The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team suffered from second-half miscues during a tough 89-74 loss at Samford during its Southern Conference opener on Wednesday night inside the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

Following the defeat, Chattanooga has now dropped its last three and falls to 8-6 overall and opens league play at 0-1. Samford has now won 12-straight and improves to 12-2 overall and 1-0 in SoCon action. 

A tale of two halves, Chattanooga posted the most first-half points against a DI opponent this season (43) while shooting the ball at a highly efficient 54.8% (17-of-31) rate from the floor which included six threes. UTC would end up mirroring the initial output with its second-lowest, second-half point total (31) of the season aided by 14 turnovers over the final 20 minutes.

“Yeah, it was kind of a tale of two halves. I thought we moved the ball as well as we have all year in the first half. We shared it extremely well, made the right plays, not every shot fell, but we moved the ball like we should,” said head coach Dan Earl following the game. 

“When it got tight in the second half, we resorted back to try and take the game on ourselves instead of continuing to move the ball. That part was disappointing.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

The game kicked off at an absolutely blistering pace with Chattanooga snagging a 17-16 lead at the first media timeout just five-plus minutes into the game (14:27). The Mocs continued to score the ball at a high rate with Honor Huff leading the charge as his third three of the early going allowed for a 22-19 edge with 11:31 left in the opening half.

The two teams traded buckets over the next stretch of action as a Demetrius Davis second-chance layup and a Trey Bonham triple gave the Mocs a 32-27 advantage with just over seven minutes before the break. Six-straight Samford points gave the hosts a brief 33-32 (5:03) lead before UTC responded with nine of the next 13 to make it 41-37 at the 2:26 mark. 

Samford quickly answered with three-straight triples and ultimately ended the first half on a 9-2 run to take a 46-43 lead into the break. The two teams combined to knock down 18 triples in the first half as the game’s opening 20 minutes featured a combined 13 different scorers. 

The Bulldogs saw its largest lead of the game, 56-49 (17:02), before six-straight points from Bonham followed a Samford free throw, pulling the Mocs within two, 57-55 (15:56). The threes continued to fall for both sides as the scoring amounted to a 67-63 Samford lead with 12:38 remaining in the contest. 

Chattanooga earned numerous defensive stops but fell into a scoring drought and committed four turnovers in less than five minutes of play, allowing Samford to hold a 71-65 lead with just 8:27 left. The drought continued for UTC while Samford took advantage, scoring seven quick points to build a sizable 78-65 separation at the 6:42 mark. 

Trailing 82-68 at the final media timeout (3:28), the Mocs couldn’t find a late rally down the stretch and saw the hosts control their way to the eventual 89-74 final. UTC committed 14 second-half turnovers that led to a 15-4 Samford advantage in points stemming from miscues.

RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 8-6, 0-1 SoCon · Samford 12-2, 1-0 SoCon · Series: UTC now leads the all-time series 68-43.

THREE KEY NOTES 

1. Chattanooga finished the game shooting 25-of-56 (44.6%) from the floor… 11-of-31 (35.5%) from three… eighth-straight game with 10 or more triples… 81st-straight game a Dan Earl team has made five or more threes. 

2. Samford connected on 50.0% of its threes… 17-of-34… marked the most threes allowed by UTC to a SoCon opponent since Davidson connected on 17 on February 4, 2012. 

3. UTC committed a season-high 21 turnovers which led to a 24-14 disadvantage in points off turnovers… 14 came in the second half… 21 turnovers is the most against a SoCon opponent since 22 against UNCG on February 2, 2019.

QUOTABLE

G Trey Bonham on Samford’s style.

“The threes, the press, that’s what they do. They try to speed you up and we kind of fell into that trap. It’s about making the right play over and over. We just didn’t do that for the whole game.” 

HC Dan Earl on the first half vs. second half.

“We did a lot of good things for about 17 minutes, they hit a bunch of threes early and late, which hurt us. But we were right there playing how we wanted to play. When you play Samford, there’s always going to be swings. You have to weather the storm and continue doing what you’re supposed to be doing. We have to sustain playing the right way longer.”

NEXT UP – vs. Furman – Saturday, Jan. 6 – 7 p.m. ET – McKenzie Arena – ESPN+ – GOLD RUSH (FREE Rally Towels)