Mocs Basketball No Match For 8th Ranked Michigan

(gomocs.com) ANN ARBOR—Kevin Easley posted a game-high 21 points for the Chattanooga Mocs who lost 83-55 at No. 8 Michigan Friday afternoon. Easley’s effort was efficient with his 21 coming on just 13 shots.

“I thought tonight was better (for Easley),” Coach Lamont Paris shared. “Today, I thought he was really efficient. I thought his shot selection was good. More so than his shot selection, his preparation was really good. “He was ready to make plays.”

It was a consistent onslaught that did the Mocs in. The Wolverines did not have a scoring spurt of greater than 10 unanswered points, but they consistently found the bottom of the basket on the day.

There were some positives on the day. The Mocs scored more points against the vaunted Michigan defense than all but one team to date – George Washington with 61 – as defending national champion Villanova mustered just 46 on its home court and Big EAST member Providence managed 47. That’s the exact number opponents averaged against the Wolverines coming in.

Defensively, while Michigan easily out-shot its season numbers with 48.3 percent overall and 36.4 percent from 3pt range, Coach Paris saw some things he liked.

“We had some possessions where I thought we did what we wanted to do, defensively,” he began. “There were small stretches, but we did have some possessions where we had a plan, we executed it and got them to take the shot that we wanted.”

The Mocs return to the Scenic City for three straight games over a 12-day span. It begins Tuesday night at 7 p.m., against Hiwassee. Tennessee Tech visits on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 2 p.m., followed by the Southern Conference opener with VMI on Sunday, Dec. 9, at 1 p.m.

RECORDS

Chattanooga 2-5 | No. 8 Michigan 6-0

SERIES

Chattanooga trails the series 0-5…0-4 in the Crisler Center…first meeting since Dec. 4, 1999, a 72-61 loss.

3-22 against the Big Ten Conference…won regular season meeting with a Big Ten opponent topping Illinois 81-77 on Nov. 21, 2015 in Springfield.

3 NOTES TO KNOW

• Five 3pt made by Kevin Easley is a new high for a Moc this season eclipsing four by Jerry Johnson, Jr., and Thomas Smallwood at Charlotte.
• Chattanooga is 3-53 all-time against ranked opposition…last win over a Top 25 team came in 1996-97 topping No. 19 Illinois, 75-63, in Charlotte, N.C., on March 16, 1997 advancing to the Sweet 16 in the Southeast Regional…other wins include No. 17 Georgia (1997 in Charlotte) and No. 15 ETSU (1/21/91 in Chattanooga).
• Eighth time the Mocs face the previous season’s NCAA finalist and second time at Michigan…7th occasion against the national runner-up…last such matchup was 2016 runner-up North Carolina (97-57 loss)…other instances: North Carolina (1982 champ) at home on Dec. 21, 1982 losing 73-66, at Michigan (1993 runner-up) on Dec. 5, 1993 losing 97-86, at Kansas (2003 runner-up) losing 90-76 on Nov. 21, 2003, Memphis (2008 runner-up) in San Juan, P.R., on Nov. 20, 2008 losing 83-71, at Butler (2011 runner-up) losing 57-46 on Nov. 15, 2011 and Kansas (2012 runner-up) losing 69-55 on Nov. 15, 2012.

3 STATS TO KNOW

Check out the full stats at the link above.

• Sixth time in seven games Kevin Easley reached double digits…ended up with 21 points in 28 minutes played…second-highest scoring total behind his 22 against Eastern Kentucky.
• The Mocs shot better from 3pt range (40.9%, 9-22) than inside the arc (33.3%, 13-39).
• Season lows for free throws made (2) and attempted (4).

QUOTABLE

Check out all of what we heard at the quotes link above.

“I just think it was a good experience for guys to see what a solid, good team is. What they are about, how they compete and how they go about their business.” – Coach Lamont Paris on playing a top 10 program.

“Nothing specific, just getting better. We will fine-tune more…look at what we did well and look at what we didn’t do well. We are constantly evaluating that and trying to work on those things and get better at those things. I thought we did some things today that we specifically had addressed, which is encouraging to see guys make changes in what they are doing.” – Paris on heading into 3-game homestand.

“It was a great experience for us as a whole. We have a young group of guys in our first year, so us getting to experience that is big time. Coach Paris is really trying to move Chattanooga up and make a lot of improvements. You can see that with the new video board, lights and everything. I love where the program is heading right now, and we will continue working hard and getting better.” – Freshman Kevin Easley on competing in a top 10 environment.