The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team was unable to overcome a porous start in Sunday’s game at Furman, with the Mocs falling 75-70 at Timmons Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
It’s the fourth straight loss for UTC, which is 9-14 overall this season, 3-7 in Southern Conference play, and ahead of only one program in the 10-team league standings: Virginia Military Institute, which beat the Mocs in their first of two scheduled meetings this year.
The Mocs, a season removed from finishing atop the SoCon standings and winning the National Invitation Tournament, are home for their next game as Mercer (15-8, 7-3) visits McKenzie Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff Thursday.
The Mocs fell behind 36-12 in the first half at Furman (16-7, 7-3), making just five of their first 22 shots before cutting the lead to 19 to enter halftime down 42-23.
The effort that UTC fourth-year head coach Dan Earl has been clamoring for in recent games was missing again in the first half, but came together in a hodgepodge of different lineups in the final 20 minutes, which allowed the Mocs to cut trim Furman’s lead to 68-64 with 50 seconds remaining.
(READ MORE: UTC men continue slide with third consecutive loss as Wofford wins)
UTC outscored the Paladins 47-33 in the second half, led by a combined 25 points from Brennan Watkins and Teddy Washington, who returned after a one-game absence due to a head-on collision with teammate Jikari Johnson on Jan. 24 at Samford. Washington scored 16 points in 29 minutes before fouling out late at Furman, while Watkins led the Mocs with 19 points.
“I think I’ve done our guys a disservice because maybe they’re not aware that a game is 40 minutes,” Earl said in his postgame interview on UTC’s radio broadcast. “It’s amazing to me; all we did in the second half was compete. Now, we made some shots, made some plays, but it was competitive. We showed fight. I’m stating the obvious that you can’t dig yourself that kind of hole, and I burned all our timeouts in the first half.
“The second half, we went with those guys that were going to show fight. I was proud of their efforts, but it’s not fair to themselves, it’s not fair to their teammates, it’s not fair to Chattanooga Mocs fans to only show that kind of fight in one half.”
The minutes allocation in the second half tells that story.
Washington played nearly 18 of the final 20 minutes before his fifth foul sent him to the bench for good, while Watkins played just 34 fewer seconds than Washington in that stretch. Freshman Tate Darner played 16 minutes, Makai Richards played just less than that, and sophomore walk-on Houston Holland played 14 minutes and led the team with six rebounds (five offensive).
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Starting point guard Jordan Frison was the third-leading scorer with nine points, while Richards had a solid outing with seven points, four rebounds and two assists, which tied for the team lead with Washington and Watkins.
Furman had just one scorer in double figures, but he feasted: Alex Wilkins’ 33 points included 6-for-8 success from 3-point range as he finished 10-for-16 from the field, and he was 7-for-8 at the foul line.
“I was proud of our guys for fighting in the second half,” Earl said. “We could have laid down; at different times, maybe we have. I haven’t seen a lot of that, but recently it hasn’t been our best basketball, and I thought certain guys really competed in the second half. It’s not that difficult; it’s a lot of just fight and effort.
“We definitely responded. There’s got to be something good there, but we can’t be singing the same song over and over.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.