The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball program suffered a massive loss recently when star Jake Stephens went down with a hand injury, one that is going to keep him out for the foreseeable future.
Even with Stephens the Mocs had been an unpredictable group all season, entering Wednesday’s contest against Wofford with an 11-10 record and a 3-5 mark against Southern Conference competition. That inconsistency was on full display in Saturday’s loss at home to East Tennessee State as the Mocs were an efficient 6-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half before a 3-for-22 effort in the final 20 minutes. That poor shooting performance bled into the defensive end of the court, where the Bucs shot 79% from the field in the second half after making just under 40% in the first.
For the length of time that Stephens is out the Mocs will need players to replace the 21.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.4 blocks — all team highs — he provided. He was the scorer, the rebounder and possibly the best creator on offense, and a solid-at-best defender.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / KC Hankton is among a group of players the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team will have to rely on with leading scorer Jake Stephens injured.Who’s next? We look at a few possibilities who need to step up their production, starting Wednesday:
Jamal Johnson: Nobody just replaces what the 7-foot Stephens can do, but Johnson sure seems like an ideal candidate to step into some of the offensive production. This season he’s been the second-best offensive player on the team, both statistically and analytically, and while it won’t look the same, an opportunity to improve on Johnson’s season stats of 13.2 points on 38% shooting from 3-point range is something that the 6-foot-4 senior guard could be eager to do in his final season of college.