ASHEVILLE, N.C. - KC Hankton knows that being left-handed, he has a built-in advantage over a vast majority of the opponents he faces on the basketball court.
"I think it helps a lot," Hankton said, "because most people who play basketball are right-handed, so when they drive to the right, it's hard because most players' defenders tend to block with their right hand and I can use both."
Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference tournament, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior forward didn't simply score with his left. He finished inside with the right. He knocked down a 3-pointer. He hit a mid-range jumper.
It's why Mocs coach Lamont Paris doesn't put a ceiling on how good the 6-foot-7, 215-pounder can be. Asked for a player comparison, Hankton couldn't immediately think of the name - and Paris wasn't offering any details.
"He knows how I feel about him as a player and where I think ultimately he should be as a player," Paris said. "I've told him, and it's high."
Hankton, who played two seasons at Saint Louis University before transferring, started his UTC career with a bang, scoring 16 points in a win over UNC Asheville on Dec. 16, 2020, and averaged 8.9 per contest that season. This season, slowed by injuries, he hasn't been able to reach that level of production.
But the postseason lends itself to opportunities for unheralded players to have highlight moments - and now Hankton has one of his own. His 13 points and team-high seven rebounds helped the top-seeded Mocs beat The Citadel 71-66 at Harrah's Cherokee Center.
UTC (25-7) eliminated the ninth-seeded Bulldogs (13-18) and now stands two wins away from a sweep of the SoCon titles, with the next test Sunday's 4 p.m. semifinal against Wofford (19-12). The fourth-seeded Terriers, beaten twice by UTC in the regular season, won Saturday's second quarterfinal 68-66 against fifth-seeded Virginia Military Institute (16-15).
Hankton matched the 13 points he scored against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 16, the only other time this season he has scored in double figures. And that extra output was needed on this day by the Mocs, whose usually prolific offense struggled from 3-point range as they made just four of 22 tries. Hankton hit one of those four, while David Jean-Baptiste, who had a team-high 20 points, knocked down two and Malachi Smith, who finished with 19 points, had the other.
Staff file photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC coach Lamont Paris said he has high expectations for junior forward KC Hankton's basketball career, and Hankton delivered Saturday as the Mocs dealt with some struggles on offense at the SoCon tournament."Coach Paris, he just always tries to give me confidence, no matter what I do," Hankton said. "I've dealt with a few small injuries here and there that kept me out a few games, so he's always just saying to push myself to the maximum extent all the time, and the ceiling is as high as I want it to be really."
So many players have made contributions for the SoCon regular-season champions. Aside from the efforts of Smith, the SoCon player of the year, and two-time All-SoCon second-team guard Jean-Baptiste, there have been plenty of performances that might have been overlooked by some: the 26 points scored by Darius Banks in the win at Furman; the 25 Grant Ledford had against East Tennessee State to clinch the conference title; the big games Josh Ayeni and Avery Diggs had against Mercer.
Saturday, it was Hankton's turn.
"He's been improving as a player," said Paris, who joked he'd been "holding Hankton back all season."
And a year after losing their SoCon tourney opener, the Mocs were moving on.
"We have a lot of options, but we have guys that don't care who the option is - that might be someone else," Paris said. "I just honestly think we have a team full of guys that don't really care who scores, and some guys are going to be counted on scoring a little bit more than others at most times. But at the end of the day, our leading scorer doesn't matter; our second-leading scorer doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to them who ends up getting the points or the credit.
"We're all about winning and team and playing well."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.