-The Chattanooga Mocs march south this week to take on the Troy Trojans Tuesday night. The Chattanooga Mocs are 1-1 after Saturday's 59-57 win over Tennessee State. This is game two of the campaign for the Trojans after a tough 76-75 loss to UAB last Thursday.
They are back on the road for the first of two games with the Troy Trojans in 2019-20. The last non-conference home-and-home series in the same season was Jacksonville State in 2017-18, Coach Lamont Paris' first season. It was not a true home-and-home as the two met in Chattanooga in the title game of the Cayman Islands Classic Mainland Bracket, a 77-75 OT victory for the Gamecocks.
The Mocs returned the favor toppling JSU 70-67 in Jacksonville a month later.
There were a couple of good omens if you’re looking for what the potential is for this season. First, the win Saturday night was the first since March 5, 2015 when scoring less than 60 points. The last time was a 59-54 come-from-behind triumph over Samford in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Championships which was ultimately won for the 11th time by the Mocs. The most recent regular season instance was Feb. 13, 2015 at Wofford, 56-46. At home? 51-48 over Wofford on Jan. 12, 2012. Despite some early shooting woes, this shows a gritty nature.
Secondly, Chattanooga won for just the fourth time in the last three seasons when trailing at the half (4-31) as TSU held a 29-25 advantage at the break. A third point, the Tigers led by as many as 13 in the first half. The last time the Mocs made it back from such a deficit was the 96-85 triumph over Marshall on Dec. 6, 2016. The good guys trailed the Herd 38-23 late in the first half before out-scoring their guests 73-47 over the final 23:32.
This is just the second meeting with Troy. The first was a 68-61 loss in the CBE Classic in Chattanooga on Nov. 19, 2012. Tuesday’s game airs on ESPN+ as well as locally over the airwaves on WFLI 97.7 FM and 1070 AM.
The Mocs feature a trio of double-digit scorers early on this season. David Jean-Baptiste (14.5 ppg), Matt Ryan (13.0) and Rod Johnson (11.0) sit atop the column with Johnson (8.0 rpg) also pacing the effort on the boards.