Ramon Vila was nearly perfect from the field Wednesday night in leading the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a 86-67 Southern Conference basketball win over VMI at McKenzie Arena.
The junior from Barcelona had 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting as the Mocs went to him early and often inside with efficient results. Matt Ryan added 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, with David Jean-Baptiste adding 11 and a team-high seven rebounds and four assists.
UTC improved to 16-10 for the season and 7-6 in the SoCon, moving within a game of fourth place with five games remaining.
The Mocs closed the first half on a 9-0 run to take a 39-26 lead, but the Keydets quickly cut the lead to six on a Travis Evee 3-pointer as part of a 7-0 run that included a pair of UTC turnovers. UTC coach Lamont Paris elected to let his team play out of it, and the Mocs did with a Vila dunk off a Ryan steal igniting a 9-2 run in just over two minutes.
“I thought about it,” Paris said of calling a timeout after the VMI early run. “My aspiration is to develop a team where they do things on their own and dig themselves out of holes. The only way to do it is to do it. We strung a couple of stops together, which will often get you going. We settled down on the defensive end, which was the difference.”