CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Chattanooga Mocs opened the second half of play with a 9-0 run which turned a two-point halftime lead into an 11-point cushion to put away the visiting Elon Phoenix by a 76-54 margin in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Thursday night. The loss stopped Elon's brief two-game road winning streak and dropped the Phoenix to 8-15 overall and 6-10 in SoCon play. UTC improved to 13-13, 9-6.
Elon controlled much of the first half action and built a 12-5 lead less than seven minutes in when
Ola Atoyebi put in a lay-up at the 13:16 mark.
After the Mocs cut the lead to 12-10, the Phoenix used an 8-1 run to claim a 20-11 lead with 11:20 to play in the half thanks in part to seven points from
TJ Douglas.
Chattanooga battled back and trimmed the Elon edge to just 25-24 following a Stephen McDowell three with 4:44 showing on the clock. Atoyebi answered with a jumper on the other end before a Kevin Goffney jumper and a Jeremt Saffore dunk put the Mocs on top 28-27 at the 2:47 mark.
The Phoenix went back on top by four when
Brett James converted an old-fashioned three-point play before hitting another jumper with just over a minute left in the stanza. However, the Mocs closed the half with back-to-back threes from McDowell to hold a 34-32 lead at the break.
The second half opened with Goffney finding McDowell for a back door lay-up which started UTC's 9-0 run that built a 43-32 lead less than 3:30 into the period.
Less than two minutes later, the lead had grown to 50-35 before an 8-3 Elon spurt closed the gap back to just 10 points after
Chris Long found
Adam Constantine for a slam at the 12:15 mark.
Chattanooga's lead ballooned back to 14 points when a Nicchaeus Doaks' lay-up made the score 59-45 with 9:39 to play. The Phoenix fought back and closed the gap to as few as 11 points on a James' three ball with 6:10 to go, but would get no closer.
James led Elon with 13 points, moving him within two points of 16th on the program's all-time scoring chart with 1,235 career points. Douglas finished with 11 points off the bench for the Phoenix which shot just 29.0 percent in the second half.
McDowell led all scorers with 19 points while Doaks (16), Goffney (15) and Khalil Hartwell (12) all also finished with double figure scoring nights. Doaks led all rebounders with nine to become UTC's all-time rebounding leader. McDowell drained five threes and now sits atop UTC's career three-point field goals made chart.
Elon remains on the road to take on Samford on Saturday. Game time is set for 3 p.m. EST.
-- ELON --
