Chattanooga's Casey Jone (24) draws a crowd of University of Alabama at Birmingham players including defender William Lee (34) as he shoots a jump shot on the way to a 21-point lead at the half Monday at McKenzie Arena.It was a tale of two halves for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team Monday night.
The Mocs won both of them.
The Mocs built a 21-point halftime lead but had to withstand a second-half rally by Alabama-Birmingham before pulling away for a 83-67 victory in front of 2,609 fans at McKenzie Arena. It is the program's first win over a highly regarded conference since defeating Creighton in 2005.
It is the Mocs' last game before Christmas. They host Lipscomb next Monday.
As a team, UTC (7-6) shot 46 percent from the floor but rebounded nearly half of its misses, which led to 17 second-chance points. Greg Pryor led four players in double figures with 18 points and three steals. Casey Jones followed with 14 points, nine rebounds and three assists, while Ronrico White added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Justin Tuoyo had his second double-double of the season and first since the season opener against Hiwassee, finishing with 11 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
"We're an outstanding first-half team," Pryor said. "We came out with a lot of enthusiasm; we just have to learn to bring it in the second half."
The Mocs didn't blow out the Blazers with their shooting Monday, like they had against Northern Kentucky a week ago. A large part was their effort on defense, as UAB shot 9-for-31 in the first half. UTC, meanwhile, was hitting only 44 percent but was 5-for-10 from 3-point range and 9-for-10 from the free-throw line in building a 46-25 lead 20 minutes in.
"I thought the first half was tremendous," UTC coach Will Wade said. "The key was Rico getting off to a good start. We got some really good looks; any time you score 46 in a half against a Division I team, you're doing pretty good, and we did it against Northern Kentucky, too.
"We did a nice job attacking tonight; we were very physical."
Two free throws by Martynas Bareika made it 54-28 three minutes into the second half, but the Blazers (4-8), playing their first true road game of the year, rallied by getting the ball out in transition and scoring buckets attacking the rim. They cut the deficit to 65-56 on a three-point play by Nick Norton with 6:31 remaining, but the Mocs answered with a 12-2 run over the next 3:59. Pryor had four free throws to go along with a 3-pointer. Two free throws by White, one by Jones and a dunk by Tuoyo later, the Mocs led 77-58 and controlled the game the rest of the way.
"It's a game of runs," Tuoyo said. "They started getting stops and scoring transition points, but we stuck together after that and did what we needed to do. Everybody stepped up where they needed to tonight.
"It's good to get one game at a time, and tonight was a good start."
Robert Brown led the Blazers with 19 points, while Hakeem Baxter had 15 and Norton 12. UAB shot 37 percent for the game.
The Mocs outrebounded the Blazers 41-36.
"I think the MTSU game prepared us for tonight," Wade said. "I thought we were ready to go. We had a good couple days of practice and preparation, and I thought we were locked in. When you get a big lead, the other team throws the game plan out the window, and UAB decided to put their head down and get on the offensive glass.
"I told our guys that's a good win; it's getting the win by double digits over a good team. I thought we responded in a good way."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.