Whom do you trust?
Every athletic team that dreams of greatness has to have an answer to that question. Whether it’s New England’s Tom Brady or Cleveland’s LeBron James, Alabama’s Derrick Henry or Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, the retired Yankee Derek Jeter or Carli Lloyd of the U.S. women World Cup champs, the truly special teams need special talents to win the tough ones.
Down the stretch of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 74-62 men’s college basketball win over Mercer on Tuesday night at McKenzie Arena, the Mocs desperately needed to trust point guard Greg Pryor and big man Justin Tuoyo.
They needed to stop the bleeding of a 21-point first-half lead that had shrunk to two tiny points. They needed to send a message to menacing Mercer that while the Bears may have posted one of the great Southern Conference wins in league history two years back – knocking off Duke in the opening round of the 2014 NCAA tournament – this winter of 2016 belongs to the Mocs, to the team Mercer coach Bob Hoffman said was “beyond historic,” for its December to Remember road run through Georgia, Illinois and Dayton.
Mainly, they needed to win.
So beginning at the 8:03 mark of the final half, Pryor and Tuoyo not only scored 16 of the Mocs’ final 20 points, they also collected three rebounds, two blocks (Tuoyo) and an assist each.
And when that lead shrank to 60-58 with under three minutes to go, Pryor rose high as the shot clock ran low, burying a 3-pointer to push his teammates back in in front 63-58.
Similarly determined to assure victory, Tuoyo completed a three-point play the old-fashioned way to hike the advantage to eight at 66-58 with just under two minutes to go. Two more Pryor free throws moved the Mocs back in front by 10, an advantage they would hold the rest of the game.
“When your point guard goes for 17 points, 10 assists and three turnovers, you’re going to take that from him every single night,” UTC coach Matt McCall said after the Mocs’ 13th win of the season against two losses (2-0 in SoCon play).
“You get to a two-point game, you know Greg Pryor’s doing what Greg Pryor’s done all year.”
Not that all the Mocs haven’t come up big all season, especially since leading scorer Casey Jones went down with a bad ankle the day before the Dayton game (Dec. 12).
Check Tuesday’s box score and Chuck Ester got big rebounds. Tre’ McLean threw in 10 points and nine high rebounds to go with two blocks and two steals. Four of Jonathan Burroughs-Cook’s 15 huge points off the bench came on nerveless free throws in the final 50 seconds. Eric Robertson buried three of his six 3-pointers.
“We’re a veteran team,” McCall said. “You’ve got a lot of leaders in that locker room.”
But down the stretch, when the game grew tight and the hour late and Mercer was determined to show it expects to fight for the SoCon regular-season title until the first weekend in March, Pryor and Tuoyo did the heaviest lifting, the most confident leading.
“The guys did a good job of getting me the ball,” said Tuoyo, whose three blocks made him the Mocs’ all-time leader in blocked shots with 135.
Said McCall of his junior big man: “We really focused on going to him in the second half, especially down the stretch. He made big plays late at The Citadel, at Illinois and tonight. He’s really good in those situations.”
Just like fellow junior Pryor.
As the Memphis native rose for his game-saving 3-pointer, McCall watched from the sideline with both wariness and wonder.
“It’s one of those ‘Don’t-shoot-it-boom-it-goes-in shots,” the coach said. “If he misses that shot and they score on the other end, it’s a tie game and everybody’s wondering why he took that 3. But Greg’s fearless. He’s a winner.”
You need winners to win conference championships and NCAA bids. You need guys not afraid to fail in order to win when it matters most.
The hour late, this one game won, someone asked Pryor if he knew the shot was good when it left his fingers.
“I always think it’s going in,” he said with a smile.
Trust that confidence to carry the Mocs far.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.