Almost every athletic event has a turning point, that precise moment when one side heads to Victory Lane and the other checks in to Heartbreak Hotel.
Sometimes it’s loud and obvious. Such as when University of Tennessee at Chattanooga point guard Keegan Bell burned the College of Charleston on a backdoor layup with 3:25 to play Monday night in McKenzie Arena.
Having trailed by as many as 12 points in the opening half, UTC went up five points with that shot and went on to a 91-88 Southern Conference victory. That shot made believers of 3,823 screaming, beaming Moc Maniacs inside Bigger Mac and left UTC all alone atop the SoCon North at 7-0.
That play, according to Mocs coach John Shulman, “was what a winning team has to do.”
But stunning as that shot and the seeing-eye assist from forward DeAntre Jefferson that led to that score were, they were far from the only obvious turning points.
Down 76-75 with 6:38 to go, Shulman watched his beloved “Footer” — 7-foot-1 senior Jeremy Saffore — muscle in a layup to go back ahead, then coolly drop through a free throw to return a two-point lead to the Mocs. The College of Charleston never led again.
“I’m so proud of Jeremy,” said Shulman, grinning ear to ear. “What a great moment for Jeremy.”
On the subject of free throws, what about Chris Early hitting two mammoth foul shots with nine seconds to play to keep the lead at five points? The first one hit more metal than an auto repair shop. The second one swished cleanly through.
Talk about doing what winning teams do.
Beyond that, for the Mocs just to hang in through that first half, when Charleston hit 75 percent for the longest time, and somehow lead 53-46 at the end of the most exciting 20 minutes in McKenzie history was what winning is all about.
But for Shulman the real turning point Monday may have come at the pregame meal, or quite possibly at a number of pregame meals that had gone before it.
“Every team has groups. Some guys are closer than others,” Shulman said. “That doesn’t bother me. But I noticed more mixing and mingling today than I do with some teams. Guys weren’t necessarily sitting with the same guys I’d seen them with last week. I like that. I do think this team is close.”
Bell concurs.
He says transfer Omar Wattad “is my best friend.” He also talks about how the team chants, “One … two … three … Family!” each time it breaks the huddle.
“We didn’t do that last year,” Bell said
Said Shulman: “Yeah, they said ‘break’ and everybody broke their separate ways. Sometimes even the coaches did. Not every year is the same.”
But last year’s depressing and disappointing 15-18 season is long over. The Mocs now stand 10-8 and 7-0 in the SoCon. There are smiles and chants and that magical, mystical sense of camaraderie that a few lucky teams sometimes develop.
It isn’t only camaraderie, of course.
Shulman surveyed Bell’s shimmering 12-point, 8-assist, 8-rebound, 2-turnover stat line in 38 grueling minutes and said, “Keegan is playing in character. Keegan’s playing like this [Shulman draws a straight, flat line through the air with his hand]. It’s just the way you want a point guard to play.”
It could all come crashing down later this week at Wofford and Furman. Wattad can’t possibly keep hitting six 3-pointers in a game and turning in 30- and 27-point performances, can he?
A UTC team hitting 65 percent at the free-throw line can’t hit the 86 percent it bagged against Charleston, can it?
Then again, families pulling together as one can accomplish so much more than those drifting their separate ways.
Perhaps that’s why the Mocs told Shulman inside that final minute, the coach searching for the perfect words to drive them home, “Don’t worry, Coach. This is our time.”
Could it be that the team that dines together shines together?
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273.
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