NOTES | QUOTES | PHOTOS

CHATTANOOGA (Feb. 3, 2024) – In front of a capacity crowd of 4,000, the Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team saw its five-game win streak snapped during a 78-56 decision to league-leading Samford in Southern Conference action on Saturday evening inside McKenzie Arena.
 
After the loss, Chattanooga falls to 15-8 overall on the year and now sits at 7-3 inside SoCon play. Samford improves to 20-3 overall and is now 9-1 in the league, remaining atop the regular season standings.
 
A slow start on both sides of the floor allowed Samford to claim a lead as large as 22 points in the opening half, eventually settling at a 43-23 difference at the break. UTC created early second-half momentum, cutting the deficit to as little as eight, but couldn't find enough stops and scores to ultimately find itself back in the contest.
 
"Credit to Samford, I thought they played a really hard and well-played game. I just talked to the guys and apologized to them. That first half in particular was kind of my fault," said head coach Dan Earl after the game.
 
"We knew they were going to play some zone and then play some man and just kept mixing up defenses and we didn't keep it simple enough. We were over-thinking and got a little stagnant … I was proud of the guys for fighting back and I appreciate the crowd for putting a lot of energy into the building in the second half."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Samford held Chattanooga scoreless over the first three-plus minutes before claiming a 10-4 lead at the game's first media timeout (15:38). A four-point play from Honor Huff cut into the Mocs deficit, 15-10 (13:57), before the Bulldogs converted on a pair of close-range buckets to make it 19-10 with 11:20 left in the half.
 
Samford created a double-digit lead, 25-13 (7:40), before extending the first-half advantage to 15, 34-19 (3:31), with the help of a 56.0% (14-of-25) start from the floor. The Bulldogs would eventually take a 20-point edge into the locker room, 43-23, holding the hosts to its lowest first-half total of the season.
 
Chattanooga opened the second half on a 14-5 run, 48-37 (14:51), forcing Samford into calling a timeout during the early stretch. The Roundhouse came to life with a Myles Che corner three that cut the deficit to eight, 48-40 (14:16), before back-to-back buckets on the other end allowed for a 52-40 (11:07) Samford lead.
 
The Bulldogs continued to hold a sizable lead over the next three-plus minutes, 59-45 (8:00), despite the Mocs creating stops and energy inside its home building. The lead grew for the guests as Samford held a 69-53 lead with just 3:56 left in the contest, before eventually capping off the 78-56 decision down the stretch.
 
RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 15-8, 7-3 SoCon · Samford 20-3, 9-1 SoCon · Series: UTC now leads the all-time series 68-44.

THREE KEY NOTES | MORE
1. Chattanooga scored just five bench points during the loss after scoring a combined 102 bench points over its last four games (25.5 ppg)… Samford totaled 28 points from the reserves.
 
2. The Mocs suffered from a -17-rebounding margin (41-24) in the loss… out-rebounded 11-6 on the offensive glass… the -17 margin is second-highest this season (-23 at Auburn, 12/30)… largest rebounding deficit to a SoCon opponent at home since -19 (43-24) against Western Carolina on January 4, 2018.
 
3. Trey Bonham hit the 1,000 career-point milestone with his fourth point of the game… arrived at UTC carrying 768 career points… 601 at VMI… 167 at Florida… finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists… 97^th career game played.

QUOTABLE | MORE
HC Dan Earl on where the team needs to improve.
"Really in all facets of the game. This was a little bit different of a game in that their zone, their man, they way they mixed things up and then pressing. They just don't allow you to run your stuff, they make you be ball players, if you will. We were a little tentative and over-thinking things where sometimes the shot clock was running down, sometimes we had the ball too far over on the sideline and they trapped us. It was a choppy game at best for us offensively in the first half. We have do a better job defensively as well. They were driving downhill a bunch of the first half. They're a good team, we just have to get better on the whole at every facet. Against Samford, we just have to get on the same page more. We'll do a better job at that going forward."
 
G Honor Huff on his initial thoughts of the game after looking at the box score.
"Offensive rebounds, giving up 11 obviously isn't ideal. Once we started making our run in the second half, we gave up a couple second chance points that kind of extended their lead in the second half. Really I'm just looking at my negatives and how I can improve my game. We had a couple turnovers and we have to tighten up on those. We had more turnovers than assists and you never want that to happen."

NEXT UP – at VMI – Thursday, February 8 – 6:00 p.m. ET – Lexington, Va. – ESPN+

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