Chattanooga 119, Covenant 56

It's hard to know exactly what to take away from this game. After all, Covenant is a DIII team. But the Scots were within four of Kennesaw State (a team the Mocs play in McKenzie in about eleven days), and wound up losing by 29 to them. It is true that the Owls were playing in an exhibition game and the Mocs game was a game that counted, so maybe the Mocs took it a little more seriously than the Owls.

But the Mocs won by 63 points. That is substantially more than Kennesaw State won by. Is that a fair comparison? Maybe. Maybe not.

Regardless, the Mocs Chaos forced 34 turnovers, which was great. They held the Scots to 27.8% shooting froom the floor. If they can play that well defensively, obviously, very few teams will have success against them. Only one player, Nate Frierson, scored in double figures for the Scots.

The Mocs were far from perfect in terms of turnovers, committing 17. They outrebounded the Scots, but actually lost in terms of OR%. That's not good against a team like Covenant. Those are two areas that desperately need improvement.

The Mocs three point shooting also left a little bit to be desired. They made only 6 of 19 from long range. That is not over 35%, which is goal that Will Wade has stated. Martynas Bareika made three. Alex Bran made two. Eric Robertson made one.

The Mocs needed to improve their free throw shooting as well. They shot 78.4% from the free throw line for the game. With the additional fouls expected to be called this year, the Mocs need to be sure that they shoot well from there. Gee McGhee made 7 of 7 from the line. If he can improve his free throw shooting and three point shooting, then he will be an almost unstoppable force. He scored 19 points to lead all scorers. He had five rebounds, seven assists and three steals. He had a very good game, and continued to show his development.

TJ Williams did a nice job in his first game. He had eleven rebounds and six points. He had an impressive game as a freshman. He played 22 minutes. Z Mason scored 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Lance Stokes scored 13 points with five steals and five rebounds. Greg Pryor looked very good, scoring fourteen points with four steals and four assists. If Pryor is the answer at point guard, this team could be pretty good.

Casey Jones fouled out, which was a bit disappointing. That being said, he still looks like he is about the make another step forward in his development.

I think there is a lot of postives to take away from tonight. Can the Mocs carry over those positives into Radford on Monday night? We'll have to wait and see. That is a big step up in competition. Hopefully, the Mocs will be ready.