The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team evened its Southern Conference record at 1-1 by beating Mercer 70-61 on Saturday in Macon, Georgia.
The Mocs (10-5) were led in scoring by David Jean-Baptiste and Matt Ryan with 17 points each, and Ramon Vila paced the team's 34-30 advantage in rebounds with nine, seven of them on the offensive end to help UTC finish with an 11-3 edge in second-chance points at Hawkins Arena.
The Bears (6-10, 0-3) were held to fewer than 50 points until the final two minutes, when the Mocs were up by double digits and guarding the 3-point line.
UTC, which has won four straight games and seven of its past nine, played its second SoCon game of the season a month after a league loss at Western Carolina.
"I don't care which league you are playing in, road wins are a big deal. Wins like this are big when you are building a program," said Mocs coach Lamont Paris, who is in his third season at UTC. "We were really active defensively. On the ball-screen situations I thought we did a good job of switching. I was really impressed with some of the things we did defensively."
Paris was also pleased with the way the Mocs took care of the ball, committing only six turnovers. They had only one in the first half, building a 35-25 halftime lead despite shooting only 31% from the field.
"We challenged the guys coming in to do the little things. We used the Ohio State-Wisconsin game as an example," said Paris, a former Wisconsin assistant who was referencing the Badgers' 61-57 upset of No. 5 Ohio State on Friday.
Paris pointed out that while the Badgers didn't shoot great from 3-point range (26.1%), "they didn't turn it over and they rebounded well.
"We held them to two offensive rebounds while we had 10 extra possessions," he said of the Mocs limiting the Bears. "We did a really good job of managing the game in that way."
UTC led 28-25 late in the first half when Jean-Baptiste hit a 3-pointer and Vila scored four straight points to close the half. Mercer got within six points seven minutes into the second half as the Mocs came out cold, but Stefan Kenic scored six of his 10 points over the next three minutes to stretch the lead to 47-36.
The Mocs, who have played 10 of their 15 games so far this season on the road, start a three-game home stretch Wednesday against Furman (13-3, 3-0), which won 64-62 at Mercer last month in the SoCon opener for both.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.