Gee McGhee of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is sandwiched between Georgia Southern’s Marvin Baynham, left, and Jelani Hewitt Thursday at McKenzie Arena.Coach Will Wade turned around and sent a message to the three starters on the bench long after the game had been decided.
That’s how you’re supposed to do.
Walk-on Alex Bran and freshmen T.J. Williams and Anthanee Doyle — three of the last four to go in for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team — were fighting for everything in the final five minutes of Georgia Southern’s 77-61 Southern Conference win Thursday night in McKenzie Arena.
The sitting starters hadn’t been doing the little things — like 6-foot-1 Bran battling under the glass for a loose offensive rebound — for most of the first 35 minutes, leading to UTC’s humbling.
“They came in and got a couple loose balls and did things we should have been doing the whole game,” said senior Zaccheus Mason, who led UTC (16-12, 10-3) with 21 points. “It’s an example to everybody on our team that this is what we need to do to win.”