BOX SCORE |
QUOTES |
NOTES
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 6) --- The No. 1 seeded Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team cruised to a dominating 79-56 victory over No. 4 Wofford to advance to the 2022 Ingles Southern Conference Championships title game on Sunday afternoon inside the Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina.
Following the win, Chattanooga improves to 26-7 overall and earns a spot in the SoCon title game for the first time since 2016 and 19th overall in program history. Chattanooga will face No. 2 Furman in tomorrow's championship game at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Wofford fell to 19-13 overall following the defeat.
Chattanooga grabbed a quick two-point lead just 1:03 into the game and never gave it up. The Mocs shot a blistering 61.5% (16-of-26) from the floor in the first half and led by as much as 26 in the later parts of the second. The effort was more than complete on both sides of the ball.
"Not a lot I can say about the performance that these guys put on today defensively especially coming out of the gates," said head coach
Lamont Paris.
"I just can't say enough about the juice we had in the first half defensively. And we carried that in to the second half. Really locked into what we were trying to accomplish. We were very competitive defensively and that's what we wanted to do."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Chattanooga raced out to a 12-5 lead at the 14:24 mark of the opening half after
Malachi Smith and
Darius Banks each chipped in with triples on the offensive end. Wofford responded with five-straight points before
David Jean-Baptiste concerted an and-one opportunity to put UTC ahead 15-10 (12:51).
A physical battle broke out over the next five-plus minutes as Chattanooga continued to lead, 19-14 (7:56), after back-and-forth action on both sides of the ball. The Mocs put together an 8-0 run over the stretch of two minutes to extend out to a 29-17 lead with 4:15 remaining in the half.
UTC continued to dominate on the defensive end which allowed for the offense to capitalize on numerous opportunities. The Mocs held Wofford to just five points over the final 6:42 of the half while forcing four turnovers during that span.
Offensively, Chattanooga connected on its final six shot attempts of the half from the floor and saw the outburst capped off with a Smith three-ball right before the buzzer. UTC held a 38-20 lead at the break after finishing the half shooting 61.5% (16-of-26) from the field while limiting Wofford to a 36.4% (8-of-22) tally. UTC scored 11 points off eight Terrier turnovers.
It was a fast start to the second half as the two teams combined to make seven of the first eight field goal attempts. Jean-Baptiste knocked down his first three of the game at the 15:59 mark before Wofford nailed a layup on ensuing possession to make it 47-30 (15:42) in favor of Chattanooga.
The Mocs continued to keep separation from the Terriers on the help of a 70.0% (7-of-10) start from the floor and led 57-39 with 11:05 remaining in the contest. Smith buried a three on a second-chance rebound from
Silvio De Sousa to put UTC ahead 62-41 (9:15) before an additional 7-2 spurt extended the lead to 69-43 (6:40).
Chattanooga capped off the dominating wire-to-wire performance by leading as much as 26 before eventually finishing off a 79-55 victory. The Mocs shot 58.3% (28-of-48) from the field while out-scoring Wofford by a 20-7 margin in points off turnovers and out-rebounding them by a 32-20 spread.
UTC featured four double-digit scorers with Smith leading all scorers with 25 points and completed the double-double by tying a game-high with 10 rebounds. Banks (17), Jean-Baptiste (14) and De Sousa (12) joined Smith in reaching double figures while the latter added in five boards.
RECORDS – Chattanooga (26-7) – Wofford (19-13)
SERIES – Chattanooga now leads the all-time series 29-20 and evened its SoCon Tournament record against the Terriers to 2-2.
NOTES TO KNOW
- 59-33 all-time in the SoCon Tournament… 19-6 in the semifinals… 25th semifinal game ranks only behind and Davidson (33), Furman (27) in league tourney lore… 19 wins matches Davidson's all-time record for doorstep contests.
- Top-seeded Mocs advance to Monday's title game at 7 p.m., on ESPN… play
the winner of Furman-Samford in game two of the day… 19th finals appearance all-time with 11 wins… ties Davidson for the league record for finals reached with a chance to match the Wildcats' mark of 12 wins…West Virginia (10) is the only other team with double-digit tourney crowns.
- 56 points are the fewest allowed by Chattanooga in a SoCon Tournament game since the 2016 SoCon Champs held Samford to 54 (March 5)…fewest in a semifinal matchup since the 2005 SoCon Champs limited Appalachian State to 51 (March 4).
- 6th time with 26 or more wins in a season... last was school-record 29 by the 2016 SoCon Champions... topped 26 in 1976-77 (27-5), 1981-82 (27-4), 1982-83 (26-4), 1992-93 (26-7) & 2015-16 (29-6).
Check out all the notes at the link above.
QUOTABLE
"I think we had a good win. Like we said in the locker room, that's where I'm going to leave it, but I know that our team isn't satisfied. We packed to be here until Tuesday." –
Darius Banks on the winning feeling.
"I don't know. I think we're beyond that point at this point. We've played a lot of games. We've seen a lot of teams that can shoot those 3s. We've played teams that are faster, slower, more man, more zone matchups. We've seen so much so far. We're going to play a team tomorrow that we've played two times already. The way this game prepares you is to look back at something you've done recently that you did really well. I think to some degree that affects your mindset going into the next game." –
Lamont Paris on tomorrow's preparations.
Check out all the quotes at the link above.
UP NEXT – Chattanooga vs. (2) Furman OR (3) Samford – Mon., March 7 – 7PM ET – 2022 SoCon Tournament
SOCON TOURNAMENT RESULTS/SCHEDULE
Friday, March 4 (ESPN+)
Game 1 – (9) The Citadel 84, (8) ETSU 76 (OT)
Game 2 - (7) Mercer 81, (10) Western Carolina 53
Saturday, March 5 (ESPN+/Nexstar)
Game 3 - (1) Chattanooga 71, (9) The Citadel 66
Game 4 - (4) Wofford vs. (5) VMI, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 - (2) Furman 80, (7) Mercer 66
Game 6 - (3) Samford 66, (6) UNCG 64
Sunday, March 6 (ESPNU)
Game 7 – (1) Chattanooga 79, (4) Wofford 56
Game 8 – (2) Furman 71, (3) Samford 68
Monday, March 7 (ESPN)
Championship - (1) Chattanooga vs. (2) Furman, 7 p.m .ET
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