NOTES | QUOTES

GREENVILLE, S.C. (Feb. 18, 2024) – The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team suffered from a cold shooting start and an early scoring hole that was ultimately too deep to climb out of, eventually suffering an 82-65 loss at Furman on a Southern Conference Sunday afternoon inside Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C.
 
Chattanooga's six-game league road win streak was snapped in the defeat as the team moves to 18-9 overall and remains in second place at 10-4 in SoCon action. Furman improves to 15-12 overall and 9-5 in league play while improving its home SoCon record to 31-4 over the past five seasons.
 
"I would love to say it was just a make-and-miss type game, and we just missed shots today. But unfortunately, that was not the case," said head coach Dan Earl after the game.
 
"Furman manhandled us, particularly in the first half. When things are going well, we get out of character, and when things aren't going well, we get out of character. I thought that was the sign today. They hit us early and when we weren't efficient on offense, we let it impact us on defense."

HOW IT HAPPENED
A low-scoring affair broke out in the game's early stages with Chattanooga claiming a slight 8-7 lead nearly eight minutes in at the 12:23 mark. Furman responded with the next four points before an Honor Huff layup made it 11-10 in favor of the hosts with 10:51 to play in the first half.
 
The Paladins extended their lead with an 8-0 run over the next minute-and-a-half to take a 19-10 lead and force Chattanooga into a timeout 9:16 on the clock. The lead continued to grow over the course of the first half with Furman claiming a large 32-13 advantage following a 13-2 run with just over six minutes in the frame.
 
The Mocs used a pair of defensive stops and five unanswered points to cut the deficit to 16, 36-20, which resulted in a Furman timeout (3:52). The Paladins took a 48-29 lead into the break after limiting the Mocs to just 20.7% (6-of-29) shooting from the floor including a 25.0% (4-of-16) mark from deep.
 
Chattanooga came out of the halftime break with back-to-back buckets to trim things to 15, 48-33, before the home team stretched things back out to a 20-point lead, 55-35, with 15:05 left in the contest. UTC used an 11-0 run moments later to pull within 11, 59-48, with 11:06 on the board.
 
Furman connected on back-to-back threes to stop the Mocs rally and build back a comfortable 65-48 lead with 8:02 left in the game. The Paladins scored eight of the next 11 in to put things essentially out of reach down the stretch, 73-51 (6:17), before eventually capping off the 82-65 victory.

RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 18-9, 10-4 SoCon · Furman 15-12, 9-5 SoCon · Series: UTC now leads the all-time series 58-41.

THREE KEY NOTES | MORE
- Chattanooga entered the contest riding a six-game SoCon road winning streak… six was tied for program best… only third-ever time with six-straight league road wins… first time since 1992-93.
 
- Chattanooga shot just 33.9% (19-of-56) from the field in the loss… shot a lowly 28.6% (8-of-28) from three… lowest FG% total since 30.9% (17-of-55) against UNCG on January 13… during its previous three-game win streak, UTC had shot 52.3% (90-of-172) before today.
 
- Honor Huff led all scorers with a game-high 26 points on 6-of-14 shooting… went 3-of-8 from deep… career-high FTM (11) and FTA (12)… 57 points over the last two games are most by a UTC guard since Malachi Smith's 63 at Belmont (12/15/22) & Murray State (12/18/22).

QUOTABLE | MORE
HC Dan Earl on second half early run.
"To speak on both sides, it was good because we kept fighting and we were executing on defense. We were guarding the guys who can really score hard and making it tough on them. But once we got some stops, we couldn't make a shot and let it immediately affect us on defense. Then they hit back-to-back threes and then the hole was created again. From top to bottom, it wasn't our finest game."

NEXT UP – Wofford – Wednesday, February 21 – 7:00 p.m. ET – McKenzie Arena – ESPN – BUCKET HAT NIGHT (FIRST 500 FANS) – BUY TICKETS

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