The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team evened its Southern Conference record at 1-1 by beating Mercer 70-61 on Saturday in Macon, Georgia.
The Mocs (10-5) were led in scoring by David Jean-Baptiste and Matt Ryan with 17 points each, and Ramon Vila paced the team’s 34-30 advantage in rebounds with nine, seven of them on the offensive end to help UTC finish with an 11-3 edge in second-chance points at Hawkins Arena.
The Bears (6-10, 0-3) were held to fewer than 50 points until the final two minutes, when the Mocs were up by double digits and guarding the 3-point line.
UTC, which has won four straight games and seven of its past nine, played its second SoCon game of the season a month after a league loss at Western Carolina.
“I don’t care which league you are playing in, road wins are a big deal. Wins like this are big when you are building a program,” said Mocs coach Lamont Paris, who is in his third season at UTC. “We were really active defensively. On the ball-screen situations I thought we did a good job of switching. I was really impressed with some of the things we did defensively.”