ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 8, 2025) – The top-seeded Chattanooga men's basketball team officially punched its ticket into the Southern Conference Semifinals on Saturday, with the Mocs putting together a second-half surge against No. 8 Mercer in what ended up being a 76-61 victory for the Mocs in the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina.
The win marks the 12th-straight win for the No. 1 Chattanooga (24-8) squad as the Mocs will now await the winner of No. 4 Samford and No. 5 Furman (8:30 p.m. ET tip). Saturday's semifinal is set for a 4 p.m. ET start time and will be available to watch either on ESPNU or ESPN+.
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RECORDS – Chattanooga 24-8 ∙ Mercer 14-19
INSIDE THE BOX – Chattanooga 76, Mercer 61
- Garrison Keeslar led the Mocs with a season-high 19 points after shooting a blazing-hot 63.6 percent (7-for-11) from the floor.
- Makai Richards tapped in for UTC at the starting five position, ending the game with 10 points and five rebounds, tying his season-high for boards.
- Got out-scored by the Bears 34-28 in the first half with a 38.7 team field goal percentage and 21.4 team three-point percentage in the opening 20 minutes… Went on to out-score Mercer 48-27 in the second half… Shot the ball at a 57.7 percent clip from the floor and 55.6 clip from three in the second frame.
- Only nine of UTC's 76 points (11.8 percent) came from off the bench… The remaining 67 points were scored by Chattanooga's starting five: Honor Huff (16 points), Trey Bonham (11 points), Garrison Keeslar (19 points), Bash Wieland (11 points) and Makai Richards (10 points).
KEY GAME NOTES | MORE
- Chattanooga now advances to the Southern Conference Semifinals on Sunday, March 9 to take on the winner of No. 4 Samford and No. 5 Furman (8:30 p.m. ET tip)… The Mocs have advanced to at least the SoCon Semifinals in each of the last four seasons including all three seasons of the Dan Earl era.
- With the win over Mercer, the Mocs have now tied the second-longest win streak in program history by stringing together their 12 consecutive victory… longest streak stands at 14-straight during the 1992-93 season.
- Today's quarterfinal marked Chattanooga's 100th all-time SoCon Tournament game... now 65-35 (.649) all-time in the league tournament.
- Today's quarterfinal marked Dan Earl's 100th game as the Chattanooga bench boss... now 63-37 (.632)... 63 wins surpasses Mack McCarthy (62, 1985-88) for most wins by a UTC head coach in first three seasons (DI era).
- Southern Conference Newcomer of the Year Frank Champion missed today's contest due to injury... averaged 11.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 23 regular season games.
- Garrison Keeslar led the Mocs with a season-high 19 points… marks his first time having consecutive double-digit scoring efforts this year.
POSTGAME QUOTES | MORE
Dan Earl, Head Coach
Opening statement after Thursday's quarterfinal win.
"We certainly keep things interesting. Tough first half. Truth be told, we looked a little unsure of ourselves. I had a couple choice words and then we woke up after halftime. Super proud of the guys' response in the second half. I challenged some of the guys individually, some of them collectively; Makai Richards being one that responded, Honor Huff was another that responded. How about Garrison Keeslar? If you know basketball, you know that was a grown man's game on both sides of the basketball. We gotta learn from this and move on, but it's called survive and advance for a reason so I'm proud of the guys' response in the second half."
Garrison Keeslar, G/F-Sr.
On Makai Richards stepping in and contributing to the win today.
"That was big time. That's a huge testament to who he is as a person. With Frank (Champion) going down, he knew he'd be playing but you get new minutes and you haven't been playing like that all season. For him to step up and do that, that's big time for our team. Our whole team knew that you can't just replace Frank with one guy, it's gonna be a collective effort. Our coaches did a good job at shuffling in the bigs and they all know that when they go in they go in and give it everything they've got. Makai was huge tonight both offensively and defensively tonight and that's just a big time performance from him."
UP NEXT
Chattanooga now awaits the winner of tonight's matchup between No. 4 Samford and No. 5 Furman (8:30 p.m. ET tip). UTC's semifinal round will take place tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET inside the Harrah's Cherokee Center – Asheville. Please check the schedule page for all game links and information HERE.
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