It wasn’t pretty, but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team was able to secure its third consecutive victory Thursday night, using a solid second-half showing to pull away from Johnson University — an NAIA program from the Knoxville area — for a 72-52 win at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs (3-3) will host another-in state foe, this one from the equal footing of the NCAA Division I ranks, when Tennessee State visits McKenzie at 7 p.m. Monday in the first game of the Coke Classic. UTC will face Bryant at 2 p.m. Wednesday to close out the four-team, three-day event after Bryant and Tennessee State face off at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
UTC endured a slow start in the first half Thursday against the Royals, who came to Chattanooga at 5-1 this season with that loss to reigning NAIA national champion Freed-Hardeman. The visitors also showed no ill effects of playing an overtime game Wednesday night against Tennessee Wesleyan, essentially battling the Mocs evenly in the first half, with UTC scoring seven of the final nine points to take a 32-30 lead into halftime.
The second half is where the Mocs settled in and got further out in front. UTC did so not by shooting especially well (the Mocs made 43% of their attempts from the floor) or connecting often enough from 3-point range (they were 3-for-17) but by getting into the lane and connecting from inside the arc, with 26 of the hosts’ 40 second-half points in the paint.
UTC also turned 10 Johnson turnovers into 14 points in the final 20 minutes.