CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Covenant men's basketball exhibited well in their exhibition game at Chattanooga on Monday evening, falling 97-67 at McKenzie Arena in downtown Chattanooga.
Korbin Long and
Pierce Smith led the way in scoring with 13 apiece, while reigning CCS Player of the Week
Noah Pence added 12. Smith and
Bolton Born combined for five blocks on the defensive end, while the Scots (1-1) won the turnover battle, forcing 14 Moc (1-2) turnovers.
In the first half, Chattanooga opened with a 18-5 run in the first 6:55, but the Scots responded with eight consecutive points, including six from Long, to pull back to within five.
Thomas Malcolm would add a layup about a minute and a half later to keep the deficit at five.
Pence would score the final seven Covenant points of the half, but the Mocs shot the ball well the remainder of the half, opening up a 52-22 halftime lead.
After Chattanooga gradually increased their lead to 36 with 8:49 to play, Covenant once again stayed resilient, as a pair of free throws from
Zach Wescher, a triple from Pence, and a layup from
Zach Amonett cut it to a 31-point lead, and then Amonett's subsequent triple combined with Long's free throws and another three from
Cole Bennett got the deficit under 30.
Malcolm and Bennett kept the Scots within 30 for the next couple of minutes, and then free throws from
Jack Fox and a three from
James White with 1:44 to go made it 26.
Covenant would not get any closer than that, though, although Fox added his first field goal on a fast break layup with 1:01 to go to conclude the scoring for the Scots.
UTC's Kobe McDowell-White tallied 17 to lead all scorers, while Christian Matos supplied 15. Zach Bleshoy contributed eight rebounds, eight assists, and six steals.
UP NEXT
The Scots head to Atlanta to play Oglethorpe on Friday at 6 p.m.
CONNECT WITH THE SCOTS
Be sure to follow the Scots all season long on athletics.covenant.edu and on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news and other information.
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