No. 13 Chattanooga looking to capitalize on its ‘One Shining Moment’
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David Jean-Baptiste started the madness this March. He and his Chattanooga Mocs teammates are hoping it won’t be their “One Shining Moment.”
Jean-Baptiste drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime to defeat Furman, 64-63, in the Southern Conference championship game March 7 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.
It was the unofficial start of the NCAA’s March Madness, a month filled with unbelievable shots, thrilling finishes and memorable moments.
The Mocs (27-7) are one of eight teams who will begin their quest for NCAA Tournament glory Friday at PPG Paints Arena.
As a 13 seed, the Mocs’ path to greatness is blocked by challenging obstacles, starting with a first-round test against No. 4 Illinois (22-9) at 6:50 p.m. Friday.
So does the momentum carry over?
“Oh, a hundred percent,” Jean-Baptiste said Thursday. “I think any time you win a game, that momentum is going to carry over, and I think especially in the fashion that it happened.
“It’s one of those things that it’s crazy how it happened, so it’s one of those things just like it happened, so what else can happen from there?”
Trailing by two with 4.3 seconds left, Jean-Baptiste took an inbounds pass from under the Mocs’ basket and drove past two defenders, pulling up from 30 feet with a third defender in his face.
He rose up from the Ingles Markets logo and swished the biggest shot of his career.
He hoisted off his jersey and sprinted to the opposite end of the floor, eventually finding himself at the bottom of a teammate dogpile as fans and cheerleaders swarmed the court in celebration of the SOCON title.
ABSOLUTE MADNESS‼️
Chattanooga wins the SoCon and a trip to the NCAA tourney AT THE BUZZER! pic.twitter.com/mQ77OIjOWM
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 8, 2022
It certainly caught the attention of Illinois coach Brad Underwood, whose team is preparing for Chattanooga’s balanced offensive attack.
“I can only imagine the excitement of that,” said Underwood, whose Illini captured the Big Ten regular season title.
“That’s what makes March Madness special. It’s what makes it elite. It’s moments like that that everybody on that team, everybody in Chattanooga, everybody in the state of Tennessee, any basketball fan to be honest, is going to remember shots like that. What an exciting day for them.”
Jean-Baptiste finished with 13 points, but the final three became the No. 1 trending topic on social media and sent the Mocs to their first NCAA Tournament since 2016.
“So it’s like, breaking barriers and just making more moments happen, not being afraid of the moment,” Jean-Baptiste said. “A lot of times it’s just playing like with nothing to lose.”
Sophomore guard Malachi Smith was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and Jean-Baptiste and grad student forward Silvio De Sousa, who had 17 points and 14 rebounds in the championship game, were named to the all-tournament team.
All three will be counted on against an Illinois team that features 7-foot center Kofi Cockburn, an All-American who averages 21.1 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
“We’ve got a couple different things that we’re going to look at, but we’re going to keep fresh bodies out there on him at both ends of the floor,” Mocs coach Lamont Paris said. “We’ll use some quickness, we’ll use — Silvio De Sousa is very powerful in his own right, then we have Avery Diggs who’s our tallest, longest player, so he’ll be out there, too.”
The Mocs have proved they will be up to the challenge and the moment won’t be too big.
It could end up being their second “One Shining Moment.”