CULLOWHEE, N.C. – It was an all-too-familiar feeling Thursday night.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team found itself in yet another close contest, this time at Western Carolina.
And again, the Mocs came up short.
A pair of Mike Amius free throws with 16.2 seconds remaining were the difference in the Catamounts’ 70-68 win at the Ramsey Center. The loss dropped the Mocs to 8-16 overall and 2-9 in the Southern Conference, and they fell to 1-10 on the road this season.
They will travel to league-leading East Tennessee State for a 4 p.m. game Saturday.
The Catamounts (10-13, 5-5) led 29-28 at the break, but the second half had seven ties and 15 lead changes. The Mocs last led 66-65 on a 3-pointer by Nat Dixon with 1:22 to play, but on the ensuing possession, he was called for a foul on an Amius drive. The 6-foot-7 junior, who scored 27 points in the first meeting this season in Chattanooga, was held to 12 on Thursday, but he scored seven in the final 3:18.
“When it comes down to it, defense wins games,” said Dixon, who scored a team-high 21 points. “We had a couple of chances to stop the ball. I let him (Amius) get the and-one in a critical moment.
“I’ve got to step up and make that stop.”
On the Catamounts’ final possession, an entry pass intended for Amius was stolen by Makinde London, but the 6-11 junior was called for his fifth foul. Amius made both free throws, and the Mocs’ David Jean-Baptiste missed a pair of shots that could have tied it.
The 6-4 Dixon has scored 20 points in six of his past nine games. Makale Foreman and London finished with 12 points each, while Rodney Chatman and David Jean-Baptiste scored 11 apiece.
Chatman also had six assists, while London, Dixon and Joshua Phillips had five each. Phillips also fouled out.
Amius was big late for the Catamounts, but Deriece Parks was hot the entire second half, scoring all 17 of his points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Marc Gosselin had 14 points and Matt Halvorsen 11, while Devin Peterson had eight assists.
The Mocs shot 48 percent from the field and made 11 3-pointers, but they allowed the Catamounts to also shoot 48 percent from the field and make nine 3s. The Catamounts were 13-for-16 from the foul line to UTC’s 11-for-16.
But again, the Mocs were unable to get the defensive play they needed in a key moment.
“We couldn’t manufacture stops when we needed it,” UTC coach Lamont Paris said. “Anyone that plays a close game, there was one play, something they would say, ‘If we got that stop, if we hadn’t fouled there, if we’d made that shot.’
“That’s been us a lot of different games.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.