Staff photo by Robin Rudd / UTC’s Josh Ayeni scored a career-high 18 points, including 11 in the second half, as the Mocs rallied from four down at halftime to beat Mercer 77-68 on Saturday at McKenzie Arena.Knocked down in the first half of a Southern Conference matchup on its home court, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team got up to win round one of back-to-back bouts with Mercer.
Led by strong offensive performances from sophomore guard Malachi Smith and senior forward Josh Ayeni, the Mocs shot 70% in the second half on their way to a 77-68 win over Mercer in front of 3,192 at McKenzie Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The rematch will come quickly. The Bears (13-11, 6-5) are set to host UTC (19-5, 9-2) at 7 p.m. Monday in Macon, Georgia, in a game rescheduled from Jan. 1 due to COVID-19 within the Mercer program.
In this one, Smith scored 18 of his 22 points and Ayeni tallied 11 of his career-high 18 in the final 20 minutes to help the Mocs outscore the Bears 45-32 after halftime. In the second half, the Mocs limited Mercer to 4-for-13 shooting from 3-point range while making four of their six attempts from long range in the same stretch.
UTC also turned 12 Mercer turnovers into 19 points while giving the ball away just six times during the final half, which started with the Bears ahead by four after they closed the first on a 6-0 run.
“I thought the guys competed at a really high level in the second half defensively,” UTC coach Lamont Paris said. “There were some things that we didn’t manage well, but overall I was much happier with what we were getting done defensively in the second half. Then we made plays.
“The game has a certain flow to it, but then you get into crunch time and it can completely change in terms of getting baskets and how easy they are coming.”
The Mocs bounced back from Wednesday’s 80-72 loss at Samford despite facing Mercer without 6-foot-9 forward Silvio De Sousa, who is out with an injury. Paris said the graduate transfer from Kansas, who has averaged 11.5 points and 6.9 rebounds in his first season at UTC, is going to be out “for a little bit.”
In his absence, Ayeni had the big performance, but David Jean-Baptiste added nine points and A.J. Caldwell and Grant Ledford chipped in eight apiece off the bench. Darius Banks had seven before fouling out, while KC Hankton had a team-high five rebounds before an arm injury took him out of the final 12:55.
Mercer was led by Jalen Johnson (21 points), Felipe Haase (17) and Kamar Robertson (10).
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.