JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — During the last timeout of the game, Casey Jones implored his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga teammates to get him the ball.
The play called by coach Will Wade wasn’t supposed to be designed for Jones, but East Tennessee State had sniffed out the play Wade did call and forced the Mocs to change on the fly.
“The fly” became the unlikeliest of shots by the unlikeliest of people.
Jones sank a 3-pointer from about 25 feet out with 1.7 seconds to play in overtime, and the Mocs earned a tough 74-71 victory over the Buccaneers in front of 3,605 fans at Freedom Hall. It was only Jones’ second 3-pointer of the season and fourth of his three-year Mocs career. He’s now 4-for-19 from 3-point range.
“The play was coming around on the back side,” Jones said. “Marty (Bareika) was open, but I didn’t want to force it to him for the last shot. Honestly, I wanted to get it to Rico (Ronrico White), but I looked back there and they played it pretty well. Obviously on the scouting reports, I’m not a shooter, so I guess they backed up off me, and no other option was open and the clock was winding down, so I put it up.
“I had faith in myself it would go in.”
The win came without senior forward Lance Stokes and sophomore guard Greg Pryor, who missed the game with lower-body injuries. It gives the Mocs a 44-33 edge in the series rivalry, and they improved to 15-19 in Johnson City.
The Mocs (11-7, 4-1) , who are 2-5 on the road this season but 2-0 in Southern Conference away games, get a break before having to travel to Samford on Thursday. The Bucs (9-5, 4-2) visit Western Carolina — who lost leading scorer James Sinclair for the season due to academics — the same day.
“It was a big win,” Wade said. “I’m proud of the last moment — it was a big shot — but there were a lot of little moments that led to that big moment. I think everybody we played contributed, and I was proud of the way our guys responded. When they made their runs, we were able to respond back and take the lead.
“It’s a lot of the little moments are what I’m pleased with. This was a hostile environment — maybe as tough an environment as we’ll play in our league — and we came in here, didn’t flinch, didn’t back down and won a tough road game when we weren’t at full strength. We made no excuses and kept it going.”
Eric Robertson led the Mocs with 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting from 3-point range. White scored 16 points to go along with seven assists, and Bareika scored 13 points.
Jones had nine points and added 11 rebounds — including six of the team’s 17 offensive rebounds. UTC hit a season-high 14 3s while limiting one of the nation’s best 3-point shooting teams to three makes below their average and almost eight fewer attempts.
The Mocs finished 14-for-17 from the free-throw line, while the Bucs were 9-for-20.
Paced by 15 first-half points by White, the Mocs led by as much as eight but held only a 31-30 advantage at the break. The second half featured four ties and six lead changes, and no team led by as many as five points until Bareika’s third 3-pointer of the half put the Mocs up 59-54 with 6:23 to play.
That field goal would be the last for a four-minute span for UTC. The cold spell allowed ETSU to inch back out in front after a Jalen Riley jumper with 2:49 to go, but a Robertson 3 gave the Mocs a 63-61 lead. A Rashawn Rembert jumper with 42 seconds to go tied the game, and White and Riley exchanged missed jumpers in the final seconds of regulation.
In the overtime, Justin Tuoyo — hampered most of the game with foul trouble — hit four consecutive free throws, but five points by Riley put ETSU back in front. Two Bareika free throws made it 69-68 Mocs, followed by a Jones jumper for a three-point edge.
ETSU’s A.J. Merriweather completed a three-point play to tie the game, but after a Robertson missed 3, Jones grabbed an offensive rebound and Wade called time out to set up a play, which led to Jones’ heroics.
“Chattanooga is a really good team,” ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. “Teams in this league are hard to beat. There are a lot of good coaches and a lot of good players, so we knew the game would come right down to the wire.
“We’re not going to hang our heads. They’re a really good team that made a few more plays than we did.”
Riley finished with 18 points and five assists for the Bucs. Lester Wilson added 15 points and Rembert scored 14.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.