Wes Moore was able to crack a smile at the end Monday night, when he was handed a bobblehead doll bearing his likeness - or at least a reasonable facsimile to it.
Moments before, he was headed off the McKenzie Arena court after his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team earned him career win No. 500 with a 65-48 thumping of the College of Charleston.
Not one to make much of a milestone - it also was his 300th UTC victory and 200th regular-season Southern Conference win - Moore looked like he was trying to sneak away from any kind of postgame ceremony when he was stopped by senior associate athletic director Laura Herron.
"I was just ready to go to the locker room," said Moore, whose overall record as a college coach is 500-152.
The Lady Mocs (10-11, 7-5) have had 11 consecutive 20-win seasons, so to wait till the final day of January for win No. 10 isn't something Moore is used to.
"Yeah, everybody's talking about 500. I'm just excited to get 10, y'all," he said.
UTC coach Wes Moore, right, holds a bobblehead doll that Ryan Peck, left, and Laura Herron presented to him after the Lady Mocs gave him his 500th career win Monday at McKenzie Arena.Eventually, with the bobblehead stationed beside him during his news conference, Moore expressed his gratitude for those players and assistant coaches who helped him reach his milestones.
"I hadn't made a basket, I hadn't grabbed a rebound in any of those 500 wins," he said, later adding, "I get the bobblehead and [the players] get the wins, so that's the big part."
The win looked like it might have to wait after the Lady Mocs hit only 9 of 31 shots in the first half, but they trailed the Cougars only 24-22. Charleston shot little better, going 10-of-29.
"We were a little rusty in the first half, I guess because we hadn't played in 10 days, but [Moore] stressed in the locker room at halftime to keep it up and the shots will fall," said Whitney Hood, who led UTC with 17 points and eight rebounds.
After a mostly forgettable first 20 minutes, the Lady Mocs played a very solid second half and pulled away in front of a crowd of 1,573 at McKenzie Arena.
In the second half UTC hit 15 of 27 shots (55.6 percent), outrebounded the Cougars 19-13 and held them to 31 percent shooting (9-of-29).
UTC's Kayla Christopher scored 16 points and dished out six assists. Christopher was 3-for-5 from 3-point range, and her second 3 was No. 100 in the sophomore's career.
The Cougars (6-16, 3-10), who had won three of the past four meetings in the series, scored 16 seconds into the second half. They didn't score again until the 14:00 mark.
Charleston had a similar cold stretch, of nearly seven minutes, in the first half. That one allowed UTC to erase a 14-4 Charleston lead, tying the game at 14.
"We're getting there," Moore said of UTC's defense. "We worked hard all [last] week on that, and hopefully this will be the start of something we can build on."
The Lady Mocs host Samford on Wednesday. The first 1,000 fans will receive a free Moore bobblehead doll.