Monday the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team won big with their offense.
Thursday's win was more about the defensive end.
The Mocs limited Wofford to 37 percent shooting and Tre' McLean and Justin Tuoyo combined to score 41 points as UTC won its seventh straight game, defeating the Terriers 79-63 in front of 3,340 fans at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs (20-3, 9-1) host Furman (14-10, 8-3), the Southern Conference's second-place team, Saturday at 5 p.m. in the second half of a doubleheader.
McLean had 21 points and six rebounds. Tuoyo contributed 20 points and five blocked shots, while Chuck Ester added 12 points and six rebounds as UTC shot an efficient 58 percent from the floor and made 70 percent of its 2-point tries.
Greg Pryor added seven assists.
Justin Gordon, Fletcher Magee and Spencer Collins scored 14 each to lead the Terriers (10-13, 6-4). Collins entered the game as the league's top scorer in conference play and its top 3-point shooter (55 percent), but he shot only 3-of-16 from the floor and was 2-of-7 from 3-point range.
"We knew their offense," Tuoyo said. "That's a credit to our scout team. They did a great job preparing us all week. We knew their actions, and the guards did a great job getting through screens and we finished with boxing out."
The Terriers led 21-13 after a Ryan Sawvell jump shot midway through the first half, but the Mocs outscored the visitors 23-7 in the final 7:55 of the half and built a 36-28 lead going into the break.
"To start the game, they came out guarding us totally different from the first time, which is to be expected," UTC coach Matt McCall said. "It took a second to get in the flow, but once we settled in and started running our offense and attacking the hedging, we were much more effective."
Wofford made a couple of runs in the second half, only to be turned away by the Mocs on each occasion. A 3-pointer by Jaylen Allen cut the gap to 43-40, but UTC answered by outscoring the Terriers 19-8 over the next 6:24. The Terriers scored the next nine points to shrink the margin to 62-57 with 6:37 to go, but UTC responded with an 8-2 run and the lead never fell below nine the rest of the way.
"I admire their basketball IQ," Wofford coach Mike Young said of the Mocs. "That's what you get with seniors and juniors. Eric Robertson has seen a lot of plays; Greg Pryor has seen a lot of plays. Tuoyo is a game-changer with length, one you don't see in leagues such as ours very often.
"We had some cracks - I thought we did some very nice things - but it's February fifth and they're better than we are, but I've got a good basketball team and I like the direction of our basketball team."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.