ASHEVILLE, N.C. — One word above all encapsulates the end result of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's 85-84 loss to archrival East Tennessee State University in the semifinals of the Southern Conference men's basketball tournament Sunday night.
Stunning.
Because that was the feeling everyone was left with at the Harrah's Cherokee Center — even ETSU and former UTC assistant Brooks Savage, now the head coach in Johnson City — after the Buccaneers rallied from down 20 points in the second half to defeat the Mocs in overtime and advance to Monday night's championship game against top-seeded Samford with the SoCon's automatic NCAA tournament bid on the line.
Up 54-34 with 14:18 to play after a crazy sequence that ended in a Jan Zidek 3-pointer, the third-seeded Mocs (21-12) felt as if they had all the momentum. But a desperate ETSU team put on a full-court press that caused problems for UTC's smaller guards and led to some turnovers that the seventh-seeded Bucs (19-15) converted into easy buckets.
On top of that, ETSU's Ebby Asomoah — stuck on the bench in foul trouble — got back in the game and got hot, scoring 18 points in a five-minute span that led to a furious rally by the Bucs.
But still the Mocs led by 11 going into the under-8 minute timeout and by seven with 1:18 to play in regulation, only to see the Bucs go on a 7-0 run and tie the game on a driving reverse layup by Quimari Peterson right before the buzzer, off a turnover.
UTC had an 84-83 lead in overtime after a pair of Randy Brady free throws and forced a turnover on the next possession, but Honor Huff missed a 3-point try with 42 seconds to go, and ETSU ran a play that ended in a layup on a post-up by Karon Boyd, his only field goal of the night on six attempts.
The Mocs had a pair of missed shots in the final moments that sealed their fate.
It was the second time this season UTC had blown a 20-point second half lead, with the first in nonconference play against Evansville — another game the Mocs lost in overtime.
The Mocs, who had 13 turnovers in the second half and overtime combined Sunday, never trailed in the second half.
"We obviously didn't handle the momentum shift. It was almost tangible, right?" said UTC coach Dan Earl, who led the Mocs to the SoCon title game a year ago to cap his debut season with the Mocs. "Things were going well, we were up 20, and then the momentum kind of went away from us."
The Mocs also got pounded on the boards, as ETSU had 13 offensive rebounds that it turned into 17 second-chance points in the final 25 minutes.
UTC's Jan Zidek finished one point shy of his career high with 26 points while adding six rebounds. Trey Bonham had a career-high 11 rebounds and scored 19 points, and Huff had 16 points. Sam Alexis had 11 points and seven rebounds and blocked four shots before fouling out.
"We kind of got lax a little bit once we got up 20," Huff said. "We obviously preached in the huddle the need to keep going and how we couldn't take our foot off the gas, but once they had the momentum, we kind of let go, and we couldn't really grasp it ourselves.
"I think we played hard throughout the whole game. It's just once the momentum switched, we couldn't get it back, and I think that hurt us the most because when another team wants it more, it's hard to win like that."
Samford (28-5) advanced with an 84-77 win over fifth-seeded Furman in the day's first semifinal.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.