The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team has experienced more lows than highs in the five games the Mocs have played since the loss of superstar forward Jake Stephens to a hand injury two weeks ago.
Sure, there was the high of a win at East Tennessee State last weekend, but that has been sandwiched by home losses to those same Buccaneers and Wofford and road losses to Furman and Western Carolina. The latter came Saturday by an 83-68 margin and dropped the Mocs to 12-13 overall this season and 4-8 in the Southern Conference.
The Mocs led only once in Cullowhee, North Carolina — 3-2 on a Dalvin White 3-pointer three minutes into the game — and again found themselves unable to stop an opponent in the second half as the Catamounts (13-12, 6-6) shot 59% (13-for-22) in the final 20 minutes.
"It's tough playing from behind the entire game, but no matter what you've got to keep playing," said UTC senior forward KC Hankton, whose 17 points and seven rebounds were team highs. "We tried to do that, but things didn't go our way today.
"We've just got to stick to it and keep pushing."
The Mocs shot 34% from the field and 33% from 3-point range. They were just 2-for-12 from 3-point range in the second half.
Western Carolina's Tre Jackson had 18 points, going 4-for-8 from behind the arc, as all five starters for the home team scored in double digits. Russell Jones Jr. added 15 points, Vonterius Woolbright had 12 with 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks, DJ Campbell scored 11 points and Tyzhaun Claude contributed 10 with 12 rebounds.
Jamaal Walker had 16 points off the bench for UTC, while Dalvin White added 10. Khristion Courseault had a team-high three assists for the Mocs, who split the season series with the Catamounts, having beaten them 95-76 on Jan. 11 in Chattanooga.
UTC's rough stretch, though, began when Stephens was still in the lineup. The Mocs have lost six of seven games since that victory against Western Carolina.
"I think the guys are frustrated," UTC coach Dan Earl said. "I don't think there was a lack of effort today; we just didn't play well and we allowed them to shoot good percentages, which was not good defensively. It's not that simple, but some days you can look at a stat sheet and see certain things and it be a sign of something, but those stats may not tell the whole story — but plain and simple, today we just didn't play good."
The Mocs are now tied for eighth in the 10-team SoCon standings with The Citadel (9-16, 4-8), which comes to Chattanooga at 7 p.m. Wednesday, and they are a game behind Mercer (12-13, 5-7), which visits McKenzie Arena next Saturday after hosting Samford on Wednesday.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.