BOX SCORE | SEASON STATS | NIT BRACKET

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (March 18, 2025) – March is fully in swing. The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team gutted its way to a thrilling 109-103 triple overtime victory over in-state foe Middle Tennessee during the 2025 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) First Round on Tuesday night in Murfreesboro, Tenn., inside the Murphy Center.

Following the win, Chattanooga (25-9) earns its first postseason victory (NCAAT/NIT) since the 1997 Sweet 16 run and its first NIT victory since 1985. UTC has now won its last four games against Middle Tennessee (22-12), matching the longest streak for either team in the series' 100-plus year history.

Chattanooga now awaits the winner of Wednesday night's No. 1 seed Dayton at Florida Atlantic matchup to reveal the second-round opponent. The site and the date of the second round game is to be determined.

Game Recap
The Chattanooga Mocs and Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders played 55 minutes in a 109-103 triple overtime thriller at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Mocs out-lasted their hosts in the first triple overtime game for the program since 1979. Three players reached 30 points with 31 by Bash Wieland of Chattanooga and Camryn Weston of Middle Tennessee ranking as game high.
 

An early 10-0 run in the second half gave the Mocs a 53-51 lead on a Wieland three with 16:13 to play. The Blue Raiders answered with six straight to retake the lead continuing the nip-and-tuck battle. The two squads rode momentum waves leading and trailing.
 
Collin Mulholland's hook shot in the middle of the paint at 8:50 kick-started a 9-1 spurt to jump out to a 77-70 advantage while holding Middle without a field goal for 4:51 on the game clock. That ended on a Camryn Weston and-1 with 4:06 remaining. The Mocs into the final minute with the drama meter on high.
 
It was a 2-point game inside that final minute. Trey Bonham's missed three was rebounded by the Blue Raiders who moved up into the front court calling timeout down 84-82 with 10.5 on the clock. Weston was deemed to be fouled holding off Wieland on his drive. He made both free throws with just over four seconds left. The Mocs were not able to get a shot off before the buzzer to send it to overtime.
 
The overtime rims were stingy. The two teams managed just eight points in the first four minutes with the game knotted at 88-all after Garrison Keeslar's block on Jestin Porter's drive at the 1-minute mark.
 
Honor Huff drove and got fouled with 38.1 to play. He missed both opening the door for the Blue Raiders. Kamari Lands got an open look for three and missed but Porter came up with a pivotal offensive board at 12.2 as Middle called timeout. The Mocs stayed strong defensively forcing the stop and sending the game into a further five minutes.
 
Middle score on its first two possessions in the second extra period for a 4-point lead, 92-88. Bonham immediately answered to cut it to two. The teams traded stops for an extended run before Mulholland drilled a three from the top of the key at 1:33 for a 93-92 advantage.
 
Weston answered with a three of his own at 1:02 at the end of the shot clock. The Mocs called timeout with 53.5 seconds on the clock down one, 94-93. Mulholland answered again with a flair screen three and then forced a Weston turnover as he stepped out of bounds on his drive against the big man. Weston doubled down fouling out seconds later on the in-bounds pass sending Keeslar to the line at the 28.5 mark.
 
Keeslar made it a 3-point game, 97-94, hitting one of his two free throws. Mostafa's slam dunk at 19.2 closed it to one, 97-96. That put "Big Maple" back in the spotlight. Mulholland hit two free throws with 16.7 to go for a 99-96 advantage. Mostafa drilled just his fifth trey of the season to tie it 99-all with 7.4 remaining.
 
Huff took a quick three. Jack Kostel got the offensive rebound and then powered through a slap on the arm but couldn't complete the basket as the game went to a third extra frame.
 
It was more of the same. The Mocs this time took a 4-point advantage before giving up the first Blue Raiders basket at 1:33 from Mostafa to make it 103-102. Wieland reached the 30-point mark at 1:04 with two free throws to get back to a 3-point game.
 
Jlynn Counter hist one of two free throws to cut it to 105-103. The Mocs brought ball up and called timeout with 26.9 remaining. Huff drilled a triple from 25 feet with 11.1 to go and Bonham blocked a three effort at the other end to ice the game. Keeslar was fouled on the rebound with 5.6 to go and provided his group a comfortable 109-103 final margin.
 
Chattanooga now awaits the winner of Wednesday night's No. 1 seed Dayton at Florida Atlantic matchup to reveal the second-round opponent. Site of the game to be determined.

POSTGAME QUOTES ∙ MORE
Dan Earl's opening statement after 109-103 3OT win.
"Okay. Uh, wow, that was a great college basketball game, huh? It was really fun to see a hard fought game by both teams, and credit to Middle. Coach McDevitt does a great job. Those guys played extremely hard and were tough to follow. I thought we fought tremendously hard. Our defense was uh I don't know, atrocious in the first half. But we kind of made some adjustments and just played harder. It was better the last four minutes of the first half and then end of the second half. Overall, extremely proud of these guys and that effort."
 
Collin Mulholland on creating his March moment.
"I think just the way we move the ball makes it really hard for teams to notice. It can make them look over at times which leads to more openings like the couple threes you just mentioned. We executed a lot of backdoor cuts that allowed us to really free up the threes which we can make at a very high rate, so it makes us very dangerous just by how many different ways we can free up the offense."
 
RECORDS – Chattanooga: 25-9 | Middle Tennessee: 22-12
 
INSIDE THE BOX – SCORE
Scoring Leaders – UTC: 31-Bash Wieland | MT: 31-Camryn Weston
Rebounding Leaders – UTC: 11-Garrison Keeslar | MT: 16-Essam Mustafa
Assist Leaders – UTC: 6-Trey Bonham | MT: 5-Jlynn Counter
Largest Leads – UTC: 7 (77-70, 4:07 2nd) | MT: 11 (20-31, 8:29 1st).
Lead Changes: 10 | Times Tied: 11

• Three 30-point scorers in the game: Wieland (31), Weston (31) and Mostafa (30).
• 9th time this season with 20 or more assists recording 23 tonight.
• Fourth overtime game of the year going 2-2.
• 13th time shooting 50 percent or better from the field making 39 of 76 attempts (51.3%)…11-2 in those contests.
• Wieland scored 22 of his career-high 31 points in the opening frame keeping the Mocs within five points at the break. His 31 matches Huff (VMI-Jan. 12) for season high honors.
• 9th 20-point game of the season for Wieland: 26 vs Morehead State (Nov. 14), 23 vs Western Carolina (Feb. 19), 22 vs. UNCG (Jan. 9), 22 vs. Mercer (Feb. 1), 21 vs. Lipscomb (Dec. 3), 21 at The Citadel (Jan. 4), 20 vs. Wofford (Jan. 15) & 20 at Wofford (Feb. 5).
• Bonham scored 23 on the night. It was his sixth 20pt effort of the season and 12th in 54 career games in blue & gold.
• Mulholland scored all of his career-high 21 points in the second half. He was a +16 in his 28:22 on the floor.
• Weston (31), Mostafa (30) and Porter (19) combined for 80 of the Blue Raiders 103 points.
• Two teams combined for 91 first half points with the Blue Raiders leading 48-43 at the break…third time with 90+ points scored by intermission: 92 (45-47) vs. Western Carolina and 90 (45-45) at Southeast Missouri.
• 62.5 percent shooting (35-56) over the first 20 minutes with 66.7 percent (18-27) for the Mocs and 58.6 percent (17-29) for the home team.

 
NIT HISTORY

• 5th appearance but first since 1987. The program made four straight NITs from 1984-87. That was in the middle of the first eight DI postseasons for the Mocs going to the NCAA Tournament in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1988.
• 4-4 all-time in the event.
• Best finish in the event was the 1085 quarterfinals missing a trip to Madison Square Garden by a 71-66 tally at Louisville against a Cardinals team that won the 1986 NCAA Championship.
• 1-1 against Tennessee schools in the NIT. Lost 68-66 at Tennessee in 1984.

 
SERIES HISTORY
Meetings: 69
Record: 37-32
In Murfreesboro: 12-23
Postseason: 1-0
Streak: +4 (Ties for longest win streak in series by both teams | UTC: 1981-84 // MT: 1987-97)
 
NOTES TO KNOW | MORE

• First triple overtime game since Jan. 18, 1979, a 71-69 win at Georgia Southern.
• 7th straight win over a Conference USA opponent and nine of last 11.
• 23rd postseason appearance in school history: NCAA DI (12) & DII (5) tournaments, NIT (5) and CIT (1).
• 40th postseason contest.
• 18-22 all-time in the postseason: 3-4 NIT | 3-12 NCAA DI | 11-5 NCAA DII | 0-1 CIT.
• Won 13 of the last 14 games. 17-4 since the calendar shifted to 2025.
• 23rd 20-win season. The 25 wins are the most since the 2021-22 (27-8) SoCon Regular Season and Tournament Championships.
• 25 wins ranks seventh all-time at Chattanooga.
• 11th road win is second-most in school history behind 12 in 2021-22. Nine straight road victories, a program record.
• 46-29 in true road games since 2020 which is the most road triumphs in NCAA DI over that span.

 
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