The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team lost 75-70 Tuesday night at Akron.
The Mocs (3-4) will play at home Saturday in the second half of a doubleheader against UT-Martin. The game is set for 5 p.m. at McKenzie Arena, after the women's game between the two schools at 2.
On Tuesday the Mocs trailed by double digits at halftime but shot 60 percent in the second half as they rallied to trim the deficit to as few as three points late. Yet every time UTC got close, the Zips would respond, normally with a big shot by Daniel Utomi, who finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds.
He hit a back-breaking 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to give Akron (3-1) a 75-69 lead.
"This team, I promise you, they're learning so much," UTC coach Lamont Paris - who earned his first career technical as a head coach Tuesday - said on the postgame radio broadcast. "I'm really happy with the rate at which we're learning, but there's so many lessons, so many situations to be in.
"Against Jacksonville State, you actually had a lead in the end and you have a couple of plays you don't make and you learn what types of plays to make in those situations but more importantly, what types of plays you don't make in those types of situations. Here we made some plays as it got into crunch time, but the lesson is you can't come out and be in a funk.
"We kept chopping wood and it got us where we needed to be - a possession here, a possession there - but what's unfortunate is you get a game like that and I get the technical foul. I don't like that, but I had to fight for our guys, but we had so many opportunities. We did some things well enough to get in good position, but that does not make me feel great, nor does it our guys."
The Mocs got back in the game by getting stops on defense and attacking the paint on offense, which created layup opportunities or 3-pointers when the Akron defense pulled in. Back-to-back 3s by Nat Dixon and Makale Foreman cut a 12-point deficit to 47-41, followed by a Joshua Phillips dunk two possessions later that trimmed the lead to four.
Akron pushed the lead back to nine again on three occasions, but the Mocs rallied again, with a Rodney Chatman layup making it 67-63 with 3:08 remaining. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw - one of a few key second-half misses from the line.
A Chatman free throw cut the margin to 72-69 with 52.7 seconds to play, but after an Akron timeout, Utomi caught the ball on the left wing and fired the 3 that hit nothing but net to seal the win.
Chatman scored 16 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, while all of Dixon's 16 points came in the final 20 minutes. Dixon added six rebounds and six assists - both team highs. Phillips had 11 of his 13 points in the first half and made all six of his shots in the game. James Lewis finished with nine points and five rebounds.
Makinde London, riddled with foul trouble throughout, had three first-half fouls and finished with three points on 1-for-7 shooting in 18 minutes.
Jimond Ivey and Malcolm Duvivier had 15 points each for Akron, with all but two of Duvivier's coming in the first half when he was 3-for-4 from 3.
"We started out the first half sluggish again. We've got to go back to the drawing board and get that corrected," Dixon said on the postgame radio broadcast. "I didn't feel we came out like we should have in the beginning, but at the end of the day I'm proud of the guys. We could have been stepped on and walked over, but we bounced back and fought, didn't look at the scoreboard and made it a close game.
"We just want to pull that out next time."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.