Chattanooga Mocs burned again at Wofford

photo UTC's Sam Watson goes to the basket against Wofford's Karl Cochran (2) in the Mocs' 78-58 loss Saturday. Spartanburg Herald Journal Photo
Arkansas-Oklahoma State Live Blog

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Wofford students constructed two snowmen in the middle of Gibbs Stadium and left trails where they sledded down the north bank of the football stadium.

Some snow melted in the late afternoon and some remained through the night sub-freezing temperatures of the night.

The Wofford basketball team, especially guard Karl Cochran, could have melted it all if the Terriers had played the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga outside on Saturday night.

The Terriers (11-17, 5-10 SoCon) scorched the Mocs for 78 points on 51.9 percent shooting including 50 percent from beyond the 3-point line. And the Mocs didn't play one possession of coach John Shulman's "Fire" defense which has provided teams with open 3-point looks in previous seasons.

Cochran scored 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting including 6-of-12 from beyond the arc.

"We expect everybody to have a great game against us because everyone wants to beat us," freshman guard Gee McGhee said. "They had a great game and a great shooting night."

Cochran became the eighth player this season to score at least 25 points in a game against the Mocs (11-16, 6-8). The others are Ben McLemore of Kansas, Raheem Appleby of Louisiana Tech, Holton Hunsaker of Utah Valley, Raijon Kelly of Samford, Trey Sumler of Western Carolina, Trevis Simpson of UNC Greensboro and P.J. Horgan of The Citadel.

UTC is 3-5 in games this season when an individual opponent scores 25 or more. The Mocs are 2-7 this year when opponents score more than 75 points. The wins came in an 108-78 effort against Reinhardt and a 91-88 win over ASU in overtime.

"Taking two days off is the best thing for us," UTC coach John Shulman said after the game. "I'm not going to let this zap us."

The Mocs were down 18 points at halftime and rode Zaccheus Mason while cutting Wofford's lead to nine a little more than five minutes into the second half. Jarell Byrd slowed UTC's rally with two free throws, then a jumper and assists in Wofford's next three possessions.

"You could make an argument that he's the player of the game," Wofford coach Mike Young said.

The argument would be worthy, but it wouldn't win over Cochran's career night in which he sank 3s in transition and out of Young's intricate offensive sets.

But Byrd's efforts after UTC made it a game again absolutely zapped the Mocs for the rest of the night. And with Young coaching the Terriers, the Mocs had little hope of coming back from an 18-point hole with 6:43 to go on the road, even though they rallied from 19 down with 6:36 to go against ASU at home for an overtime victory.

Cochran made sure of it by putting Wofford ahead by 18 points then 21 points with more than five minutes to play.

The Terriers doubled their scoring out-put from 48 hours earlier at Samford when they went ahead 66-49 with almost eight minutes to play on Saturday.

"The rim may have looked like the size of an acorn at Samford," Young said. "It gets bigger the more it goes in."

By the end of Saturday, it appeared to the Terriers who shot to the north rim in the second half, almost as big as Gibbs Stadium.

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