North Knoxville News

Walters State cut a 10-point deficit with 52 seconds left to three in the span of 12 seconds Wednesday evening and had a shot to tie, but it fell short as Chattanooga State grabbed the rebound and held on for an 81-76 win. 

The Senators seemed out of it with less than a minute to go down 79-69, but Ty Hurst scored on a layup. Malachi Hale then got a steal and laid the ball in to make it 79-73 with 43 seconds left. The Senators once again turned Chattanooga State over on the ensuing inbounds, and Micah Simpson drilled a 3-pointer to make it a 3-point game. 

Walters State got one more steal with 24 seconds to go, but a 3-pointer was off the mark as Chattanooga State got the rebound and made two free throws to ice the game.

With the loss, Walters State fell to 18-9 on the season and 10-5 in TCCAA play.

"Chattanooga came and they played hard," Walters State coach Bill Carlyle said. "They played with poise and had good shooters and played hard. We got into foul trouble, and we missed Riley (Cooper) a lot. We're just trying to get ready to play them later on down the road." 

The Senators were led in the game by Simpson with 20 points, four assists, four rebounds and six steals. Along with Simpson, Elijah Davis had 18 points, four assists and four steals while Hurst added 12 points and four rebounds. 

Other contributors for the Senators were Michael Houge with 10 points and eight rebounds, Jaylen Wharton with 10 points and eight rebounds, Hale with four points, five rebounds and four steals and Saevion Brown with two points. 

As a team, Walters State shot 38% from the field and grabbed 39 rebounds. Defensively, they forced 25 turnovers and had 18 steals. 

It was a back-and-forth start to the game as both teams made runs. The Senators went up 15-8 six minutes in as Davis and Simpson hit back-to-back layups, but Chattanooga State came back to tie the game at 17. The Senators answered with four quick points, but the Tigers scored four right back.

Following a couple more lead changes, the Senators grabbed a 34-33 lead on a Simpson layup with four minutes left in the half. The Tigers went back up 38-34, but Hurst hit a 3-pointer before Wharton scored four straight to give Walters State a 41-40 advantage at the break. 

Simpson had 12 points in the opening 20 minutes while Davis added 10 on 5-7 shooting. 

In the second half, the two teams remained close to start before Chattanooga State ran out to a 60-48 lead. The lead remained there until a Houge layup and Davis layup cut it to six at 65-59. Walters State eventually got the lead to four at 69-65 on a Simpson layup with six minutes remaining, but Chattanooga State rallied off seven straight to go up by 11. That's where the lead would remain until the Senators made their final push with under a minute to go. 

Davis and Simpson both scored eight in the second half while Hurst added seven.

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