MACON, Ga. - For the second straight game, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team pushed a Southern Conference opponent into an overtime period.
For the second straight game, the Mocs came up short.
Monday night it was preseason league favorite Mercer that survived UTC's challenge, pulling out a 75-71 victory in front of 3,476 at Hawkins Arena.
It was the Mocs' seventh straight loss, and they'll be on the road again Saturday night against Wofford.
UTC (6-13, 0-6) had two shots rim out in overtime, and a potential tying putback attempt by freshman Jonathan Bryant was stripped as he was going up for the shot with 1:34 to play.
The senior-laden Bears (9-9, 2-3) made three of their four shots in overtime, while the Mocs made only one - a Rodney Chatman floater with 1:13 to play that cut the Mercer lead to 73-71.
It was the Mocs' third straight game playing with just seven players. Chatman, Nat Dixon and Makale Foreman played all 45 minutes Monday, while David Jean-Baptiste played 44. Dixon has played 128:43 of a possible 130 minutes in the last six days, while Chatman and Jean-Baptiste have each played 126 and Foreman 124.
"Tonight is exactly what a coach wants, a team that's going to fight like that," first-year UTC coach Lamont Paris said. "Any coach on the planet wants to be coaching a team that's going to compete the way our team does, and I was happy about that. We have to continue that; they believe they're going to win because they have no reason to believe they're not going to.
"I think we've been trying to make sure they look at a game like this and think they can win, and it's been a play here or there, so why would this hold us down? Aside from anything dealing with a personnel standpoint, we've played the game and played the game well."
Mercer's Stephon Jelks missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity with 48 seconds to play, but Chatman was called for a charge on the Mocs' ensuing possession and the Bears' Jordan Strawberry hit a pair of free throws to provide the final margin.
Chatman and Dixon led the Mocs with 17 points each, with Chatman adding eight assists and six rebounds. Foreman had 16 points on 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range, while Jean-Baptiste chipped in 15. Joshua Phillips had eight rebounds in 26 minutes before fouling out in overtime.
Dixon was 3-for-7 on free throws and took responsibility for the loss.
"I felt that could have been the deciding factor," Dixon said. "We're going out there and playing hard, and it hurts, it stings. Being a competitor, we want to come out on the right side of things and my teammates put me in position to make big shots at the free-throw line, and as the leader of this team I have to do that."
The Mocs shot 48 percent from the field in the first half, making five 3-pointers, and held a 30-28 lead at the break. The Bears responded with a 23-12 spurt out of the locker room to build a nine-point lead, but UTC rallied late, cutting the gap to two in the final minute. Demetre Rivers missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play to give the Mocs a final shot down 66-64. Foreman missed a 3-pointer, but Phillips grabbed the rebound, turned and fired a jumper that banked in to force overtime.
Strawberry finished with 18 points to lead five Bears in double figures. Rivers had 16 points, while Ringer had 14, Ria'n Holland 13 and Jelks 10. Jelks and Ringer had double-doubles, with Jelks grabbing 12 rebounds and Ringer 10.
"We're a close-knit group and we're just trying to have fun out there, trying to win," Chatman said. "It'll be real scary when we get a healthy team, get everybody back.
"We're going to trust Coach Paris's process, and eventually it'll be phenomenal."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.