It's been a rough run so far in 2022-23 for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team, and the Mocs' struggles continued Wednesday night in a 79-58 loss at Furman.
The only consistent thing about UTC's season has been the inconsistency. That could be due to a revolving door of healthy players — only three have appeared in every game this season — but the team has never been able to get in a rhythm.
The Mocs were fresh off a solid victory Saturday at East Tennessee State and were able to trade blows early with the Paladins, who were the preseason favorites to win the Southern Conference, but UTC lacked the physicality and aggressiveness to compete overall Wednesday. Furman held a 53-32 edge on the boards, with 21 offensive rebounds, 18 second-chance points and 38 points in the paint.
"I thought they were more physical than us and played with more confidence," first-year UTC coach Dan Earl said. "I was happy with our guys in the second half for continuing to fight, but you can't dig yourself that big of a hole against a good team like Furman.
"It was a tough night all the way around."
It was close early before Furman (18-6, 9-2) went on an 18-7 run to end the first half. The home team's lead grew to 18 early in the second half before the Mocs (12-12, 4-7) went on a 12-0 run to cut it to 58-52. Furman then responded with a 13-0 run to assume control and was never threatened again.
Jamaal Walker and Dalvin White had 15 points each to lead the Mocs, with Walker and freshman Sam Alexis leading the team in rebounds with five apiece. Jamal Johnson added 12 points.
UTC had decent from 3-point range by shooting 9-for-23 (39%) but struggled to score everywhere else, making just 11 of 37 shots inside the line and going 9-for-16 on free throws.
"We have to go back as a team and look at the film and see where we messed up at," Walker said. "We've had some close games during the season, whether they went our way or not. We've got to be more consistent and see where we've messed up at so other teams don't go on big runs like the one they went on today."
The Mocs visit Western Carolina (12-12, 5-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday before returning home for games against The Citadel next Wednesday and Mercer on Feb. 11.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.