KNOXVILLE – Omar Wattad began his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball debut with high-fives to his teammates. That was before the game.
There wasn’t much high-fiving from any of the Mocs in their 82-62 loss Friday night at Tennessee.
Wattad, who transferred in from Georgetown, and point guard Keegan Bell, who is in his second year of starting at UTC after a season at Vanderbilt, were the primary offensive choices against the Volunteers. They combined to shoot only 10-of-29 from the field and 7-of-21 from the 3-point line.
They could continue to be two of UTC’s first three offensive options.
“Omar is a very good offensive player and he goes 4-for-17,” coach John Shulman said. “I’ll take my chances with that. I’ll take my chances with him getting looks and getting seven or eight good looks from the 3-point line against Tennessee.”
The former power-conference players showed flashes of the skills that took them to big-time basketball.
Bell drained three 3-pointers in less than 80 seconds during the first half, and Wattad split a double team and swished a floater in the second half.
“Bell is a very good player,” Vols point guard Melvin Goins said. “He’s very court-savvy. He ran his team pretty well and shot the ball incredibly well. I was impressed.”
But those offensive flashes were far and few between for the Mocs. They had two eight-minute stretches in the first half with two points or less.
The Vols had a lot to do with that.
“Their length and size was tremendous, and they were phenomenal on ball-screens and our first options weren’t there,” said Ricky Taylor, who entered as the Mocs’ leading returning scorer but finished Friday with seven points. “We had to go to our second option and rely on our 3-point shot. They didn’t go in.”
Even with UTC’s offensive woes Friday – 32.7 percent shooting from the field, 19 turnovers and 26.5 percent from the arc – Shulman will continue to emphasis his base principles heading into Monday’s game against Austin Peay and for the rest of the season: defense and rebounding.
“I don’t have a problem with our offense,” Shulman said. “I have a problem with our defense. Let’s don’t focus on the wrong thing. Let’s focus on getting beat from the 3-point line, which we didn’t.”