Mocs blistered by UCLA Bruins

Monday, November 25, 2013

photo UCLA forward David Wear (12) pulls down a rebound between Chattanooga forward Lance Stokes (3) and guard Casey Jones, right, in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team was overmatched in size, talent and experience in a 106-65 loss at No. 22 UCLA on Sunday night.

"Goodness gracious, we laid down and got beat by 40 or whatever it was," UTC coach Will Wade said on the post-game radio show. "We gave up 60 points in the second half. That's totally unacceptable.

"I apologize. We're going to get it right. We're going to get it better."

UCLA sophomore guard Jordan Adams led all players with 22 points in a game that the Bruins led by as many as 47 points in the second half.

UCLA freshman Zach LaVine scored 19 points, as did teammate Norman Powell, and sophomore Kyle Anderson added 17 points for the Bruins (5-0).

The Mocs (2-4) were led by 17 points from junior forward Martynas Bareika who buried five 3-pointers. Senior Zaccheus Mason scored 15 points and sophomore Casey Jones added 10 points.

"They threw a few punches at us, and we didn't stand up which is what we should do," Bareika said on the radio. "We woke up too late."

Both UTC and UCLA will head to Las Vegas for two games as part of the Las Vegas Invitational later this week. The Mocs will face Morehead State on Thursday afternoon.

The Mocs fell behind 12-2 after a 10-0 run by the Bruins. Then UCLA built its lead up to 30-14 later in the first half. The teams went into halftime with UCLA leading 47-25.

The Bruins extended their lead to 57-27 in the opening minutes of the second half in a run that featured back-to-back dunks by Powell.

Wade called for time.

It didn't matter. The Bruins, whom Wade called one of the best 15 teams in the country, were on cruise control with famous former Mocs Terrell Owens and Dennis Belding in attendance.

"Tonight was embarrassing," Wade said on the radio. "It was an embarasment for us, for our program. I'm not going to sugar coat it. It's the first game where we didn't compete like we needed to do. We didn't play to our identity."

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP