NOTES | QUOTES
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Nov. 10, 2023) – The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team earned its first win over an ACC program since 1985 and its first-ever win over the league in regular season play behind a controlling 81-71 decision on the road at Louisville on Friday night inside the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
 
Chattanooga improves to 2-0 on the season following the victory. Louisville drops to an even 1-1 after the home defeat.
 
Honor Huff was electric for the guests, dropping a career-high 25 points on the help of another career mark in threes made (7) with five coming in the first half alone. True freshman Myles Che controlled the point with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting while sophomore Sam Alexis was strong in the paint, totaling 16 points and 11 boards for the winners.
 
"We certainly made that interesting down the stretch, but I'm really proud of our guys and I thought we stuck to the game plan for the most part overall," said head coach Dan Earl after the game.
 
"Louisville is a good team, and they have a lot of talent, an ACC opponent and you're on the road. I'm proud of the guys, but I don't want this to be the highlight of our year."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Chattanooga earned an early 7-5 lead the game's first media timeout (15:37) after forcing Louisville into a 2-for-10 start from the field. The Mocs extended the advantage to seven, 16-9 (12:30), after Huff connected on his third three of the early going.
 
The Cards immediately responded with an 8-0 run over the next two-plus minutes to jump ahead 17-16 at the 10:15 mark of the opening half. Tyler Millin's first three of the game broke the run before Huff knocked down two more threes to tie his single game career-high of five made threes to help build the UTC edge to 27-21 with 3:53 on the board.
 
Chattanooga saw its largest lead of the game, 33-23 at the 1:16 mark, after a Che pull-up jumper capped off a quick 6-0 run and forced Louisville into a timeout. U of L ended the half with four unanswered to allow for a 33-27 halftime lead in favor of the Mocs.
 
UTC raced out of the second-half gates and amassed an 8-0 run in the first few minutes to build a 12-point advantage, 41-29, and forced Louisville into a timeout with 17:44 left in the contest. It was all Mocs over the next six-plus minutes as a 13-2 run fueled a 54-36 lead at the 11:28 mark, a lead that marked the largest for the program over a Power 5 team since the 2016 win at Tennessee (82-67).
 
Chattanooga led by as much as 21, 65-44 with 6:52 remaining, before the hosts rallied to make things interesting behind a 19-5 run that took just over four minutes. Jan Zidek knocked down a dagger three to put UTC up 73-63 with 1:14 on the clock before the squad ultimately closed out the 81-71 win.

RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 2-0 · Louisville 1-1 · Series: Chattanooga ties the all-time series with Louisville at 6-6.

THREE KEY NOTES | MORE
1. Chattanooga earned its first-ever win over an ACC opponent in regular season play since the league's creation in 1953… first overall ACC win since a 67-65 victory over Clemson in the first round of the 1985 NIT… first-ever road ACC win (previously 0-18)… now 3-24 against the league overall.
2. Honor Huff posted a career-high 25 points… bested his previous mark of 22 which was set against Chattanooga on January 22, 2022… set career-high with seven threes made… finished 9-of-19 FG, 7-of-13 3PT.
3. Chattanooga now moves to 15-1 under head coach Dan Earl when scoring 80 or more points… 13-1 under coach Earl when shooting 40.0% or better from three… ended the game 14-of-34 (41.2%) as a team from deep… 6-of-11 (54.5%) in the second half from deep.
 
QUOTABLE | MORE
Honor Huff on the bounce back effort tonight.
"It was a lot of film, watching it with the coaches. There were a lot of moments in the game where I was just thinking too much. Coach told me to just play my game and have fun. I calmed my nerves out there a little bit and I told myself that before the game. I just wanted to play my best brand of basketball and leave it all out there. I don't think we played team basketball on Monday and I'm glad to help get that going tonight."
 
Dan Earl on learning from the win.
"Louisville is a good team, and they have a lot of talent, an ACC opponent and you're on the road. I'm proud of them. But I don't want this to be the highlight of our year. To learn from a win like that, I think that's a really good thing. Whether it's taking care of the ball down the stretch, or being in the gaps and not taking chances defensively when the game was broken open a little bit. There's a lot to work on and we're still trying to figure things out. We'll always take an ACC win on the road."

NEXT UP – vs. Bellarmine – Tuesday, Nov. 14 – 7:00 p.m. ET – Chattanooga, Tenn. (McKenzie Arena) – ESPN+ – BUY TICKETS
 
FOLLOW CHATTANOOGA BASKETBALL
Follow @GoMocsMBB on Twitter & on Instagram for the most up-to-date information and news regarding Chattanooga men's basketball.

GoMocs.com is the official website of the Chattanooga Mocs. Buy officially licensed gear in our online store. The Mocs can also be followed on their official Facebook page or on Twitter. Find out how to join the Mocs Club and support more than 300 student-athletes by clicking here.