Taylor scores 27 in Mocs' tune-up

The lights came on. The cheerleaders danced. The fans cheered, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga accomplished its primary goal by dispatching Tennessee Wesleyan 103-60 in a men's basketball exhibition game Saturday night in McKenzie Arena.

"We have a long way to go," UTC coach John Shulman said. "Just being reliable and dependable on defense. I know we got some stops, but I don't think we got them the way we want to get stops."

UTC sophomore guard Ricky Taylor led all players with 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Junior forward Ridge McKeither added 17 points and eight rebounds and fellow junior college transfer DeAntre Jefferson added 13 points and six rebounds.

Freshman Matt Harper, from McMinn Central, led Wesleyan with 19 points. Matt Towry added 12 for the Bulldogs, who will play another exhibition at Samford on Monday.

"Thank God it's over," TWC coach Mike Poe joked. "This was a good exhibition for us because we got to run our stuff against bigger and stronger people. I thought we got good looks at the basket that I know in our conference we're going to make."

Some of the Mocs were impervious to the setting inside McKenzie Arena. Freshman Josh Odem and walk-on Dontay Hampton drew praise from Shulman. Others simply shook off some rust or shrank under the bright lights for the first time this season.

"It was personally frustrating," said point guard Keegan Bell, who sat out last year after transferring from Vanderbilt. "I definitely felt that year of. It was good for me to get out there. It was more difficult that I thought it would be."

Indiana inspiration

Shulman stole a tradition unlike any other.

Two years ago when the Mocs opened their season at Indiana, Shulman turned to assistant Dave Conrady during warm-ups and pointed at Indiana's traditional red-and-white candy-striped warm-up pants and said, "Get us pants like that."

Conrady came through.

UTC wore candy-striped blue-and-gold pants with new Nike tops before the game. Indiana has worn the candy-stripe look for decades, and that is part of the Hoosiers' storied tradition.

"I love Indiana's sweats," Shulman said. "They're just so cool. I have nothing to do with our uniforms, but I wanted that.

"When the guys walked into our pregame meeting, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh.'"

Walk-ons get to run

UTC's three walk-ons all made their UTC debuts during the first half on Saturday and all three scored in the game. Hampton, a redshirt freshman from CSAS, scored on a steal and layup in the second half.

Drew Baker, who began the season as a manager, drew a smile from Shulman when he had one shot stuffed and followed it with an easy put-back. Watson scored on a layup drawing loud cheers from a couple friends in the stands.

They combined for 17 rebounds, 12 points, and one turnover.

"I looked up at one point during the game and I had three walk-ons on the floor," Shulman said. "And it wasn't the end of the game."

Trash talk

Shulman and Poe share a passion for basketball competition and golf. But Poe, also TWC's golf coach, made it clear who'd win if they hit the links.

"I'd beat him," Poe said, "like they beat us tonight."