Staff Photo by Robin Rudd/Chattanooga Times Free Press
UTC's Keegan Bell (3) and Omar Wattad (0) defend against Samford's Josh Bedwell (10) in first-half action at McKenzie Area on Saturday.Perfection is still possible.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defeated Samford 65-60 in McKenzie Arena on Saturday night to remain undefeated in Southern Conference men's basketball competition.
The Mocs (10-8, 6-0) built a large first-half lead, trailed in the second by a point and held on, in a sloppy final minute, for their third straight victory overall.
"We came out with the win, and that's what we do," said Omar Wattad, who scored 17 points. "We're 6-0. It feels like we're 12 games away from being where we want to be. And Charleston (11-5, 5-0) is next."
Junior Chris Early tied his career high with 17 points for UTC. Junior guard Ricky Taylor had his first career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Josh Bedwell led the Bulldogs (10-7, 2-3) with 21 points, including five 3-pointers.
"It's always a root canal when you play Samford," UTC coach John Shulman said. "You have to change up everything you do defensively. It's absolutely no fun.
"It's like a bad 'Seinfeld' episode."
The Bulldogs began the game 0-for-13 from behind the 3-point line and found themselves down 13-0 before closing to within 30-25 at halftime. After that slow start from the arc, Samford made its next 12 of 25 from behind the line.
"Not exactly an auspicious start for us," Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said. "Over the course of the game it became obvious that they were going to let us shoot 3s. The problem is that we had 15 turnovers.
"Early is a guy that we didn't think is a great 3-point shooter. But you can't let Wattad make five."
Samford took a 31-30 lead in the first minute of the second half, but UTC responded with a 3-pointer from Taylor. The Mocs trailed by one point again with nine minutes to go, but Wattad made a 3 to give them the lead for good.
"We thought the biggest play was when they intentionally foul us, we miss two free throws and get a bad look from the 3-point line," Tillette said. "It's an empty possession for us. We could have taken the lead.
"But we shot ourselves in the foot. The first rule of war is don't commit suicide."
Wattad and Early each hit a late 3-pointer to boost UTC's lead to four points. Then the Mocs hit eight straight free throws in the final minute to keep the Bulldogs at bay.
"We made [the final minute] tough," Shulman said. "Omar missed two free throws, he fouled, and as solid and sharp as he was the other night, I'm not sure who he was rooting for. We're like a married couple: We hate each other and love each other in the same moment."
And all the Mocs enjoy being undefeated in their league.
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