Peter Jurkin, a bulky seven-footer, was tops for ETSU with 15 points and 11 rebounds as he was one of four Bucs in double figures.
Mladen Armus was next with 14 points in just nine minutes while Desonta Bradford had 13 and Devontavius Payne finished with a dozen.
Nat Dixon was tops for Chattanooga with 20 points while Phillips followed with 17 and Makinde London 10 before fouling out midway through the second half.
With Jurkin leading the way, ETSU had a 42-29 advantage in rebounds. Jonathan Bryant II was tops for the Mocs with six while London had five in 17 minutes of action.
WOMEN’S SUMMARY
WESTERN CAROLINA 9 10 9 4 -- 32
CHATTANOOGA 12 6 11 18 -- 47
WESTERN CAROLINA (32) – Moates 2, Brown 9, Johnson 3, Allen, Mitchem 4, Ruiz, Harris, Hatfield 14.
CHATTANOOGA (47) – Whitaker 5, Dial 3, K. Gilbert 16, Bouldin 7, A. Gilbert 11, Long, Davenport 3, Burns, Lee 2, Wert.
3-POINT GOALS: Western Carolina 3-13; Chattanooga 2-21.
REBOUNDS: Western Carolina 35 (Hatfield 10); Chattanooga 43 (Bouldin 8, Whitaker 7, K. Gilbert 7, A. Gilbert 7).
MEN’S SUMMARY
EAST TENNESSEE STATE (85) – Burrell 9, Jurkin 15, Bradford 13, McCloud 7, Long 2, Obi-Rapu 2, Hodges 6, Williams 3, Payne 12, Harrison 2, Reppart, Armus 14.
CHATTANOOGA (66) – Dixon 20, London 10, Phillips 17, Foreman 4, Chatman 4, Jean-Baptiste 4, Bowers 2, Bryant II 5.
REBOUNDS: ETSU 42 (Jurkin 11); Chattanooga 29 (Bryant 6, London 5).
HALFTIME SCORE: ETSU, 48-27.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)