BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Dealt with some pregame adversity, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team still put itself in a position to gain a key road win Wednesday.
It still wasn't good enough.
The Mocs shot 1-for-9 in overtime, and Samford was able to pull away in the extra period for a 72-68 Southern Conference win in front of 1,874 at the Pete Hanna Center.
UTC (19-9, 10-6) will host Mercer on Saturday, honoring five seniors - Johnathan Burroughs-Cook, Casey Jones, Tre' McLean, Greg Pryor and Justin Tuoyo - in the process.
The Mocs were without one of those seniors, Pryor, on Wednesday, as the 6-foot-2 point guard with 122 career starts was out with a concussion suffered in practice on Tuesday. In addition, McLean didn't start the game for a violation of team rules but still played a team-high 41 minutes and finished with 19 points and five rebounds.
The Mocs shot 34 percent from the field for the game - 25 percent in the second half and overtime. They stayed close by pounding the boards, with 18 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds and 14 fast-break points.
True freshman Rodney Chatman started in place of Pryor and had 12 points, four rebounds and three assists in 35 minutes, battling foul trouble for much of the second half and overtime.
Tuoyo led the team with 20 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 1:58 to play and the Bulldogs up by one point. UTC coach Matt McCall called that a "key point" in the game.
"Losing him in that situation really hurt," McCall said. "It changed momentum. Wyatt Walker's eyes kind of lit up and he kind of took the game over down the stretch."
Walker led the Bulldogs (17-12, 8-8) with 15 points, adding 13 rebounds and five assists. Demetrius Denzel-Dyson had 13, with Josh Sharkey scoring 12 and Christen Cunningham 11.
Samford shot 69 percent from the floor in the first half, making every shot available. The Bulldogs made contested shots; wide-open shots, just by attacking the rim. The team finished 2-for-9 from 3-point range, with both coming in the first half.
The Mocs shot a respectable 48 percent from the floor in the first half, but the Bulldogs built a 10-point lead before taking a 42-34 lead into the locker room.
The Mocs started the second half on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to one, but trailed until a McLean 3 with 6:03 to play tied the game at 57. Samford built the lead back to four, but UTC answered with a 6-0 run, taking the lead on two Chatman free throws with 45 seconds to play.
Walker answered with a bucket to tie the game, then Chatman had a turnover in the final seconds to send the game into extra time.
The Mocs had only one field goal in the extra period on a drive by Jones with 21 seconds remaining. That cut the lead to 67-66, and after the teams traded a pair of free throws, Sharkey made two and then McLean missed a last-ditch heave before the final buzzer.
The loss is the Mocs' fifth in nine games.
"It's gut-check time. Put up or shut up," McLean said. "We have to come together, get back to work tomorrow. We just have to take things one day at a time, one practice at a time, and in the games take it one possession at a time.
"It's time to come together."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.