Jerry Johnson, Jr., tied his collegiate career high with 26 points in an 80-76 overtime loss at Samford. Johnson’s eight 3pt made is one less than the school record.
Kevin Easley added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Mocs. Thomas Smallwood had 12 points off the bench, while David Jean-Baptiste scored 11. Josh Sharkey led Samford with 27 points. Ruben Guerrero chipped in 19 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Jena-Baptiste’s jumper in the lane with 1:34 to go gave the Mocs a three-point cushion, 67-64.
While the defense made four straight stops, Ramon Vila made it a two-possession game hitting one of two free throws with 47 seconds to play.
Sharkey broke the scoring drought five seconds later cutting the lead to two, 68-66. Samford entered the final minute with just four team fouls so it fouled three straight times finally sending Vila to the line with 27 seconds on the clock.
He missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Jean-Baptiste stepped into Sharkey’s throwing lane on a drive-and-kick for the steal. He was quickly fouled and missed the front end as well. Sharkey got fouled with 8.4 seconds left. He made one of two as the Mocs clung to the 68-67 advantage.
The ball got loose on the inbounds and ended up in Sharkey’s hands. Robert Allen missed the free throw but the clock reached 1.1 seconds, a foul was called on Myron Gordon’s prayer on the baseline. The 86.1 percent free throw shooter made the first but rimmed out the second to send it to overtime.
"When you feel like you had the game, it takes a couple of things," Coach Lamont Paris shared. "One, you have to play. You have to come out there and just make shots, then it doesn't matter. Or you have to really know, be veteran, or experienced or confident enough that we can wipe away that we just gave the game away, and we have to play five more minutes.
"That is hard to do. To do it, you have to fake like you are excited about overtime. We should have been excited about overtime. The guy missed one free throw. If he makes both, we have to go the full length of the court down one with 1.whatever seconds left. We were fortunate to get into overtime."
Sharkey and Gordon scored on the Bulldogs first two possessions for the early lead. Johnson cut it to one, 72-71, with his seventh three of the game. Sharkey and Jean-Baptiste traded baskets as the clock ticked inside a minute and Samford up three. Free throws by Guerrero came before another Johnson three with 37 seconds left.
The Mocs chose to defend down two. Allen missed a jumper and in the scrum for the ball, it rolled out of bound with 2.2 ticks remaining. The initial call was Samford ball. The replay appeared to show the ball was out off of Allen going through Jonathan Scott’s legs without touching. But there was not conclusive evidence in the only angles afforded the officials so the call stood. Starkey hit two free throws after the inbounds for the final tally of 80-76.
Chattanooga and Samford are tied in fifth-place in the league at 6-8. Wofford (15-0) is in first ahead of UNCG (11-3), ETSU (11-4) and Furman (11-4). Mercer (4-10) is seventh followed by Western Carolina (4-11), The Citadel (3-11) and VMI (1-13).
The Mocs stay on the road next weekend traveling to The Citadel Thursday and on to Mercer for a late Saturday afternoon matchup. Thursday’s game time in Charleston is 7 p.m., on ESPN3, 96.1 FM in Chattanooga as well as online at GoMocs.com and the TuneIn app.