Having multiple players contribute makes University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach Matt McCall happy.
He was very pleased Thursday night.
Five Mocs scored in double figures for the second consecutive game, with UTC registering the first points and never trailing on its way to a 77-58 Southern Conference win over Western Carolina in front of 2,523 at McKenzie Arena.
UTC (15-3, 4-1 SoCon) will host rival East Tennessee State at 5 p.m. Saturday in the second half of a doubleheader. The UTC women host UNC Greensboro at 2.
The Mocs shot 49 percent from the floor and had 17 assists on 24 made baskets against Western Carolina (7-10, 2-2). They were led by Justin Tuoyo’s 20 points and six rebounds. The conference’s leader in blocked shots, he added two more to his total, giving him 37 on the season.
Chuck Ester added 11 points and four rebounds for UTC, while Greg Pryor, Tre’ McLean and Johnathan Burroughs-Cook added 10 points apiece. Pryor had five rebounds and four assists.
Dee Oldham had a team-high nine rebounds.
“When we get the ball moving, we can be tough to guard,” McCall said. “I felt that was the case tonight. That’s the way we need to play – unselfishly. The floor moved, no one was consumed with scoring, and we played the right way – for each other.”
The Catamounts were held to 38 percent shooting and turned the ball over 14 times. The league’s leading team in offensive rebounds per game was held to six Thursday, when the Mocs won the rebounding battle 39-29.
“We knew it was going to be a physical game, so we wanted to come out early and get the first lead,” Tuoyo said. “We knew about their 3-point shooting – (Rhett) Harrelson has been shooting the lights out – but everybody did a great job on him, and with them not getting the 3-point looks, it made our job easier to box out.”
Harrelson, who had made 12 of 22 attempts from 3-point range in his past two games, was 2-for-6 against the Mocs and finished with 11 points. The Catamounts, who average more than eight 3-pointers made per game, were 5-for-17.
“We know in the past we gave up a lot of 3s and that has hurt us a lot, but we’ve been able to fight back from that,” Pryor said. “We focused on not putting ourselves in the position in case we’re not able to make a run. We’ve worked on it, and it showed tonight.”
The Mocs went inside on the game’s first possession, with Tuoyo scoring 18 seconds in. The Catamounts hung around for part of the first half, but UTC started to pull away with an 11-2 run midway through to build a 26-14 lead.
The Mocs led 40-24 at halftime and led by 21 points in the second half, but the Catamounts staged a rally midway through the half, cutting the lead to 12 on a couple of occasions. The last time was on a 3-pointer by Harrelson with 6:00 to play to make it 58-46.
UTC responded with a 10-0 run, with Tuoyo capping the spurt off with a dunk in transition.
Justin Browning led the Catamounts with 17 points, and Torrion Brummitt had 15 points along with a game-high 12 rebounds.
“I thought Chattanooga did a good job of taking control of the game,” Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter said. “They really guarded us well, hurt us on the boards and had good balance. I was really impressed with their play.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.