The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team used a dominant second half to defeat UNC Greensboro 77-68 in a Southern Conference tournament quarterfinal Saturday night in Asheville, North Carolina.
The sixth-seeded Mocs (20-12), after beating No. 3 seed UNCG (23-9) for the second time in eight days, will face another upset winner in the semifinals when they take on seventh-seeded Wofford (18-15) at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Harrah's Cherokee Center. UTC swept its regular-season series with the Terriers, who won 77-68 in their quarterfinal with No. 2 seed Furman (25-7), beating the Paladins for the second time in three meetings this season.
Sunday's other semifinal is at 4 p.m. and pits regular-season champion East Tennessee State University (28-4) against fifth-seeded Western Carollina (19-11). In Saturday's quarterfinals, ETSU won 70-57 against No. 9 seed Virginia Military Institute (9-24) and Western Carolina won 70-56 against No. 4 seed Mercer (17-15).
The title game is at 7 p.m. Monday.
The Mocs, who were down 42-35 at halftime against UNCG after trailing by 14 in the first half Saturday, were led by 22 points from Ramon Vila and 21 from David Jean-Baptiste, who combined for 32 second-half points.
"I thought the guys battled extremely hard throughout the game," UTC coach Lamont Paris said to the assembled media afterward. "I did not think we played well in the first half, and we did a good job just to stay where we were at halftime.
"I tip my hat off to our guys. I thought they did a really good job at some of the little things and competing and being very aggressive against a very good team. I can't be happier for our guys and prouder for our guys with the way they competed, and I thought that was the biggest difference in the game."
UTC cut UNCG's lead to one with a 6-0 run to start the second half, but the Spartans scored the next seven points to regain momentum. The Mocs fought right back, using a Vila dunk off a transition pass from Jean-Baptiste on a fast break to start a 16-8 run over the next six minutes that tied the game at 57.
Stefan Kenic then made two free throws for the Mocs' first lead, followed with a layup off a pass from Maurice Commander, and Jonathan Scott nailed a 3-pointer for a 64-57 UTC lead with just less than eight minutes to play. The Spartans cut the lead to three before Jean-Baptiste converted back-to-back strong drives for a 73-66 lead with 2:32 to play.
The lead was not less than five the rest of the way.
"For us as a team, we were competing to the end," junior guard Jean-Baptiste said. "We were finishing plays and finishing possessions. We just need to keep playing hard and keep being aggressive."
The SoCon women's final is at noon Sunday at the same site and has top-seeded Samford (17-14) taking on third-seeded UNCG (23-8), the two teams that shared the regular-season championship with UTC. The Mocs were upset by seventh-seeded Mercer in a quarterfinal on Thursday.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.