Samford gave the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team a close call last season in Birmingham, Ala.
The Mocs don’t want a repeat.
Samford hosts UTC in a big Southern Conference battle at 7 EST tonight at the Pete Hanna Center. The Mocs (17-3, 6-1) are alone in first place in the league standings after East Tennessee State’s 87-73 loss to Wofford on Thursday.
Samford (11-10, 2-6) is toward the other end of the SoCon standings, but that was also the case last season, when the Bulldogs entered their home game against UTC winless in conference play.
The Mocs won 82-76, but Samford led by 10 points during the first half of a game that included 53 fouls and 53 second-half free throws. UTC was 17-for-23 from the line in the second half, compared to 17-for-30 for Samford, which shot nearly as many free throws (42) as field goals (45) in the game.
The Bulldogs were up 33-30 at halftime, and though the Mocs never trailed after going ahead with 12:46 to play, their lead was cut to four points twice in the final 29 seconds.
“We just have to stay focused,” UTC point guard Greg Pryor said. “Every time we’ve been there, it’s been a hard game. Last year was tough, so we know we have to come in and not put ourselves in that position again.
“We know things won’t go as planned, but we have to stay focused and play our game.”
The Bulldogs are a dangerous team, as shown by a victory over Big Ten opponent Nebraska on Dec. 20, and they like to press a lot on defense. That style shouldn’t be surprising – coach Scott Padgett played for and won a national championship at Kentucky under Rick Pitino, then coached under him at Louisville before taking the Samford job prior to the 2014-15 season.
“They can cause you a lot of problems just with their style of play,” UTC coach Matt McCall said. “They’re going to run and press, and press you up and down the floor, and play that patented Louisville matchup zone, which can cause teams a lot of problems. They’ve had some really big wins. You go on the road and beat (Nebraska) – and I think they’ve played everyone in our league close, down to one or two possessions.”
Samford has a talented backcourt duo with Darius Jones-Gibson and Christen Cunningham, and freshman forward Wyatt Walker recently was named SoCon Player of the Week. Another freshman, forward Matt Rose, comes off the bench and shoots better than 44 percent from 3-point range as the Bulldogs’ most consistent threat from deep.
Defending the 3 – a problem for the Mocs early in the season – still remains a focus, although it’s not as much of a concern as it once was.
“We’ve been bad a couple of games,” UTC center Justin Tuoyo said, “but we have great athletes, so we should be able to guard the ball and take away the 3-point line.”
Like Pryor, Tuoyo said responding to any adversity that might come will be key to tonight’s game.
“We know that every conference game is tough, but the main thing is to not lose our focus,” he said. “If we handle everything, we’ll do pretty good.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.