UTC Mocs logoWith three straight road games upcoming, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team needed a win Saturday against The Citadel, especially coming off a hard-fought loss at Mercer on Thursday.
At times it seemed easy; at times it was much more difficult. But the Mocs got it.
UTC put together a dominant first half but struggled at times in the final 20 minutes before pulling out a 78-73 win over the Bulldogs in a Southern Conference game in front of 4,307 fans at McKenzie Arena. The win, coupled with Mercer's 49-46 loss at Wofford, ended the Mocs' brief stay in third place, as they moved back into second.
Casey Jones led UTC (15-8, 8-2) with 23 points, with 19 coming in the first half. Greg Pryor and Ronrico White added 14 each.
The Mocs shot 70 percent from the field in taking a 47-30 lead into halftime. They had 18 points off nine Bulldogs turnovers in the first half, 28 off 15 turnovers for the game.
Jones was 8-for-10 from the field in the first half. He's shown more aggressiveness in the first half of games as of late, with a 12-point output in the opening half at Mercer.
"If I see the first shot go in, I try to get the second one," Jones said. "If that one goes in, I just keep shooting. That's all that's been going on with me lately."
The Bulldogs (8-13, 3-7), who handed Wofford its only loss in conference play, fought back in the second half. The UTC lead swelled to 21 on a 3-pointer by Pryor two minutes into the half, but the visitors rallied, using a 17-4 run to trim the margin to 57-49 with 11:56 to play.
The Mocs answered with seven consecutive points, and the lead hung around double figures until one final run by The Citadel cut it to 73-66 with 2:32 to play.
The Mocs hit six of eight free throws the rest of the way -- they were 20-of-26 for the game -- and rendered a 3-pointer by Warren Sledge with one second to play meaningless.
"They're a tough guard," UTC coach Will Wade said of the Bulldogs. "They run good stuff and stir you up, and they have some guys that can really drive. I thought in the first half we guarded very well. They had 30 points, but I thought that 10 of those were tough shots at the end of the shot clock.
"In the second half we really were lacking with our defense. We made our FT down the stretch and guys step up and make them. It's good when guards can make them; it certainly helped us keep them at bay for a while."
Ashton Moore led five Bulldogs in double figures with 18 points. Brian White added 17 and Sledge had 12, while P.J. Horgan and Quinton Marshall scored 10 each.
UTC doesn't play at home again until Feb. 14 against Samford, as trips to Furman, Western Carolina and first-place Wofford are the next three games on the schedule.
"We think that every game is big," Jones said. "The next game is bigger than the last. We took a hard-fought loss Thursday, and we really wanted to come back and get this win, and that's what we did."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.