Lucky for Will Wade, his job is to win games as the coach for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team. Not win them in a certain way, but just to win.
Because there was little pretty about the Mocs' game Thursday night except for the final score.
UTC's Justin Tuoyo, center, and Casey Jones, bottom, knock down a shot by Western Carolina's Mike Brown (2) Thursday at McKenzie Arena.Casey Jones had another double-double and Justin Tuoyo tied the record for most blocked shots in a Southern Conference game with nine as UTC defeated Western Carolina 66-60 in front of 2,724 at McKenzie Arena. The Mocs improved to 36-3 all-time at home in the series.
The Mocs (10-7, 3-1) blocked 15 shots, which tied the school record set Dec. 18, 2001, against Bluefield College. They also tied Virginia Military Institute for the top blocks total in a SoCon game this season.
Four UTC players scored in double figures. Jones led the team with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Tuoyo had 15 points and Ronrico White and Eric Robertson scored 11 each.
White played all 40 minutes at the point guard position, as No. 1 point Greg Pryor, who had been nursing a hip injury all season, was unable to play after aggravating it in the loss to Wofford on Monday. In addition, Lance Stokes suffered an ankle injury during the game Thursday.
The Mocs play Saturday at East Tennessee State.
"That's a toughness game," Wade said. "We've got tough guys, and that's a heck of an effort to get off the floor. Our guys responded. It's easy to say, 'We lost to Wofford,' or 'We lost our point guard.' It wasn't pretty, but you have to find a way and that's what we did. I'm proud as heck of our guys; we were outrebounded and outshot by 20. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but we found a way to win."
James Sinclair scored 18 points for the Catamounts (7-9, 2-2). Mike Brown added 14, while Torrion Brummitt had 12 to go along with eight rebounds. Rhett Harrelson, who was top-10 in the country averaging 3.5 made 3-pointers per game, was limited to five attempts and two makes while being guarded by White.
The Mocs battled to a 33-24 lead at the break, aided by a 13-3 run in the final 6:58 of the first half. They led 41-35 after a coast-to-coast layup by Chuck Ester, but on the next possession, tempers flared after an offensive rebound by Jones. Tuoyo and Ester for the Mocs and Sinclair and Justin Browning for the Catamounts were all issued technicals, with the foul on Browning his fifth.
"We knew that they were a tough physical team," Tuoyo said. "We just stayed together, buckled down and tried to get a stop. It's SoCon competition; nobody is going to back down in this league. We were down a player with GP, and everybody stepped up more, contributed and did what we had to do."
WCU cut the UTC lead to 46-45 on a runner by Harrelson with 9:45 to go, but the Mocs answered with an 11-2 spurt to put the game away.
The Mocs were 19-for-24 from the free-throw line in the second half and 25-for-33 for the game. WCU was 13-for-18.
"I thought both teams competed well," Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter said. "The 11-3 spurt the last three minutes of the first half was big because it put them in the driver's seat, and when we had our spurt to start the second half, they still had the lead.
"We cut it to one in the second half, and there's a lot of time to go and a lot of things could happen in a short amount of time, but they scored a bundle at the free-throw line. It's hard to guard that."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.