Mocs Matchup: UTC men hope to stop surging Wofford Terriers

Staff photo by Troy Stolt / UTC senior guard Matt Ryan drives to the basket during an 80-64 home loss to ETSU on Wednesday.
Staff photo by Troy Stolt / UTC senior guard Matt Ryan drives to the basket during an 80-64 home loss to ETSU on Wednesday.

UTC (14-10, 5-6 SoCon) at WOFFORD (16-8, 8-3)

7 p.m. Saturday at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Video & radio: ESPN+ & 97.7 FM/1070 AM

Storyline: In the span of a little more than a week, the Wofford Terriers moved back into the Southern Conference race with three consecutive wins, though they were over The Citadel, Samford and Virginia Military Institute, teams with a combined 3-30 record in league play. Still, the 2019 conference champions are dangerous, led by reigning SoCon player of the week Chavez Goodwin and sharpshooting guards Nathan Hoover (15 points per game) and Storm Murphy (12 points per game), with Murphy a 42% shooter from 3-point range with 45 makes. As for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Mocs had perhaps their best win of the season when they beat the Terriers 72-59 on Jan. 15 at McKenzie Arena, where David Jean-Baptiste and Matt Ryan combined for 35 points and the hosts held a huge rebounding edge. On the boards is where the Mocs can do some more damage this time around. To win, though, they obviously have to shoot better than in recent games and must fight through Wofford's myriad of screens designed to get Hoover and Murphy open looks at the basket.

What's at stake? A sweep of Wofford would do wonders for the Mocs and could set the stage for a move into the upper half of the SoCon standings - UTC has six regular-season games remaining after this one, with two of them against VMI and one versus The Citadel. Lose, though, and the Mocs' climb to escape a bottom-four tournament seed will get steeper.

Up next: The Mocs host VMI at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.

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