In a game in which made shots - especially from the perimeter - were hard to come by, two 3-pointers in the final two minutes lifted the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team to a 59-57 win over Tennessee State University after trailing by 13 points in the first half Saturday.
Graduate transfer Matt Ryan, who had missed his first six 3-point attempts, nailed a shot with 1:45 remaining to break a 52-52 tie, and junior David Jean-Baptiste followed with a 3 of his own with 31 seconds remaining to extend the lead to four. Strong defense and a crucial free throw by sophomore Maurice Commander sealed the victory.
"It was a loose ball, and AJ (Caldwell) came up with the ball," Ryan said. "I knew if I caught it and had a play, I was going to shoot it. I was really ready to shoot, and I'm just glad the ball went in."
Ryan and Jean-Baptiste led the Mocs (1-1) with 11 points each, and redshirt junior Rod Johnson recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Tennessee State (1-1) was led by Carlos Marshall Jr. with 16 points.
The Mocs struggled offensively, especially in the first half when they were 8-for-30 shooting, and trailed 23-10 with 9:08 remaining in the half. But Johnson scored five points and grabbed four rebounds to spark a 12-2 run, and the Mocs went into the break down 29-24.
"It's really comes down to me going down to the boards every single play," Johnson said. "That's what gets me going. Coach holds me to a standard because if I'm not rebounding, I can't be out there to play. We need someone to be our main rebounder."
UTC coach Lamont Paris urged his team to focus on defense in the second half and let that dictate the pace of the game.
"We challenged the guys at halftime because we felt the offense was going to come around, but we knew if we could keep them in the 50s we had a chance to win," he said. "A lot of times early in the season, your defense is ahead of your offense, and that's where we've been for the last few games."
Despite finishing 21-of-60 shooting, the Mocs ground away at TSU and found ways to score, finally taking a lead on a basket in the paint by Trey Doomes with 12:39 to play.
"It all came down to defense," Johnson said. "We weren't shooting our best, so we had to grind it out on defense by getting stops and making sure we were keeping them off the boards. That was the biggest part of it."
UTC scored 12 of its 20 points in the paint in the second half to get and maintain the lead.
"Those two 3s (at the end of the game) will get all the credit because of the timing of them and the 'ohh' and 'ahh' of a 3-pointer," Paris said. "But I thought a good part of what we did in the second half was get the ball down there and made some good, aggressive strong plays around the basket.
"That sustained us because from the perimeter we weren't shooting the ball well."
The Mocs, who dropped their opener at Eastern Kentucky will hit the road for a game Tuesday at Troy before hosting South Alabama on Friday, and Ryan said Saturday's win can set the tone as the team settles into the season.
"A lot of teams who are down 13 in the first half would fold," he said. "But we got settled into our defense and took what the defense gave us on offense because some of our shots weren't going in.
"We just clawed away and pulled it out."
Contact Jim Tanner at JFTanner@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JFTanner.