The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team found itself thinking way too much in the first half of its big Southern Conference contest against league leader Samford, which wasn’t a good thing.
Basketball is a reactionary game. Sure, there’s thought involved, creativity — but sometimes it’s best to just react and play freely, because that’s usually when the magic happens.
There wasn’t much magic for the Mocs in a 78-56 loss to Samford on Saturday at McKenzie Arena.
Early on, the hosts got caught second-guessing what they were seeing against the Bulldogs, in part because Samford wasn’t doing the same thing defensively. Some UTC possessions, the Bulldogs would play zone. Others, man-to-man defense. Sometimes they played a zone that switched to a man within the same possession.
And while the Mocs were thinking, the Bulldogs were playing, with the result a first half in which UTC was limited to 23 points while shooting 6-for-21, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range. UTC made a run to start the second half, cutting a 20-point deficit at the break to 48-40 — and then got a little too excited on the ensuing handful of possessions, resulting in some bad, hurried shots that allowed Samford to stretch its lead back out and roll to the win.