LEXINGTON, VA.- Jason Rogan scored 19 points and Tim Parker added 18 points including four treys as Chattanooga defeated VMI, 77-52, Tuesday afternoon at Cameron Hall in Lexington.
The game was originally scheduled for Monday night, but was moved to a Tuesday 4:30 p.m. tip because of inclimate weather caused by the weekend snowstorm that ravaged the East Coast.
The Mocs led throughout the game with the exception of a brief 19-18 deficit when VMI freshman guard Zohn Burden nailed a 3-pointer with 7:04 left in the first half. Parker drained a three-ball just 15 seconds later to put the Mocs up for good for the remainder of the contest.
Chattanooga capitalized on a 14-0 spurt to break the game open. The Mocs scored the last seven points of the first half and started the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 44-27 lead following an Aaron Morgan dunk at the 17:21 mark.
The Keydets closed within 14 points when Radee Skipworth hit a layup with 5:39 left, but the Mocs outscored VMI, 17-6, the rest of the way to notch their 17th victory and surpass last year's overall win total.
Ashley Champion added 10 points for Chattanooga while Nick Benson grabbed eight rebounds.
VMI's lone double figures scorer was Radee Skipworth, who paced the Keydets with 16 points. It marked the 14th time in the last 15 games that Skipworth had led VMI in scoring.
UTC, which had not played since February 10, canned 26 of 30 free throws for 86.7%, a season-high for the team. The Mocs al so hit seven of 18 from 3-point range, and held a 39-31 advantage on the boards.
VMI (6-18, 1-12 SoCon) shot just 8 of 15 from the line and was four of 19 from 3-point range.
Chattanooga moved to 17-7 overall, and 9-4 in the league - matching last year's conference victory mark.
VMI junior guard Richard Little dished out seven assists and now has a season total of 171 - just two away from Bobby Prince's school record of 173 set in 1995. Little entered the game ranked sixth in the nation in assists.
Keydet senior center Zach Batte did not play because of a hip flexor sustained in Saturday's loss to Western Carolina. Batte is expected to play when the Keydets close out the home schedule Saturday with Senior Day slated at Cameron Hall against UNC Greensboro (1:00 p.m.).
Chattanooga next plays College of Charleston at McKenzie Arena Saturday at 7 p.m. The Mocs enter the game two games behind the SoCon South Division first-place Cougars with two regular season games left on the schedule.
VMI HEAD COACH BART BELLAIRS - "When your opponent makes more free throws than you attempt, that says something about your toughness, and your ability to just go up and draw fouls and want contact. We didn't have that again today. We've practicing so hard - I'm very disappointed because that was one of our worst efforts. Mentally they just weren't with it tonight.I just thought early in the game, we were playing some great defensive possessions but they were getting second shots and put backs. I just didn't like our intensity tonight."
