Ending a three-game road series, East Tennessee State University came out and punched the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team in the mouth early.
The Mocs never were able to recover.
The Buccaneers, last season's Southern Conference champions, quickly built a double-digit lead Saturday and rolled to an 85-66 win at McKenzie Arena, handing UTC its third straight loss.
The Mocs (6-10, 0-3) play this Saturday at The Citadel to open a three-game road stretch of their own.
ETSU (12-4, 3-0) never trailed, leading 11-1 after a Mladen Armus layup three minutes into the game. The Bucs maintained a double-digit advantage for the final 37:04, with a second-half lead as big as 24 points.
"They really didn't do anything we didn't think they'd do," said UTC guard Nat Dixon, who scored a career-high 20 points. "They're a great team with a great coach, but we got away early from our principles. We were shell-shocked by how fast the game came and we had to settle in there for a little bit, but against a team like that it's really hard to bounce back when you get down that much early."
Eleven players scored in the first half for the Bucs, helping them build a 48-27 advantage. They shot 65 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
"I'm really proud of the fact we came out ready to go," ETSU coach Steve Forbes said. "I was really pleased with the way we played in the first half. I wasn't real pleased in the second half the way we finished it; I thought we got a little sloppy.
"Give (the Mocs) credit - they came back out and fought - but I would have liked to see us play a bit better."
The Mocs closed the gap to 67-51 on a 3-pointer by Dixon with 8:48 remaining but got no closer than that.
Dixon was followed in scoring by Joshua Phillips, who had a career-high 17 points. Makinde London fouled out with 9:45 to play with 10 points and five rebounds.
ETSU attempted to take the 3-pointer away from the Mocs, so Phillips received a lot of touches inside. He made six of his 14 shots, often over 7-foot Peter Jurkin, but struggled at the free-throw line, where he and Dixon were a combined 10-for-20.
The Mocs made 15 of 27 foul shots, with some key misses while they were attempting to make the comeback.
"You have to convert," UTC coach Lamont Paris said. "We have a very fine line of margin for error. We were in the double-bonus early, and once we do that we have to capitalize to get to the free-throw line, and when we do get there, we have to shoot a favorable percentage. We got there a little and didn't capitalize.
"When you talk about youth, it's having the mentality, the belief to know what it will take to get it turned. There are only a couple of things that can change momentum, and they don't necessarily know that. We try to remind them what those things are, and we have to continue to recognize those situations. That stuff is part of the learning process, but some of our decisions tonight were unacceptable, inexplicable at times."
The Bucs - who shot 56 percent for the game - were led by Jurkin's 15 points and 11 rebounds. Armus had 14 points, while guards Desonta Bradford (13) and Devontavius Payne (12) also reached double figures.
The Bucs finished with 50 points in the paint and 19 off 12 UTC turnovers.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.