Chattanooga Mocs power past Robert Morris

photo UTC's Justin Tuoyo reaches for the ball held by Robert Morris' Kavon Stewart at McKenzie Arena.

Read moreChanticleers face Chattanooga Mocs in final

Greg Pryor's importance to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team can't be disputed. In the past couple of games, that fact has been even more highlighted.

Pryor shook off some early foul trouble and scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, and the Mocs pulled away from Robert Morris, ending a three-game skid with a 61-46 win to advance to the finals of the Battle 4 Atlantis Mainland event at McKenzie Arena.

The Mocs (2-3) will face Coastal Carolina, who defeated Louisiana-Monroe 61-48 in the other semifinal, in today's championship at 2:30. The Warhawks and Colonials will battle in the consolation game, which will begin at noon.

Justin Tuoyo and Casey Jones tied Pryor for high-scoring honors. Jones was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line and grabbed 10 rebounds for his first double-double, while Tuoyo had six rebounds and three blocks. Ronrico White had seven assists, while Eric Robertson had nine points and three assists.

Pryor picked up his second foul with 10:55 to go in the first half and had to sit. It was similar to Saturday's game at Tennessee Tech, when he had to sit and watch the team lose a 16-point lead in a two-point loss, but when available in the second half Wednesday, he hit three 3s and was instrumental in a 15-4 run to help UTC take control.

"The last game in the second half, I was in a lot of foul trouble so I couldn't play as much," Pryor said. "Today, I got two early at the end of the first half, and I came in the second half just trying to play without fouling to make sure I stayed in the game the second half to help my team out."

Tuoyo had a lot of opportunities for shots in the early going, as UTC head coach Will Wade said feeding the 6-foot-10 sophomore in the paint was a "point of emphasis" against Robert Morris's 2-3 zone going into the game.

"When you play a team that plays zone like that, they can lull you into taking a bunch of 3s, so we wanted to make sure the ball touched the paint," Wade said. "We missed him on a couple of other times when he was open, but we'll get better feeding it into him."

As a team, UTC was 24-31 from the free-throw line, emphasizing Wade's desire to get in the lane. Defensively, the Mocs held the Colonials (1-4) to 27.8 percent shooting from the floor, while forcing 15 turnovers.

""Our defense is better; our defense is quite a bit better," Wade said. "We felt like they only hit five field goals against our set defense in the first half. We felt like we should sit back, guard them in the half-court and make them score over us. Our guys did a good job executing the plan. We switched a lot of stuff, and the guys were on it with the switches."

Lucky Jones finished with 11 points and Rodney Pryor nine for the Colonials.

"It's good to get a win, but we're still trying to get something done," Tuoyo said. "If we finish the week out strong, it'll be perfect, but it's good to get a win back. We're not satisfied just getting a win back, but it's good to get a 'W' today."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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