NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Liker a golfer using every club in the bag on a difficult course, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team went to its bench often Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament.
But it was a player from Elon’s bench, Chris Long, who made the most of his minutes. Long hit two second-half 3-pointers that helped the seventh-seeded Phoenix pull out a 60-57 win at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Eleven players saw action in the first half for the No. 2-seeded Mocs.
Some played initially because coach John Shulman wanted to make a change; others played because they had to.
A little more than three minutes into the game, Shulman sent in five new players following a painfully slow start — the Mocs led 1-0 at the 16:56 mark. From that point on, however, foul trouble dictated a lot of the substitutions.
Point guard Kevin Bridgewaters went to the bench with his second foul at the 7:15 mark; his first-half stats were 0-for-1 from the floor, one assist and two fouls.
Forward Nicchaeus Doaks picked up his second with 5:48 to play until halftime, putting an end to a productive half in which he scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds.
Kevin Goffney, who averages nearly 20 minutes a game off the bench, picked up his second foul with 4:58 remaining, in about five minutes of action. Goffney had three points and three rebounds (two offensive) in the half.
The Mocs’ two walk-ons, Stephen McClellan and Zach Farrell, got in the game.
Keyron Sheard’s 13 minutes were the most among the reserves; at the half he had three assists, two rebounds and two turnovers.
He hit a 3-pointer early in the second half that gave the Mocs a 42-37 lead.
The Phoenix also used 11 players in the opening half and still had two players, starters Adam Costantine and TJ Douglas, pick up three fouls.
Elon was called for 14 fouls in the half and the Mocs were called for nine.
In UTC’s thrilling 57-56 win at Elon to close the regular season on March 1, both teams used a more normal rotation of nine players.
That was the case through the first 10 minutes of the second half Saturday as both teams avoided further foul trouble until Goffney was called for his fourth just past the 10:00 mark. Doaks was called for his fourth with 8:20 to play, at which point UTC led 48-45.
Doaks and Goffney returned with 3:56 to play in the game. Goffney’s 3-point attempt with about seven seconds left came up empty.
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
