This was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good was in the first half, when the Mocs held Western Carolina to 16 points, and shooting under 15 percent.
The Bad was in the second half, when the Mocs defense suddenly allowed Western Carolina to score 49 points.
The Ugly was in the first half, when the Mocs turned the ball over 13 times and could get nothing going offensively.
It all added up to a Mocs win. But it may have been one they did not deserve. The Mocs were up 23-16 at halftime, but they should have been up by close to twenty points. They totally dominated the game on the defensive, end, but could get nothing going on the offensive end. That was due to too many turnovers, and poor execution down low when they were trying to close shots.
The second half, the offense only turned the ball over three times, and were able to score 44 points. They made a bunch of free throws down the stretch, and allowed a couple of late threes to make the game a two point game.
The Mocs dominated the boards, outrebounding Western Carolina 44-34. But they gave up twelve offensive rebounds. Of course, with how bad Western Carolina was shooting the ball in the first half, that should come as no surprise. There were bound to be a lot of rebounds out there in that game.
The Mocs made 26 of 37 free throws, which comes out to 70.3 percent. Western Carolina made just 14 of 26 from the free throw line. The Mocs shot just 17 of their 50 shots from three point range. Bell lead the team in scoring with 13 and also had six assists. Early still can't break 13 points, scoring 12 this time. He and Saffore both had seven rebounds. Jefferson scored seven points, and came up with eleven rebounds.
Saffore was awful today. He did not play well. He made 1 of 7 shots from the floor. He did not get his hand ups on rebounds. There were several points were his hands were around his shoulders as he let a Western Carolina player get the rebound around or over him. He is 7 feet tall. All he needs to do is stick his hands up and he could have had five more rebounds tonight. He also brought the ball down to waste on several catches that allowed the ball to be swiped by the smaller Catamounts players. If he "plays bigger" he could be a major force.
Bell still played a little out of control and threw up too many quick shots. But he controlled the game and the Mocs won. He only committed one turnover. So there should not be many complaints about Bell.
Troy Cage scored five huge points in this game. The game was tied at 58 and he scored five straight points to put the Mocs up 63-58. He probably was the most important player today because of those points. It was a little unusual, given that Cage has not played a lot of minutes, and has been strangely quiet given all the hype about him, but maybe today's game was a turning point.
Mike Williams scored 21 and Keaton Cole scored 17 for the Catamounts. They made 8 of 21 threes- the rest of the team went 1 for 11 from three. Williams seemed strangely more dominant than Sims did the other night, even though Sims scored more points. Williams was very impressive.
Also, it should be noted that Jamal Burroughs has been playing very well over the last two games. He had a couple of huge plays against Appalachian State that went unnoted in the previous post on that game. Tonight, in twelve minutes, he scored four points and had four rebounds. That is good production from a role player off the bench whose play had been uninspiring through the first part of the year. Burroughs deserves a lot of credit, as he is starting to come around.
Wattad, to his credit, did not shoot a lot tonight. He was cold and made 2 of 9 from the floor, scoring just seven points. But he did not throw up 16 shots like he has been known to do in the past, even if he was cold. That deserves credit as well.
The Mocs did not play particularly well tonight. They ticked me off the in the first half because they could not put the game away when Western Carolina was not playing well. Then in the second half, they weathered the storm by Western Carolina, and just made enough plays at the end to win the game. That, too, deserves some credit.
The Mocs are now 2-0 in the SoCon, while Western Carolina falls to 0-2. The Mocs have a game against Murray State a week from today, in a big home game for this team in an attempt to get back to .500 overall.
GO MOCS!
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