The Chattanooga Mocs put four players in double figures, led by Eric Robertson’s 17 points off the bench, en route to an 86-64 win over the VMI Keydets in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Thursday night in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Phillip Anglade led VMI (7-13, 3-6) with 16 points and seven rebounds and Julian Eleby added 10 points and five rebounds.
Ronrico White scored 15 points for the Mocs (13-7, 6-1 SoCon) and Casey Jones added 13 points and five rebounds while Justin Tuoyo chipped in 10 points and blocked four shots . Chattanooga has won 10 of its last 12 games and is 10-3 at home this season.
VMI, limited by 22 turnovers on the night, got off to a shaky start committing five turnovers before the first media timeout. The Mocs broke the game’s only tie at 2-2 used an 8-0 spurt to build a 14-4 lead following a layup by UTC’s Chuck Ester with 12:54 left.
The Mocs pushed the margin to its biggest size in the first half- 14 points- when White converted two free throws to give the hosts a 24-10 lead at the 8:31 mark of the first half.
VMI rallied with 10 straight points to pull within two points. Fred Iruafemi started the run with a pair of free throws. A Tim Marshall 3-pointer and lay-in sandwiched around a tip-in by Anglade cut the deficit to 24-19. Eleby then nailed his first trey of the night to make it 24-22 at the 5:23 mark which was the closest VMI would come the rest of the way.
Chattanooga converted six straight free throws over the last 4:50 before halftime to help stretch out is lead and led 41-31 at the break following a layup by Tre’ McLean seconds before the halftime buzzer.
Chattanooga maintained a double-digit lead throughout the entire second half. The Mocs shot 54% from the floor after halftime while limiting VMI to 28.6% shooting over the same period. Anglade converted one of two from the line as VMI trailed by 12 (55-43) at the 12:07 mark, but that would be as close as the Keydets would get the rest of the way.
Chattanooga’s largest lead of the night was 23 points after Pryor converted two free throws to extend the UTC lead to 77-54 with 5:24 left in regulation.
VMI was playing its second game without leading scorer Q.J. Peterson who last week was placed on medical furlough for the current semester.
VMI opens a five-game homestand starting Saturday when the Keydets play host to The Citadel. Game time is 1 p.m. at Cameron Hall. The Keydets and Bulldogs squared off in the 2014-15 season opener in the All-Military Classic at West Point, N.Y. with VMI prevailing,66-65 on November 14.
VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom –
“It was like taking a knife to a gun fight. Everybody they had that took the floor played better than the guys we had take the floor. I thought Phillip Anglade gave us a lot, but with exception of him, nobody really stepped up.”
“Chattanooga has a lot of weapons and we were our own worst enemy. We had 22 turnovers and they didn’t press a minute. It certainly wasn’t because of our point guards. I thought Brian (Brown) did a good job of leading us as did Julian (Elleby) but we can’t have a bunch of turnovers from others like that.”
“The Citadel is our complete focus now.”
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