SPARTANBURG, S.C. — John Shulman ripped off his jacket and slammed it under his seat.
It’s amazing the coach still had it on that far into the second half. It’s usually gone after his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team’s first mistake.
No one mistake resulted in the removal this time — just the accumulation of bonehead errors that resulted in a 78-63 Southern Conference defeat at Wofford.
“We are talented, but we’re not a very good team,” Shulman said after shaking hands with people who used to pull for him as a Terriers assistant. “We got beat by a better team.”
The loss capped a gut-wrenching six-day road trip in which the Mocs lost at UNC Greensboro after leading by 16 points and lost at Elon after leading by 14.
The Mocs (11-10, 3-5) left Chattanooga last Wednesday sitting pretty in the Southern Conference North Division, but they return home three games behind Western Carolina, who visit them Thursday night.
“The morale of our team isn’t good right now,” Shulman said after UTC’s fourth loss in a row. “If morale was good, I’d be worried about us. We should be down.
“We’re not playing good right now, and when you’re not playing good, your margin of error is very small.”
Junior forward Noah Dahlman led all players with 20 points for Wofford (14-8, 6-3), including 12 in the second half. Junior Salters scored 14 and Brad Loesing had 13 points, eight assists and no turnovers in the win. Wofford had just nine turnovers in the game.
“That’s a typical Loesing night,” Wofford coach Mike Young said. “He is the consummate quarterback.”
Senior Ty Patterson led UTC with 15 points. Ricky Taylor scored 13 and Jeremy Saffore had 11.
“We had too many mental mistakes that caused us not to have success tonight,” Patterson said. “When we get down, it feels like we’re down 30.
“If we don’t buy in, we’re going to keep struggling.”
The Mocs played a solid first half but had too many silly plays such as Patterson and Saffore both going for a rebound only to have it fall off them and out of bounds. Nine seconds later, Dahlman scored to give Wofford a 36-29 lead. The Terriers led 38-36 at halftime.
“I thought UTC came in here and outplayed us in the first half and played with great energy,” Young said. “I thought in the second half you saw signs of playing three games in five days. That’s very hard. And we had the luxury of playing Charleston on Friday, so that gave us a second day.
“In the second half, things tilted in our favor.”
Dahlman started a 15-3 run that extended Wofford’s lead to 61-46 with 8:36 to go. The seven-minute surge included a shot-clock violation, a charging foul and a missed point-blank layup for UTC.
“Wofford is that team that when you’re down eight, it feels like 18 because they don’t take bad shots or turn it over,” Mocs point guard Keegan Bell said. “I think we’re all tired and ready to get back to Chattanooga and get better.”
The UTC bench began cheering with 2:31 to go because junior forward Troy Cage was making his season debut. Cage skipped checking in at the scorer’s table and jogged out on the floor.
“He didn’t even know how to check in,” Shulman said. “He’s not ready to play. But I’m happy we got him in there.”
And the coach is happy to get back home.