by Brad Norman
Senior Staff Writer

The last time Appalachian State University played the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Noah Brown lit the Mocs up for 35 points and his team shot 56 percent from the field in a 94-77 victory.

This time it was Chattanooga’s turn to catch fire.

The Mocs hit their first five shots from the floor, four of them three -ointers, and never looked back as they blew the Mountaineers at the Holmes Convocation Center with a 74-49 beating. Although the Mocs won by 25 points, the final score was still not indicative of how one-sided the game was.

“They [UTC] look like a team going forward, like a team progressing into the tournament with some positive energy, and we looked exactly the opposite,” Fancher said. “They deserved to win today. They looked like a team on the run and we looked like a team running to hide. This is a setback; there’s no way to candycoat and there’s no way to hide it. It’s a disappointment.”

By avenging their loss earlier in the season, Chattanooga clinched second place in the North Division and ensured themselves a bye in the first round.

The loss puts ASU (9-18, 4-10) in danger of finishing last place in the North Division.

Although the team was coming off an eight-game losing streak, every game during the streak was close.

But not this time.

Chattanooga out-everythinged Appalachian: out-shot them, out-rebounded them and out-hustled them.

“We looked like a 9-18 team today and that’s what I’m most disappointed in,” head coach Houston Fancher said. “In the past couple of weeks we really didn’t look like a team indicative of its record. Today looked like our record and it’s about as disappointing as a performance as I’ve seen from a lack-of-effort standpoint.”

Although ASU was able to trim the quick double digit lead to eight points early in the game, that was as close as they would come.

The Mocs’ shooting cooled in the first half and they went scoreless for five minutes but Appalachian managed only three points during that stretch.

The Mocs took a 20-point lead in the first-half (39-19) with 55 seconds left off of two Ray Trowell foul shots that left the Mountaineer Maniacs booing and chanting “we want effort!”

UTC shot 58 percent in the first half while Appalachian shot only 29 percent.

The Mocs’ lead of 31 points was more than ASU had at the moment (29).

After being torched by Brown when playing man-to-man defense during the first meeting, Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo implemented a variety of different zones and presses to confuse Appalachian.

“We played them all man-to-man the first game, but we didn’t play that at all tonight,” Lebo said. “We changed our zones a lot so they could not get too comfortable in their offense.”

Mocs forward Ashley Champion, who finished with 13 points, said they made it a point to not let Brown get any open looks.

“We knew we had to press him a lot,” Champion said. “We put in a new defense to slow him down and to limit his touches and his shots.”

Appalachian finished the game shooting less than 33 percent and only made 16 field goals during the entire game. Of the Mountaineers’ 49 shots, 30 of them were three-pointers.

Fancher said that the 30 three-pointers were “a sign of a tentative team that’s not aggressive or attacking.”

With the Southern Conference Tournament looming next week, Fancher said he was disappointed in the team’s emotional setback.

Fancher said that for the team to get back on its feet, they must play with the desire that they have had for most of the season.

“[We have] to get a little bit of our desire back,” Fancher said. “In our losses before the win against [UNC-Greensboro], we were competing our tails off. Today there was just no fight in the dog.”

Appalachian hosts Davidson College tonight at 7 p.m. in the team’s last home game of the season.

Seniors Matt Jones, Johnathan Mitchell and Ahmad Smith will be recognized before the game.