Justin Tuoyo prides himself as the last line of defense for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team. He is one of many options for the Mocs offensively.
Thursday night against The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., every option UTC coach Will Wade used was effective.
All 10 Mocs who played scored, and they won their Southern Conference opener 67-48 in front of 1,220 fans at McAlister Fieldhouse. They next play Northern Kentucky on Tuesday at McKenzie Arena.
Tuoyo was 7-for-11 from the field, finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots -- five of which came in the first half.
"That's my role. My role is to bring something on the defensive end," Tuoyo said. "If we do everything we're supposed to do on the defensive end, the offense will come."
The Mocs held the Bulldogs to 40 percent shooting. UTC's Tre McLean, who had a lot of family and friends in attendance as he played in his hometown, was assigned the role of guarding Ashton Moore, who had 21 points, nine rebounds and six assists when the teams played last year -- a three-point win for the Mocs.
McLean held Moore to 3-for-7 shooting and nine points.
"Ashton is a pretty good player. ... I know him personally," McLean said. "Coach told me that if I did one thing tonight, it would be play defense. Defense travels, and we did that tonight."
To show the team's balance Thursday, the Mocs' first 10 baskets were scored by 10 players. They took a 21-11 lead, but the Bulldogs rallied to tie the game at 21. The Mocs answered with a 10-2 run, capped by Martynas Bareika's 3-pointer at the buzzer -- his first basket of the season in his first game -- to give UTC a 31-23 lead at the break.
The Mocs shot 50 percent in the first half and topped that by shooting at 52 percent in the final 20 minutes. They stretched their lead to 15 four minutes into the second half and topped 20 on a pair of free throws by Duke Ethridge with 12:13 remaining.
Greg Pryor had 11 points and five rebounds for UTC. McLean and Ronrico White each scored eight points, while the four guys playing the 4 position -- Bareika, Ethridge, Lance Stokes and Chuck Ester -- combined for 19 points and 11 rebounds.
"I thought we played well," Wade said. "The guys did a nice job. The Citadel is a really good team; I was worried about their physicality, but the guys were locked in and followed the game plan. We've been doing great things in practice, and that's bound to show up in games.
"I thought we got great contributions from a lot of folks. Everybody knows I've been begging for Duke and Chuck to give us something. They had 10 and eight rebounds tonight; those were huge. If we can get that every night, we'd be in business."
The Citadel center P.J. Horgan was the most effective Bulldog with 17 points, nine rebounds and six blocks going head up against Tuoyo.
But Tuoyo and the Mocs got the much bigger stat -- the conference win. It'll be their only SoCon game until the calendar turns to 2015, as they have five nonconference games -- four at home -- before hosting Furman on Jan. 3.
"We just got together, followed the game plan and played our style of play," Tuoyo said. "Tonight felt good; everybody did their thing tonight."