Trey Bonham knocked down a key 3-pointer from the left wing in the second half, turned to the front row of fans at McKenzie Arena and slapped hands with former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout Malachi Smith, who won the 2022 Lou Henson Award as the top men’s basketball player in a mid-major conference that season.
It was that kind of night for Bonham, a fifth-year senior guard in his second season at UTC, along with the rest of the Mocs in a 78-71 win against Southern Conference rival East Tennessee State University.
After a slow start going up against a depleted Buccaneers squad that attempted to shorten Saturday’s game, the Mocs found success from long range, knocking down 15 3-pointers while winning their seventh straight game, improving to 19-8 overall and 11-3 in SoCon play, and remaining tied with UNC Greensboro (18-9, 11-3) atop the league standings.
The Mocs face Western Carolina (8-17, 4-10) at 7 p.m. Wednesday and The Citadel next Saturday in the final two home games on UTC’s schedule.
Honor Huff finished with 19 points on five made 3-pointers and Bonham scored 18 as he went 6-for-10 behind the arc. Frank Champion continued his great play with 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, Bash Wieland chipped in 13 points, and Garrison Keeslar had eight points, four rebounds and three assists for the Mocs.
ETSU (15-12, 8-6) was missing a pair of seniors as forward Jaden Seymour and guard John Buggs III are both out with injuries. Seymour is second on the team in scoring this season with an average of 17.0 points per game, while Buggs is third at 11.4 and has made 67 3-pointers at a 41% success rate.
“I thought ETSU had a great game plan,” UTC coach Dan Earl said. “They kind of took the air out of the ball, played ultra slow, and I think that frustrated us a good amount, so we have to learn from that. We got out of our stuff, we didn’t move the ball as quickly as we needed to on offense, and we were a little bit lackadaisical defensively for whatever reason.
“I thought it was a hard-fought win against a really good team. We made plays late in particular, we ratcheted up our defense a little bit.”
The Mocs led for more than 30 minutes of game time and built as much as a 12-point lead, which helped them withstand the onslaught of scoring from ETSU guard Quimari Peterson, who played all 40 minutes and scored 26 of his 31 minutes in the second half.
UTC responded with five players — Bonham, Huff, Keeslar, Wieland and Collin Mulholland — knocking down at least one 3-pointer in the final 20 minutes, which allowed the Mocs to have their best shooting game from 3-point range since making 16 against Wofford on Jan. 15. The 52% rate at which they made those 3-pointers was the best since 19 at a 68% rate against Virginia Military Institute on Jan. 12.
“A lot of times, especially against us,” Huff said in reference to himself and Bonham, “teams try to take the 3-pointer away. I mean, that’s ‘See, share, shoot,’ Coach Earl’s favorite thing to say, and that’s what we do at a maximum.
“Today the defense ETSU played kind of allowed us to get up some 3s. They went under some guys, they played zone a little bit towards the end of the first half, so changing up their defense allowed us to get open shots and move the ball. It was good to see those shots going, especially to see him (Bonham) make some shots.”
Peterson finished 10-of-20 from the field, including 5-for-8 from 3-point range, and made all six of his free throws. He was joined in reaching double-digit points for ETSU by D.J. Hughes (11), who also had nine rebounds, and Maki Johnson (10).
UTC swept the season series with the Bucs, having won 71-63 on Jan. 25 in Johnson City.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.