The Chattanooga Mocs could not get over the hump Saturday evening against the Mercer Bears in an 85-80 Southern Conference loss. Mercer built a lead, the Mocs roared back. But in the end, it wasn’t enough.
It was a 10-point advantage, 50-40, when Chattanooga made it’s move. Trey Doomes three-point play sparked a 7-0 run culminating in a Ramon Vila free throw at 11:46. The Bears answered with three straight scoring trips to get it back to eight in just 60 second.
Back-to-back David Jean-Baptiste scores preceded a Vila put back for a 2-point deficit.
Jeff Gary responded with a three before Kamar Robertson’s layup to take the lead safely back to seven.
It reached 11 and was a nine-point spread heading into the final minute, but the Mocs did not go quietly into that good night.
Jean-Baptiste and Doomes sandwiched an Ethan Stair one-and-one free throw miss. That cut it to five which is where it basically stayed until Jean-Baptiste struck again with 2.7 to play with a three making it 83-80. The Mocs pressure forced the Bears to take their final timeout trying to inbound the ball. Out of the timeout, Patrick Urey hit Stair streaking deep into the front court for the final score.
The normally solid work on the defensive glass failed the Mocs today allowing 11 offensive boards resulting in 18 second chance points.
“You can’t give up 18 second chance points,” Coach Lamont Paris shared. “Somebody keeps telling me where we rank on our percentage of rebounds that we give up when a team misses against us, I don’t know, but I didn’t see it today, that’s for sure.
“The biggest thing is that we just couldn’t get a stop. We gave up 85, but we were on track to give up 80 at the half. We had this speech at halftime about what we need to do. We’re going to score enough points, but defensively we’ve got to do better.”
Jean-Baptiste led the way with 20. Vila tallied 18 followed by Matt Ryan’s 16. Doomes registered 13 points, six rebounds and two assists off the bench. Maciej Bender and Gary paced the Bears with 17. Robertson had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Congratulations are in order for Ryan scoring his 1,000th career point today. More on the below, but it came on a three-point play which just seems appropriate.
There’re just two games remaining in the regular season. The Mocs head to VMI Wednesday before return Saturday for senior day hosting UNC Greensboro. Next Saturday has a lucrative vibe. One fortunate soul gets a challenge to win $25,000.
The innovative "pick-a-spot" promotion makes its first appearance in the Roundhouse. The contestant picks one spot, anywhere on the court, to shoot for the $25k. The catch is they take two shots, one at each goal. Make them both, and they're the stuff of legends.
Ticket offers abound as well. Not only is it Sequatchie County Day with $10 lower level seats for our friends and neighbors there, it's also Leap Year Day. Fans can purchase Two, 300 level General Admission tickets for ONLY $9 or they can also purchase 4 Lower Level seats for ONLY $29. There's also the new "All You Can Eat" option.