After some solid performances to start the season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team has struggled in its past two-plus games.
It began last Friday at McKenzie Arena with an overtime loss to Evansville — a game in which the Mocs led by 20 with 11:21 remaining in regulation — and followed with an average performance Sunday in a home win against Southeast Missouri State.
Wednesday in Nashville, the Mocs could never get their offense going and fell 82-68 at Lipscomb University in a midday matchup that wasn’t as close as that score indicated.
UTC (5-2) trailed by as many as 28 points in the second half before the Bison went deep into their bench, allowing the Mocs to finish on a 19-5 run that made the final look respectable.
The Mocs hit 10 of their final 15 shots to finish at 35%. They were 12 of 35 from 3-point range, but half of those makes came in the final 6:43.
UTC wasn’t much better defensively. The Bison (6-4) made 15 of 28 first-half shots while building a 41-27 advantage, and after a cold spell to start the second half, the hosts had a stretch when they made 10 of 12, including eight straight, to build an overwhelming advantage.
“We hit a little adversity today in a couple of different ways,” UTC coach Dan Earl said on the postgame radio broadcast, noting the team’s “body language wasn’t the best.”
The Mocs’ next game is also on the road, at 4 p.m. Sunday against Kentucky’s Morehead State. After that, just five games will remain before UTC opens January with the start of Southern Conference play.
“We’ve got a choice now to learn from it and get better, which looking forward I feel confident that we will do,” Earl added. “Early on in the game we missed some bunnies around the basket, and at times I don’t think we handled that adversity, we didn’t respond when it came.”
The Mocs were outrebounded 44-32 by the smaller Bison, who were led by Will Pruitt’s 22 points and 16 rebounds. Dylan Faulkner, a former prep standout at Georgia’s Calhoun, had two points and three rebounds for the ASUN program.
UTC was paced by Honor Huff’s 16 points, while freshman Sean Cusano came off the bench to score 12 points in just his second game and Jan Zidek chipped in 11.
Mocs forward Sam Alexis faced double- and triple-team defenses in the post most of the game and was held to five points and six rebounds. He did have team highs with four blocks and as many assists, but he also committed a team-high five turnovers.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.