"We Hang Our Hat on Defense ... This Team Could be Special Because of Our Defense."
-- UTC men's basketball coach Matt McCall
Stops and runs are keys to victories on the hardwood and the UTC men had a couple of both Thursday night in a 77-66 win against visiting Wofford (6-10, 1-2) at Mckenzie Arena before 2,829 fans.
Stops and Run #!:
Wofford came out hot with a balanced offense (50% from the field) to lead by 11.
Trailing 22-11 at the nine minute mark of the first half, the Mocs (11-4, 2-1) went on a 25-5 run to close out the half and led 36-27 as senior Tre' Mclean's scored all of his 13 first half points in the final 8:16.
Opponents Best Effort: "We will get every team's best shot every time we step on the court and that happened tonight," said coach Matt McCall. "The key is we took this game with defense and scoring off the break."
Stops and Run #2:
In the final 20 minutes, the Terriers cut the UTC lead to five at 51-46 (10:33) after 3-pointers by Fletcher McGee and Nathan Hoover, but the host team responded with another set of defensive stops and a 12-0 run to lead by 17 at 63-46 in a three plus minute span and never looked back.
Points by the game's top scorer Mclean (23 points), Casey Jones, Makinde London and Rodney Chatman put the victors up by 17 at the 7:06 mark and Wofford never closed to within single digits the remainder of the game.
"We got our stops and were able to get out on the fast break and score," said UTC coach McCall.
The Mocs had a decided advantage in points off turnovers (21-9) and also in the paint (40-22).
:"We are an inside out team and we need to run our offense through the paint and we did that tonight," said London who had 12 points and 5 rebounds.
"Even when we were down in the first half, we played hard, were all locked in and focused and trusting each other."
McLean added, :Our length and athleticism gives our opponents smaller guards trouble."
Four in Double Figures
Tre'Mclean (23) Justin Tuoyo (17), Casey Jones (14) and Makinde London (12)
Rebounds: Jones (6) while Tuoyo, London and Mclean had 5 each.
Next Game: Sat. Jan. 7 - UTC hosts Furman ... 5 p.m. Tip Offf
League-leading Furman (3-0) comes to town while the Mocs are 2-1
UTC 77, Wofford 66
Wofford 27 - 39 - 66
UTC 36 - 41 -- 77
Fewest Turnovers: Mocs had only nine tonight, on less than the previous season best of 10 in a 79-52 win against Louisiana Monroe.
Next Game: Saturday Jan. 7 5 p.m. UTC Hosts Furman
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net