Five games into the fourth season with Lamont Paris as coach, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team has shown the beauty of its offense this year is the Mocs’ ability to find different ways to be effective and put the ball in the hoop.
Wednesday evening, the Bellarmine Knights – playing their first home game as an NCAA Division I team – took away the Mocs’ penetration and dared the visitors to make shots from the perimeter.
As it turns out, UTC was more than capable, tying a school record with 17 made 3-pointers in a 77-68 victory at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, to improve to 5-0 for the first time since the 1987-88 season. After consecutive road contests at Bellarmine and Middle Tennessee State, the Mocs are back at McKenzie Arena for their next game, hosting NAIA member North Georgia at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Four players did a bulk of the scoring for the Mocs on Wednesday night. Malachi Smith led the way with 18 points, chipping in 11 rebounds and six assists. A.J. Caldwell and Jamaal Walker each finished with 15 points – all scored from behind the arc – with Caldwell totaling eight rebounds and Walker three assists. David Jean-Baptiste had 14 points and five assists in 32 minutes before fouling out.
For Bellarmine (1-2), which opened its D-I era with a 76-54 loss at Duke last week, Pedro Bradshaw scored 22 points with six rebounds and Dylan Penn added 19 points with six assists.