WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather & SportsGolden's big night leads Vols past Mocs, 76-63

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WRCB/AP) -- The days following surgery have been tough for Trae Golden, but Tennessee's sophomore point guard found the best prescription to ease his pain Monday night.

Golden tied his career high with 29 points to lead the Vols past in-state rival Chattanooga 76-63 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Golden, who had surgery on Friday to repair a fracture in his nose, was 11 for 17 from the field and 4 of 9 from 3-point range. He entered the game leading the Volunteers with an average 13 points per game.

"I was a little weak but I had my family here and they helped me out a lot. It's nothing major," said Golden, who has played in every game since breaking his nose in practice on December 16. ""They had great guards. We just had to make sure we could do what we could to stop them.

"They are great shooters and (on defense) they weren't going to let me screen, so I was just trying to pull up or get to the basket."

The Vols (7-6) were a combined 13 of 39 from 3, getting 16 points from Skylar McBee and 12 from Jordan McRae. Their bench outscored the Mocs reserves 24-4.

UTC had its chances to close the gaps, but couldn't make shots when it counted the most.

"It was one of those frustrating games," said Bell, who was one of four Mocs in double figures with 15 points. "We felt that we didn't play great, and that's disappointing. Sometimes our energy and execution wasn't there, but I was proud of our basketball team for at least sticking in there when we didn't play well."

Tennessee scored the first seven points of the game as Chattanooga hit only one of its first eight shots.

The game quickly turned into a 3-point shooting contest between the two teams. The Vols had taken a 16-9 lead on a trey by Renaldo Woolridge with 9:23 in the first half, when the Mocs' shots started to fall.

McRae fouled Ricky Taylor behind the arc, and Taylor hit all three foul shots to launch a 14-0 run. Taylor hit a pair of 3s and Keegan Bell added one of his own during the stretch that gave Chattanooga a 23-16 lead with 6:47 before halftime.

"I'm not disappointed with us offensively. I am disappointed with us defensively," said Chattanooga head coach John Shulman. "I didn't think we were alert enough with our double teams and our interceptors.

"We had a shot, but we weren't real sharp."

Tennessee got a trio of 3s from McBee that helped the Vols regain the lead, which they wouldn't relinquish for the rest of the game. The third basket in the set launched a 17-3 run for the Vols just before halftime, and they held a 44-32 lead at the break.

"We were up six or seven in the first half and he kind of took over," Shulman said of McBee, whom he recruited hard out of high school. "I knew Skylar would do that to me. He broke my heart because he was supposed to come to Chattanooga in the first place.

"He's shooting from the dead corner out of a double-team. He's not supposed to shoot that. I didn't tell him he could shoot that if he even came to Chattanooga.

Omar Wattad hit a pair of 3s and Bell hit another to help the Mocs pull within 46-41 in the opening thre eminutes of the second half. McRae followed with his only trey, and the Mocs would get no closer as they failed to hit a field goal in the final six minutes of the game.

"I thought we did a good job on team defense," said Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin. "I thought we did a good job of being consistent. They made a run, they made some shots, made a couple changes on their ball-screen offense, and we made the necessary adjustments.

Taylor scored 17 points for Chattanooga (6-9), which is now 0-7 on the road this season. Wattad added 16 points, Bell had 15 and Drazen Zlovaric had 11 points for Chattanooga, which shot just 34.5 percent for the game but hit 11 of 26 from 3.

The loss snapped UTC's three-game winning streak.

"I'm disappointed," Shulman said. "I think we've got a pretty good basketball team when you're disappointed after you come to Tennessee and you get beat. That should tell you our team has gotten a lot better, because we were in it until the end at Tennessee and we didn't play very well.

"You've got some disappointed guys in there and there should be. I didn't think our effort was bad; we just didn't play very well. We've just got to continue to get better."

The Vols have put together a four-game winning streak after a rough stretch in late November and early December that saw them lose six of seven. They have a quick turnaround before their Wednesday rematch at in-state rival Memphis, which beat Tennessee 99-97 in double overtime at the Maui Invitational on Nov. 22.

"It was a hard-fought win for the guys, but more importantly, we're getting better," Martin said. "I think that's always a good sign. You're able to make progress and also win a game."

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.