The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team put together one of its best first halves of the season Thursday night — a far cry from some recent games in which the Mocs fall behind by double digits in the first 20 minutes.
But against the reigning Southern Conference champions and the league’s current first-place team, the struggles came in the second half, as visiting Samford held the Mocs without a 3-pointer in the final 20 minutes and limited UTC to just 35% shooting on the way to a 73-69 win at McKenzie Arena in front of an announced crowd of 3,679.
The Bulldogs (16-4, 6-1) trailed UTC by as many as 16 points in the first half and the Mocs (12-8, 4-3) led 42-31 at the break, but Samford ramped up the physicality in the second half. The Bulldogs were called for 12 fouls as a result, but it seemed to be a winning tradeoff as their change in approach kept UTC from getting into an offensive rhythm.
On top of that, when the Mocs went to the foul line, they didn’t convert, making just 11 of 17 free throws in the second half, including some costly misses in 1-and-1 situations that led to no points.
“Really good teams don’t let makes and misses affect the defensive end or how sharp you’re being on offense,” UTC coach Dan Earl said. “That bothered us. I think the first two possessions of the second half, we had two wide-open 3s with no one within 17 feet of us, and they didn’t go down, and then (Samford) came down and scored, and I think that bothered us a little too much, more than it should.