The race for a top-four seed in the upcoming Southern Conference men's basketball tournament took a dramatic turn Wednesday night as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga rose into contention with a wire-to-wire 91-68 win at The Citadel.
The Mocs (17-11, 8-7), led by the sizzling Matt Ryan's 27 points in Charleston, South Carolina, are now tied with Western Carolina, Wofford and Mercer for fourth place in the SoCon with three league games remaining after completing a regular-season sweep of the Bulldogs. Also Wednesday, Western Carolina was upset by Virginia Military Institute, 74-71, and Wofford lost 83-79 to UNC Greensboro, creating the logjam.
UTC shot 54% (39-of-72) from the field at The Citadel and backed up the strong shooting with a 36-23 rebounding edge, which led to a 16-3 edge in second-chance points. Ryan just missed his second consecutive double-double with nine rebounds while hitting seven of his 12 3-point attempts.
Ramon Vila added 20 points (10-of-15 shooting) and seven rebounds for the Mocs, and David Jean-Baptiste broke out of a recent shooting slump with 16 points, eight rebounds and a team-high six assists. Promising sophomore Trey Doomes had eight points and eight rebounds in just 17 minutes.
Brady Spence led the Bulldogs (6-20, 0-15) with 16 points.
The Mocs wasted no time getting the upper hand, jumping out to a 7-0 lead on a pair of Vila layups and the first of Ryan's 3-pointers in the first two minutes. They made it 22-8 on a Vila layup off a nice feed from Jean-Baptiste with just less than nine minutes to play in the first half.
UTC led 40-26 at the break, but a 9-0 Bulldogs' rally to start the second half cut the margin to three after a Derek Webster layup just two minutes in. The Mocs quickly answered as Stefan Kenic hit a jumper and then created a turnover, which led to a Ryan 3-pointer.
Jean-Baptiste then rebounded a missed 3-pointer and drove for a layup to give the Mocs a 47-37 lead with just less than 17 minutes to play. The lead did not get under 10 the rest of the way.
The Mocs host Mercer in a critical SoCon game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. It's the second game in a doubleheader at McKenzie Arena, with the UTC women facing Samford at 2 p.m.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.