GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The UNC Greensboro cheerleaders had one topic of conversation as they walked off the floor.
"We won. We actually won."
They were as surprised as anybody except the losing coach. Hey, the Spartans had only three victories prior to Thursday.
They won their fourth, 62-49 over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, on Thursday with 2,632 in attendance including family members supporting the Mocs.
"I'm not shocked," UTC coach John Shulman said. "We have to go back to work."
They must do so quickly. The Mocs play at Elon on Saturday in the sandwich game of a three-game road trip.
They appeared on the road to an easy victory midway through the first half. They led 24-8 with 9:17 to go before the break. They were hitting shots and pulling down UNCG's misses. But they lost their way in vast Greensboro Coliseum.
UTC then scored 25 points over the final 29 minutes of the game due to poor shooting and a rash of turnovers in a mirror reversal of UTC's 58-45 win over UNCG last Monday.
"Sometimes the early lead is a demon," said point guard Keegan Bell who squeezed only two points out of eight shots. "We can't be complacent. We have to play every possession."
Sophomore guard Ricky Taylor led UTC with 21 points and DeAntre Jefferson had eight off the bench. Mikko Koivisto led the Spartans with 15 points. Ben Stywall had 13 points and tied a career-high with 15 rebounds.
"We talked at halftime, 'Let's do what they did to us,'" UNCG coach Mike Dement said about his team's 29-22 deficit at half. "We came out, shot it well, rebounded exceptionally well and our guys made some things happen."
The Mocs made 18 of their 23 turnovers in the final 30 minutes of the game. Five skip-passes across the court were too high. They set illegal screens, charged and dropped perfect passes.
"We don't have one kind of turnover," Shulman said. "We weren't very good offensively."
The Mocs were so bad in the second half that they went 8:15 without a single point. That span started with UTC owning a 38-30 lead. It ended with the Mocs trailing 46-40.
Kendall Toney hit a 3-pointer to pull UNCG even at 38, then sank another on the next possession for UNCG's first lead of the game.
"I took what the defense gave me," said Toney, who had nine points. "We needed something to happen. And being a senior, I have to do those sorts of things."
Both teams shot 21-of-61 from the floor and grabbed 39 rebounds. But UNCG made 13 free throws and UTC attempted three freebies because they settled for jumpers. UTC post players attempted only 14 shots.
"We need some sort of inside presence," Shulman said. "Our inside presence is playing professionally right now.
"When you don't make shots, you're hand-cuffed because where are you going to score?"
Shulman earned himself a technical foul after the game had been decided.
Taylor attempted a layup off the glass that was swatted away by Pete Brown. Shulman swore it hit the backboard first which should have been a goaltending call. During the free throws, he chatted with one official who admitted that if Shulman was right, they screwed up the call.
"That didn't mean anything," Shulman said. "Just frustrating. It wasn't going to change the outcome of the game."