James Lewis leaving UTC basketball team

James Lewis will leave the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball program and pursue a transfer, he announced on his Twitter page recently.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pounder played in 27 games with 21 starts in his lone season with the program, averaging 7.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Mocs. He suffered a shoulder injury in a Dec. 23 contest against Georgia State and missed six games.

Lewis was averaging 9.3 points and 5.9 rebounds at the time of the injury and had just registered a double-double against Tennessee Tech on Dec. 17 (15 points, 11 rebounds). He had 12 points and six rebounds in his first game back against Wofford but did not re-create his early-season success after that.

He becomes the fourth player on the 2017-18 roster not expected to return. Junior Makinde London has declared for the NBA draft, while classmate Nat Dixon announced his intention to graduate and transfer for his final season. Freshman Jonathan Bryant also will transfer out.

UTC will have eight new players on the active roster for next season. Guard Jerry Johnson and forward Ramon Vila both transferred in and will be eligible, although Vila will have to sit out the first semester. The Mocs have signed six players: graduate transfer forward Thomas Smallwood, junior college guard Jonathan Scott, freshman guards Maurice Commander and Donovann Toatley and freshman forwards Kevin Easley and Keigan Kerby.

In addition, redshirted freshman forwards Justin Brown and Duane Moss will be back. Brown missed the entire season with an upper-body injury, while Moss played in seven games, averaging 4.9 points and 2.9 rebounds and shooting 57 percent from 3-point range before an upper-body injury took him out the rest of the season.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.

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