The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team has been riding the waves the past couple of weeks.
Waves of emotion, along with waves of success.
The Mocs (9-2) started their current four-game win streak with a lopsided defeat of NAIA member Tennessee Wesleyan on Dec. 8. Since then, they’ve suffered an injury to forward Casey Jones that has left the senior out “indefinitely,” ended Dayton’s 26-game home-court win streak and won at home over nearby foes Tennessee Tech and Kennesaw State, both of which beat UTC last season.
The emotions were evident against KSU’s Owls on Friday, when the Mocs finished the game on a 25-8 run to defeat a team that had won the previous two meetings.
Early in the second half, the Owls were hitting pretty much everything they threw up, but the Mocs remained committed to their process and started to get stops.
“They did go on a little stretch there. It seemed like they were hitting shots from the elbow,” UTC senior guard Eric Robertson said. “They were contested shots; it’s not like we weren’t there. They were just going in. We just continued to guard. We were going to get those rebounds and get out and get ourselves going.”
UTC coach Matt McCall liked the fire shown by his team late in the game.
“When you don’t play with that competitive edge and fire, anybody can beat you on any given night, and I would say that to most teams in the country,” McCall said. “There’s so much parity in college basketball that you have to bring it every single night. I’m just really proud that when the juices started flowing, we were able to keep plowing. I think we were down eight at one point and ended up taking the lead over late in the game.”
That late run brought what had been a nervous crowd back into the game, and it was started and maintained by Justin Tuoyo. The junior center scored 17 of his career-high 21 points in the second half, with 10 coming in the final 5:25.
“We were hyped up during the whole game. It was a tough game,” Tuoyo said. “Going on a run at the end like we did just got everyone excited. The crowd did a great job helping us out. It felt good.
“The enthusiasm was through the roof.”
With a big 3-0 week behind them, the Mocs can turn their attention to a good Radford team that is 7-5 after beating UNC Wilmington 69-67 on Saturday, with wins over Georgetown and Penn State.
The Mocs did a lot of video study Saturday, a sort of prize for the group after a hard, emotional week.
“I want them to get their legs underneath them here,” McCall said, “because we’re going to play against a very good team that’s already gone into Penn State and beaten them and beaten Georgetown, a Top 25 team, on the road.
“Tuesday will be a terrific test for our basketball team.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.