UTC forward Justin Tuoyo (5) and UNCG guard RJ White try to rebound the ball during their game on Jan. 24, 2015, at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.In their previous four road games, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team has found themselves behind a lot early. They’ve rallied on two of those occasions to pull out victories late, but that doesn’t erase the need to get off to better starts.
The Mocs (16-9, 9-3 SoCon) stumbled out of the gate Saturday at Western Carolina. By the 14:11 mark of the first half, they were behind 11 points, and that lead would jump to 14 points on two occasions, the final time at 39-25 at the halftime buzzer. The visitors would rally, tying the game at 70 before falling by a 73-70 margin, but figuring out what has been the cause of the slow starts to begin with is a priority moving forward.
The players acknowledged postgame on Saturday that the slow starts have become a problem. Because of their ability to come back in games, they might have taken the starts for granted, but it sounded Saturday like those days are over. In the team’s three conference losses this season, they’ve had a chance to take the lead in the final minute, and in only one of those games (home against Wofford) did they consistently hold the lead.
Simply put: Better starts early in games will lead to better opportunities to finish off wins late.
“Every team in the conference is going to be ready to play us. They see we are near the top of the league, so they are going to come out fired up,” center Justin Tuoyo said Saturday. “We have to realize that, and we have to come out more fired up than them. If we do that, it gives us a better chance to come out strong in the first half.”
The early deficit was nine points against Furman and 12 against Mercer. The Mocs also fell behind by 10 points early against Samford.
“We can’t dig ourselves that big of a hole,” UTC coach Will Wade said after Saturday’s loss. “We have done that in our last three road games at Mercer, Furman and here. If we keep doing that, it’s just tough to battle back and win. We’ve got to give ourselves a better opportunity to win and play from even. When we make little runs, that gives us six to point leads, as opposed to cutting it to 2-4 points.”
There are only three more away games for the Mocs prior to the conference tournament — at Wofford, at Virginia Military Institute and at UNC Greensboro — with the game Thursday against the Terriers (20-5, 11-1) the biggest to date, considering a win would cut the gap between the Mocs and the conference’s first-place team in half.
Greg Pryor said that the focus has to begin from the opening tip.
“At the beginning of the game, we have to start coming out more focused,” he said. “The first half of the season, we were a first-half team. The second half, we have come out slow and we need to adjust it. We have to come out with pace and put two good halves together.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.