UTC guard Dee Oldham shoots between UNCG forward Kayel Locke,l eft, and center RJ White during the Mocs’ home basketball game against UNC Greensboro at McKenzie Arena on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Maybe the moment was too big for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team.
With Saturday a possible coronation of the Mocs as Southern Conference regular-season champions, they showed up unfocused and unprepared in what turned into a 79-64 loss to visiting UNC Greensboro.
It’s far from a crippling defeat. With a one-game lead over its closest competitor, UTC (24-5, 13-3 SoCon) can still clinch the top seed for next week’s conference tournament with a win over Samford (13-17, 4-13) on senior day Saturday at McKenzie Arena. UTC’s one-game lead is over East Tennessee State University (19-10, 12-4), and the Mocs also have a two-game lead over Furman (17-12, 11-5) and Wofford (15-14, 11-5).
The Mocs swept Wofford and ETSU, so it seems as though any tiebreaker would favor UTC.
Of course, any questions about such scenarios could have been put to bed with a win Saturday night, but UNCG (12-17, 8-8) shot 67 percent from the floor, with 6-foot-8 center R.J. White scoring 26 points and Diante Baldwin adding 22. The Spartans were 17-for-22 in the second half, when they seemed to get any shot they wanted despite the Mocs mixing their defensive approaches.
UTC coaches said in Friday’s practice that they were going to use two defenders on White, but that never happened. The talented big man made all but one of his 12 shot attempts and looked like a young Kevin McHale, creating space on the interior and finishing with jump hooks over either shoulder.
“We need to utilize this week of practice to get better,” McCall said. “I don’t remember them missing in the second half, to be honest with you. We tried man, we tried zone, the only thing we didn’t try to do was double the post, which we should have done all game. We wanted to do that, and we didn’t do it.
“That’s something we need to work on here in case we see these guys again, for sure.”
But the loss provided some perspective and should save McCall some preaching. If the Mocs don’t show up ready to play, they can be beaten. And when they have been beaten this season, it usually hasn’t been close, with an average margin of defeat of 13.2 points in 2015-16.
In their past three losses – at Furman on Jan. 9, at Western Carolina on Feb. 11, and Saturday against UNCG – opponents playing well coupled with the Mocs having below-average performances led to games that appeared one-sided at times.
Yet the Mocs’ goals for the season are still there.
“Even though with the way we played tonight, we still have a chance to accomplish what we were trying to do accomplish at the beginning of the year, which is to win a championship,” senior guard Dee Oldham said Saturday. “Coach has got a rule – after we take a loss, for that day, that night, however long that is, you can be upset but the next day you have to move forward.
“We still have business to take care of.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.