CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team came up a little short in its comeback bid losing 73-65 to Murray State Saturday afternoon in McKenzie Arena.  Chattanooga (4-6/2-0 SoCon) trailed by as many as 19 before storming back to within four late.

Omar Wattad (Johnson City, Tenn.) led the Mocs with 23 points and six assists.  Murray State (5-4), had four players in double figures with Ivan Aksa's 17 points and 12 rebounds leading the way.

It was all Murray State early as the Racers made 14 of their first 20 shots jumping out to a 19-point first half cushion, 40-21, with 3:57 left in the half.  Wattad scored seven of his 12 first half points in the final 3:48, but the Mocs still trailed by 15 at intermission, 45-30.

The Racers went back up by 17, 50-33, at 16:09 on an Ivan Aska dunk on the fast break.  But that's when it got interesting.

Chattanooga scored seven straight to whittle the lead to 10, 50-40, on a Wattad layup in transition at 13:11.  Down 12, 54-42, the Mocs scored eight unanswered  to dice the lead to four after back-to-back layups by Josh Odem (Johnson City, Tenn.) the latter coming at 8:15.

After a DeAntre Jefferson (Bloomington, Ill.) free throw cut the lead back to four, 57-53, at 7:03, the Racers responded with a 9-2 run.  B.J. Jenkins capped the run with two free throws to make it 66-55 at 3:34.

Down 10, 70-60, with 2:57 remaining, the Mocs still had some fight left.  A Chris Early (Huntington, W. Va.) three-pointer and Jefferson layup cut the margin to five, 70-65, with 51 seconds to play.  But UTC would get no closer as Murray State hit three of four free throws down the stretch to cement the win.

The Racers were rock solid from the charity stripe throughout the contest making 18 of 21 attempts, 85.7 percent.  After allowing Murray State to shoot 61.3 percent (19-31) from the field in the opening frame, the Mocs limited the patient Racers to 31.6 percent (6-19) after the break.  Fourteen of MSU's 28 second-half points came at the foul line (16 att.).

Early and Jefferson scored 10 points apiece for Chattanooga and the duo tied Wattad with a team-high six rebounds.  UTC out-rebound MSU 33-31, 22-14 in the second half.

Murray State's starting trio of guards combined for 33 points.  Isaiah Cannon had 12 points and Isacc Miles added 11, while Jenkins had 10, 7-8 from the free throw line, and six assists.

The Mocs return to Southern Conference play next Friday, Nov. 17, at Elon.  Tipoff is at 6 p.m., and fans can access live audio and stats via Chattanooga All-Access on GoMocs.com.  The game will also be broadcast on the Mocs Sports Network on ESPN 105.1 FM in the Chattanooga area with the "Voice of the Mocs" Jim Reynolds.