The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team has experienced more lows than highs in the five games the Mocs have played since the loss of superstar forward Jake Stephens to a hand injury two weeks ago.
Sure, there was the high of a win at East Tennessee State last weekend, but that has been sandwiched by home losses to those same Buccaneers and Wofford and road losses to Furman and Western Carolina. The latter came Saturday by an 83-68 margin and dropped the Mocs to 12-13 overall this season and 4-8 in the Southern Conference.
The Mocs led only once in Cullowhee, North Carolina — 3-2 on a Dalvin White 3-pointer three minutes into the game — and again found themselves unable to stop an opponent in the second half as the Catamounts (13-12, 6-6) shot 59% (13-for-22) in the final 20 minutes.
“It’s tough playing from behind the entire game, but no matter what you’ve got to keep playing,” said UTC senior forward KC Hankton, whose 17 points and seven rebounds were team highs. “We tried to do that, but things didn’t go our way today.
“We’ve just got to stick to it and keep pushing.”