The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team used a solid defensive performance and 10 3-pointers to defeat Western Carolina 65-47 on Wednesday night in front of 3,128 at McKenzie Arena, with the Mocs exacting revenge for one of their two Southern Conference losses this season.
UTC (21-5, 11-2) limited the Catamounts (9-17, 3-10) - who won the first meeting 70-59 on Jan. 12 in Cullowhee, North Carolina - to their worst shooting performance of the season. The visitors made just 27% of their shots from the floor and knocked down just three of their 30 attempts from 3-point range.
The Mocs struggled from the field in the first 20 minutes, shooting just 31%, but improved to 44% in the second half. They knocked down five 3s in each half.
"I don't know who was in charge of taking the lid off the room in the first half, but they failed in that mission," UTC coach Lamont Paris said. "I thought we generated some high-quality shots in the first half, and we just had a bunch of guys that couldn't make shots, the ball wouldn't go in.
"Luckily we held them to 17 points, so the lid was on theirs, too. You hold a team to 17 points, you'd like to go into halftime with a bigger cushion than what you had, but we just weren't making shots, but finally it came through, we did our thing, continued to get good looks, and some of the guys that normally make shots made them when they needed to make them."
Malachi Smith led the Mocs in scoring 16 points, adding six rebounds and three assists. David Jean-Baptiste had 14 points and five rebounds, while Grant Ledford chipped in nine points and a team-high seven rebounds before fouling out with a little less than five minutes remaining in the game. Darius Banks also scored nine points for UTC.
Nick Robinson had 16 points and nine rebounds and Tyler Harris eight points and 10 rebounds to pace the Catamounts.
UTC has won three straight games since a road loss at Samford, with the win against Western Carolina following a regular-season series sweep of Mercer in which the Mocs and Bears met twice in three days.
The Mocs return to competition Saturday, when they face Furman (17-9, 9-4) at 2 p.m. at Timmons Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. UTC beat the Paladins 71-69 on Jan. 15 in Chattanooga.
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.