NOTES | QUOTES | PHOTOS

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Dec. 10, 2023) – The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team used a balanced effort to help capture a 112-51 win over NAIA-member Tennessee Wesleyan in non-conference action on Sunday afternoon inside McKenzie Arena.
 
Following the win, Chattanooga improves to 6-3 overall this season. The 112 points mark the most in a game for UTC since scoring 125 against The Citadel on February 1, 2016. Tennessee Wesleyan remains at 4-6 after the defeat as the contest for the Bulldogs was marked an exhibition.
 
"Overall, I thought it was a good effort from our guys. Nice to see the ball go in the basket a little bit. We've had some tough go of it in the past couple games and I thought we learned a lot about ourselves," said head coach Dan Earl following the win.
 
"Over finals break, it was nice to get a good win. We've got a tough stretch coming up before Christmas."

HOW IT HAPPENED
After trailing 3-2, Chattanooga jumped out to a 9-3 lead at the first media timeout (15:11) while featuring four different scorers during the early stretch. The lead continued to grow over the next few minutes as the Mocs built a 19-9 lead with 12:47 left in the opening half.
 
Noah Melson started three-for-three from deep to help extend the UTC lead to 33-14 at the 7:58 mark before the Mocs saw its advantage balloon to 43-16 with just over five minutes left in the first. Chattanooga would take a 52-21 lead at the break after shooting an even 50.0% (17-of-34) from the field.
 
The hosts kept the scoring pace in the early goings of the second half as Honor Huff and Tyler Millin connected on a deep alley-oop to make it a 40-point edge, 71-31, with 15:03 remaining in the game. UTC hit triple digits with 6:43 on the board after Randy Brady connected on his first three of the game to make it 100-36.
 
True freshman walk-on, and local Boyd Buchanan product, Ryan Lopez lifted the 2,901 fans in attendance out of their seats with his first career basket, shaking and driving past a TWU defender down the stretch ahead of the ultimate 112-51 victory. UTC shot a blistering 75.9% (22-of-29) from the floor in the second half including an 11-of-15 (73.3%) mark from three over the final 20 minutes.

RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 6-3 · Tennessee Wesleyan 4-6 · Series: Chattanooga leads the all-time series 59-11.

THREE KEY NOTES | MORE
1. Jan Zidek finished with 13 points on 3-of-6 FG, 6-of-6 FT and notched his 1,000^th career point in the collegiate ranks with his 13^th of the game… scored 872 points in 93 games at Pepperdine before transferring to Chattanooga ahead of the 2023-24 season.
 
2. The Mocs are now 36-12 in its last 48 non-conference games… 24-4 in last 28 non-conference games at home… - 115-1 in the DI era (beginning 1977-78) against non-DI competition…lone loss was 73-69 to Southern Poly on Dec. 16, 1999.
 
3. Tennessee Wesleyan is Chattanooga's most frequent non-conference opponent… one of six programs UTC has beaten 50+ times… The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Samford & Western Carolina join the list.

QUOTABLE | MORE
HC Dan Earl on walk-on Ryan Lopez getting into the game.
"I was happy with Ryan. Nice to have him get in the game. I was giving him a hard time. He could have grabbed a couple more balls that hit his hand, grab it with two and have a couple more steals. He had a nice layup in transition. I think it was good for him to get in the game. He works really hard throughout the week in preparing us for the opposing team. It was nice for him to play so many minutes."
 
Freshman G/F Noah Melson on the 26-0 run.
"Runs like that usually start on the defensive end, getting steals, pushing in transition and then knocking down threes. Getting stops. You're not going to hold a team to zeros without getting stops. So defensive side started that for sure."

NEXT UP – at Alabama A&M – Saturday, Dec. 16 – 8:00 p.m. ET – Huntsville, Ala. – Bulldogs All-Access
 
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