Staff File Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Keegan Bell of UTC drives to the basket past Georgia State’s Dante Curry during a December game at the McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.The Mocs hit a high note on Monday.
They haven’t been the same since.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team silenced doubters when it beat the College of Charleston 91-88 last Monday in McKenzie Arena.
Coach John Shulman said as much.
The euphoria of handing the Cougars their first Southern Conference loss — beating a team that stifled Tennessee in Thompson-Boling Arena — didn’t last long.
Wofford proved to UTC that the Terriers are the reigning kings of the conference with a 88-56 whipping and Furman followed with an 85-59 thumping on Saturday.
“We wanted to come and throw our punches and all we did this road trip was get punched,” point guard Keegan Bell said. “We stayed in the corner, we stayed on the ropes, got beat to death, and we have to do better than that.”
Furman, Wofford, Charleston, The Citadel, UNC Greensboro, Austin Peay, and Georgia State — seven of UTC’s last eight opponents — all delivered first-half blow to the Mocs that put them at least nine points down in the first half.
UTC won three of those seven games.
The Mocs didn’t come close to beating Wofford or Furman after digging themselves into deficits despite going down 11-1 to Charleston.
“We got in a hole both times,” Bell said Saturday. “Unfortunately, it was the same story tonight. When we’re struggling shooting, then all of a sudden, we get deeper in the hole, and quick.”
Furman put UTC in an 18-point hole in the first half before taking a 37-21 lead into halftime. Amu Saaka, Furman’s senior star, had 15 points at that time and finished with 30.
UTC never pulled closer than 17 points to the Paladins who are now 6-2 in the SoCon with losses to Charleston and Wofford. The combined result of UTC’s last two games is a 56-point loss.
“In no way are we depressed,” senior DeAntre Jefferson said. “We’re mad, and that’s the way we need to be. I don’t think anybody is down. We went to Wofford and didn’t compete at the level we needed to. And we came to Furman and we didn’t really react. We’ll grow off of it.”
The Mocs were off on Sunday and will not practice again until Tuesday. That gives them two days to heal their wounds, look themselves in the mirror and find the team that won all of its games when holding opponents to less than 70 points prior to the Charleston game when scoring came easy.
“We’re the same team that beat Charleston, the same team that was 7-0,” Bell said. “We’re just having a little funk. Any time you play, you have funky moments and times of bad luck and bad play. The good teams respond to it. We’ve had two rough road games.
“How we answer it will show who we really are.”
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