BOX SCORE | SEASON STATS | NIT/BRACKET INFO

PEORIA, Ill. (March 25, 2025) --- Move over March, hello April. The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team punched its ticket to the 2025 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Semifinals after rallying for a thrilling 69-67 road victory over No. 3 Bradley in the quarterfinal stage on Tuesday night inside Carver Arena in Peoria, Illinois.
 
Chattanooga (27-9) earns its first-ever NIT semifinal berth and will head to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, next week as one of four teams remaining in the event after tonight's win over three-seeded Bradley (28-9). The Mocs are the second SoCon team to ever make the NIT's final four and the first since former member N.C. State punched its ticket back in… 1947.
 
The semifinal round is set for Tuesday, April 1 while the title game is slated for Thursday, April 3. UTC will face the winner of Kent State and Loyola Chicago, who play on Wednesday (March 26), next Tuesday at a time TBD. All games will be nationally televised on ESPN or ESPN2.
 
More information regarding Chattanooga fan events, championship information, and everything in between will be available in the coming days. Stick to GoMocs.com and all social channels for the most up-to-date information as well as the NIT homepage HERE.
 
Quick Recap
The Chattanooga Mocs are semifinals bound after a stirring 67-65 win at the Bradley Braves Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Tournament. Honor Huff (21) and Trey Bonham (17) combined for 38 points leading an amazing comeback and keeping the championship dream alive.
 
The Mocs trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and were down 11, 44-33, after a Demarion Burch step back jumper at 16:21. Then the Huff show took over the Peoria Civic Center.
 
The junior from Brooklyn rattled off eight straight to cut the advantage to three, 44-41. The key plays came from Latif Diouf. He corralled two offensive rebounds in the middle possession of the spurt resulting in a Huff three at 15:20. The Braves extended the lead back to seven on back-to-back baskets, but a Huff layup on a side out of bounds masterpiece was followed by three Bonham free throws at 11:47 to get within two, 48-46.
 
The Mocs kept working on both ends of the floor and Bradley kept them at bay until the 8:44 mark. Garrison Keeslar came up clutch with a three giving his team a 54-52 lead. Bash Wieland extended it on the next time down the floor with a 14' jumper to get to 56-52.
 
Bradley answered with a modest 5-0 run to retake the lead on a Duke Deen turnaround. A Bonham three with 5:10 on the clock swung the lead back to the good guys, 59-57. The seesaw got busy from there with the lead changing hands and ties coming down the stretch.
 
Bonham came up big again. He drilled a three from the top of the key at the minute mark for a 64-61 lead. Deen did the same 19 seconds later with one from the left wing in front of his bench for tie No. 4. Bonham was unfazed. Huff drove late in the next possession, kicked it out to the corner and Bonham delivered with 14.1 ticks left.
 
After a timeout, Deen dribbled up top and looking for his shot was fouled with 4.8 to go by Wieland to take a three-pointer out of the equation. He made the first and missed the second on purpose, but Diouf grabbed the rebound. He missed the ensuing free throw but Deen's desperation three from 70 feet was off the mark.
 
RECORDS – Chattanooga: 27-9 | Bradley 28-9
 
INSIDE THE BOX – SCORE: Chattanooga 67, Bradley 65
Scoring Leaders – UTC: 21-Honor Huff | BU: 14-Demarion Burch
Rebounding – UTC: 7-Latif Diouf | BU: 6-Ahmet Jonovic/Christian Davis
Assists – UTC: 3-Collin Mulholland/Garrison Keeslar/Huff/Diouf | BU: 4-Duke Deen
Largest Leads – UTC: 4 (56-52 – 8:02 2nd) | BU: 16 (38-22 – 1:11 1st)
Lead Changes: 6 | Times Tied: 4

• Tale of two halves: Mocs shot 34.4% (16.7% 3pt) in first half and 46.9% (44.4% 3pt) in second. Braves were hot (60.0% - 50.0% 3pt) and then not (47.8% - 20.0% 3pt).
• +7 seven in turnover margin with five on the night while the Braves had 12. Proved key with the Mocs converting that to a 20-5 lead in points off turnovers, 13-0 in the second half.
• Bradley led for 31:53, Chattanooga for 4:48 and a tie score for the remaining 3:19.
• 11 offensive rebounds to just four for the Braves. +11 in second chance points (13-2).
• 3.4 assist/turnover ratio this evening (17/5). 6th game with 3.0 or better.
• Bonham scored all 17 of his points in the second half.

 
NIT HISTORY

• 5th appearance but first since 1987… program made four straight NITs from 1984-87… stretch was the middle of the first eight DI postseasons for the Mocs going to the NCAA Tournament in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1988.
• 6-4 all-time in the NIT (3-2 road)… second time in school history reaching the NIT Quarterfinals… last was in 1985, a 71-66 loss at Louisville against a Cardinals team that won the 1986 NCAA Championship.
• 3-1 against Illinois teams in the postseason: 1976 DII Final Four (93-84 win over Eastern Illinois); 1997 NCAA 2nd Round (75-63 win over Illinois) & 2022 NCAA 1st Round (54-53 loss to Illinois).

 
SERIES HISTORY
Meetings: 4 | Record: 3-1
In Peoria: 2-1 | Postseason: 1-0
Streak: +3
 
NOTES TO KNOW

• Huff has the most points in the first two years of a Mocs career with 1,127. Passes Derrick Kirce '91 who had 1,113 over the 1990 and '91 campaigns after transferring from Georgia.
• 6th win when trailing by 10+ this season with four coming on the road... 20-Wofford (1st) - 12 at half… 16-at Furman (1st) - 13 (2nd)… 16-at Bradley (1st) - 13 at half… 12-at ETSU (1st)… 11-TSU (1st)… 11-at MTSU (1st)
• Huff (552), Bonham (512) & Wieland (481) are the 6th Mocs trio to score 400 points each for a single season:
  1973-74: Wayne Golden-507, Walter "Moose" McGary-421 & William Gordon-420
  1975-76: Wayne Golden-585, William Gordon-478 & Kevin Gray-454
  1988-89: Daren Chandler-541, Benny Green-412 & Chris Behrends-409
  1991-92: LaVert Threats-472, Keith Nelson-467 & Tim Brooks-427
  2019-20: Matt Ryan-507, Ramon Vila-441 & David Jean-Baptiste-417
• Won 15 of the last 16 games. 19-4 since the calendar shifted to 2025… 12th road win ties the school record originally set in 2021-22… 10 straight road victories is a program record… 10 straight road wins ties Houston for the longest active streak in DI hoops.
• 47-29 (.618) since 2020 in true road games. One of four teams in DI with 12 or more road wins in 2024-25: UC Irvine (14), Central Connecticut State (12) & UC San Diego (12).
• 27 wins for the fifth time in school history: 29 (215-16), 27 (1976-77), 27 (1981-82), 27 (2021-22).
• School record 36th game… March 25 is the latest calendar date for a Mocs basketball game… previous was March 24, 1985, also in the NIT Quarterfinals at Louisville… first SoCon team to play in April in an NCAA postseason event.
• 23rd postseason appearance in school history: NCAA DI (12) & DII (5) tournaments, NIT (5) and CIT (1).
• 42nd postseason contest: 20-22 record: 6-4 NIT | 3-12 NCAA DI | 11-5 NCAA DII | 0-1 CIT.

 
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Dan Earl opening statement after 67-65 win at Bradley.
"First of all, ton of credit to Coach Wardle and Bradley. They're a heck of a team and hard to play. I played against Coach (Wardle) back in the day so we were joking around a little bit before the game, but they are a very good basketball team and in the first half, I wrote it up to the guys on our board, they manhandled us. Every which way they were more physical on the defensive end getting into us and then on the offensive end as well just doing what they wanted. I thought we showed a lot of heart and a lot of resiliency and a lot of toughness coming back and just competing in th second half. Super proud of our guys and it was another one of those games where I don't even know what happened and what scenario, but we did enough to get it done. We fouled late, which obviously worked out in our favor, and all around just proud of our guys."
 
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