The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost its third straight basketball game Friday.
The Mocs fell 61-50 to Texas-Pan American in the South Padre Island Invitational and dropped to 2-3 for the season after losses at Richmond and at Missouri.
"Whatever could go wrong today went wrong," Mocs coach John Shulman said on the postgame radio show. "Nobody wants to feel like we're feeling now."
UTC (2-3) will face Longwood at 12:30 p.m. EST today. The Lancers (0-6) lost 66-62 to Bethune-Cookman earlier Friday.
The 50 points comprised UTC's lowest regular-season total since a 61-42 loss to Fairfield last November in Puerto Rico. UTC shot 18-of-55 (32 percent) from the field and made just 8 of 20 free throws.
"We didn't take care of our business anywhere," point guard Keegan Bell said over the air. "On the free-throw line, on defense, shooting -- we were just sloppy.
"This was a disappointing game for us."
Luis Valera led the Broncs to their first win of the season with 12 points, including 10 in the second half. Junior college transfer DeAntre Jefferson led UTC with 12 points and nine rebounds.
"A 'W' would have looked so much better to go with 15 and nine," Jefferson said. "We need a win to get momentum and feel good about ourselves.
"These were two games (counting today's) that with 'Chattanooga' on our jerseys, I thought we should have won."
Both teams struggled to score in the first half. Walk-on freshman Sam Watson gave UTC a 19-11 lead -- its largest of the game -- on a 3-pointer with 7:59 to go in the first half. But the Broncs closed the half on a 17-4 run and led 28-23 at halftime.
The Broncs extended their lead to double digit less than four minutes into the second half and boosted it to 51-33. UTC climbed within nine, but no closer, in the final minute.
"Our team is going through a frustrating phase," Bell said. "Feeling sorry for ourselves isn't going to fix it."
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