Keegan Bell didn’t see the shot. It just felt good when he released it from his fingertips a split-second before the final buzzer.
Teammates immediately mobbed him, and a crowd of 3,508 erupted, letting the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga point guard know his Mocs beat The Citadel 56-54 in Southern Conference basketball Thursday night in McKenzie Arena.
“I saw my lovely teammates come and pick me up,” Bell said. “People who don’t like sports, who don’t get sports and don’t care about sports, they don’t ever have that feeling of guys picking me up.”
The final play punctuated an entertaining game in which the Mocs never led by more than seven in the second half, and the Bulldogs didn’t lead until nearly the final minute.
It also overshadowed a 28-point performance from Citadel guard Cameron Wells, who scored from various distances. His putback with 1:01 to go put the Bulldogs ahead by one.
“Losing on a shot like that is always tough,” Wells said. “We thought we had it. But (Bell) made a better play than we did.”
The play looked very similar to football’s hook-and-ladder.
With 3.2 seconds left, UTC’s Chris Early inbounded the ball from the far baseline. He threw it to 7-foot-1 Jeremy Saffore at midcourt. Saffore flipped it to Bell coming around on his right. Bell took two dribbles — with two defenders on him — and rose for the 3-point shot.
Swish.
“I did the easiest part,” Bell said. “For Chris to make that pass, for Jeremy to put it right there for me, those are the tough parts.”
Bell and Ricky Taylor led UTC with 11 points each, and Taylor led all players with a career-high nine rebounds.
The Mocs (11-6, 3-1) needed a buzzer-beater because they weren’t able to pull away. They led 35-27 at halftime despite 18 points from Wells.
The Bulldogs (8-9, 2-3) opened the second half with a 9-2 run to pull within three. They got within three points or less on eight occasions.
“We couldn’t get over the hump, and we finally did. It was a good feeling,” Wells said. “But we needed to get another stop. You can do a lot with three seconds.”
Bell missed two challenged shots on the next possession after Wells’ lead-changing score. Zach Urbanus missed a 3-pointer for The Citadel and Wells pulled down a rebound. He missed a putback and was tied up with Sam Watson. The possession arrow pointed in UTC’s direction with 3.2 to go.
“That’s a winning play by Sam,” Shulman said. “But we made a lot of losing plays late that we will have to correct.
“But we made the winning play.”