Basketball passes first test in rivalry game

This is what Keegan Bell has been waiting for. After dishing a no-look pass to Josh Odem for a breakaway layup with just over eight minutes to go Tuesday night, he backpedaled to half court, threw his arms in the air and screamed.

That bucket put the Mocs up by six and helped swing the momentum toward an 85-76 win over ETSU, in a game that showed flashes of the intensity of a rivalry that hit its peak in the early 1990s when the Bucs were a part of the Southern Conference.

It was also the first meaningful game for Chattanooga, after an exhibition against Tennessee Wesleyan and a 107-62 win over Virginia Intermont.

"I felt comfortable out there," Bell, a sophomore from Hazel Green, Ala., said. "I felt more myself than I have ever felt being here. And I'm excited for the rest of the season. Ready to roll."

Odem, a freshman from Johnson City, Tenn., more simply put, said, "He played like Keegan."

Bell finished the game with 23 points and seven assists, and he played all but one minute.

"Keegan made some shots early when we were still not set defensively," Coach John Shulman said. "But Keegan needs to be doing that."

Bell will have to be a constant going forward, but it was the play off the bench that Shulman said won the game.

Junior forwards Ridge McKeither, from Danville, Va., and DeAntre Jefferson, from Bloomington, Ill., both got into foul trouble in the second half, forcing the 6-foot-5 junior Jeff Smith, from Chattanooga, to match up with bigger ETSU players in the post. But Smith scored eight points and gave a boost of energy off the bench.

"We all gave a round of applause for Jeff in the locker room," Shulman said. "I told Jeff, 'people in Chattanooga hate ETSU so bad, and you played so good, I don't think you'll have to worry about a job one day because they're going to remember that.'"

The rivalry is no longer a conference battle, but with Odem being from Johnson City, where ETSU is located, and Shulman having spent time coaching there, this game figures to have meaning for years to come.

"I thought we had a great atmosphere," Shulman said. "Once again it's a tie game with eight to play, and Chattanooga and East Tennessee are battling it out. It's always a war.