Mocs usurp throne from King College, 99-75
Mitchell Rankhorn
Issue date: 11/13/08 Section: Sports
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With the basketball season about to get under way, the Mocs hosted an exhibition against King College.
The Mocs pulled out a 99-75 win against the NAIA team from Bristol, Tenn.
The Tornados shot 44 percent in the game, making 30 of their 69 attempts.
The Mocs led at the half with a score of 47-38. But when they came back from the locker room, it was a different story.
The Tornado were able to shrink the Mocs' lead down to within 3 points.
However, with a few minutes left in the second half, the Mocs came back on the board with a score of 57-54.
After a 10-2 run by the Mocs, the Mocs finished the game on top.
"Tonight was probably your typical exhibition game," Head Coach John Shulman said, according to gomocs.com.
"We made a lot of mistakes tonight, but we played a pretty good basketball team. All of those mistakes are fixable though, we will fix them, and then we will be ready to play Tennessee next week," he said.
Graduate Stephan McDowell, Indianapolis, Ind., had the most points in the game with a total of 30 points. He was also 50 percent from the field making ten of his 20 attempts.
Seniors Kevin Goffney, Ethel, La., had 18 points and Nicchaeus Doaks, Trenton, Tenn., posted 15 points and 13 rebounds in the game.
Assistant coach David Conrady said he felt confident in the men's team this year.
According to Conrady, the men's basketball teams has been practicing about two and a half hours during the preseason but once the regular season arrives they will cut their practice time down to keep up strength before the games.
Conrady said: "We have a very unique group of seniors.
"We have to keep pushing our seniors so that they will keep developing and become better ball players, but we can't push so hard that we cause the younger players to fall behind in practices."
He said a part of their weakness this year is the fact that they only have five seniors in the mix and it is difficult to get them all playing time.
But he said it is important they make sure they all get some to gain experience.
When asked about some of their goals this season Conrady said, "One of our biggest goals is to make it to the NCAA tournament this year just like every year. We also want to be the champions in our conference."
UTC returned three starters from last year's Soutehrn Conference North Division Champion squad: Nicchaeus Doaks, Stephen McDowell and Khalil Hartwell.
The Mocs' basketball team will play in Knoxville this weekend against the Tennessee Volunteers. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. night and will be the start of the NCAA season for both teams.
