2008 Woodie Awards
Men upset by Elon in first round of SoCon
By Jacob Vannucci
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: Sports
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While the women's team were able to earn their eighth conference championship in nine years, the men's team lost to eighth-seeded Elon in a close contest the first round.
"I hate that these guys will be defined by the last minute of a tournament game," Coach John Shulman said after the 60-57 loss.
"We were really two missed box outs away from winning that game despite not playing very good," Schulman said.
The Mocs led for most all of the game, and had a three point lead with two minutes left, but a poor shooting night from beyond the arc and at the free throw line spelled doom for the Mocs.
The Mocs were 5-21 on three pointers for the game, a paltry 23.8 percent. Chattanooga was also only able to convert 60 percent of their free throws, unable to capitalize on the opportunity to shoot 13 more than Elon.
Fouls also plagued the Mocs, as forward Nicchaeus Doaks had to sit out substantial time for picking up early fouls.
"It hurt because I couldn't help my team," Doaks said. "I couldn't be on the court playing my heart out like those guys were. I was anxious to get back in. It was killing me."
Doaks ended up with 12 points and five rebounds in the contest.
After several clutch plays made by Elon in the last minutes of play, including a key offensive rebound in the paint that lead to a layup by Ola Atoyebi and a jumper made by Brett James, the Mocs had plenty of chances to seal the win, but were unable to convert on their tries.
Senior Marcus Watts was unable to make two free throws with 39 seconds left and a one-point lead, and after going down one point, missed three-pointers by Kevin Goffney and Marcus Watts.
"It felt good," Watts said. "I thought it was going to be money. It hit the rim and rolled out. It just didn't go our way."
The Mocs had just played the Phoenix a week earlier at Elon. The Mocs eked out the win 57-56 when Brett James missed a last-second shot, something that the Mocs were not fortunate enough to have happen twice.
It was the first game that the Mocs lost all year when they were ahead with five minutes left in the game.
Elon used the momentum from their win to propel themselves through UNC-Greensboro to the conference championship game against Davidson.
Davidson, who is ranked in the top 25 nationally, won the game 65-49 as MVP Stephen Curry scored 23 points.
The win gave the Wildcats their 22nd consecutive victory, the longest such streak in men's college basketball.
It also marked the 10th SoCon title for Davidson
The Mocs achieved their second seeding at the tournament by winning the North Division of the SoCon. They actually tied with Appalachian State in both conference and overall record, but they got the tiebreaker since they beat Appalachian State in the regular season.
If there's any silver lining for this UTC team, it's that only two players, Watts and guard Kevin Bridgewaters, will be graduating.
That still leaves UTC's two leading scorers, Doaks and guard Stephen McDowell, who were also named the 2008 All-Southern Conference Team.
