CHATTANOOGA (January 10, 2026) – With the help of a huge first-half effort, the Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team earned its first Southern Conference win of the season with a strong 88-79 victory over Samford on Saturday afternoon in front of a raucous 4,317 fans inside McKenzie Arena.
 
Following the win, Chattanooga snaps a three-game skid and improves to 7-10 overall and 1-3 inside league play. Samford drops to 9-8 on the season and events its conference record at 2-2 after the defeat.
 
Chattanooga led for more than 39 minutes in total during Saturday's victory and built a lead as large as 28 in the opening half. The Mocs turned the ball over just three times against the Bulldogs and notched a new single-game program record for fewest turnovers, besting the previous mark of four set twice with the most recent coming in last year's win at Wofford on 2/5/2025.

Quick Records
Chattanooga: 7-10, 1-3 SoCon
Samford: 9-8, 2-2 SoCon

Series History
Meeting: 115th | UTC now leads 70-45 (H: 43-15; A: 24-30; N: 3-0)
*UTC now leads 22-13 in SoCon regular season meetings
 
Dan Earl, Head Coach
Overall (11th): 148-187
at Chattanooga (4th): 75-48, 35-23 SoCon
vs. Samford: 7-18 (H: 4-7; A: 1-9; N: 2-2)

Game Breakdown
After the two teams locked up at 9-9 (17:07), Chattanooga went on a lengthy 19-4 scoring run over a seven-minute span to build a sizable 33-13 lead and force Samford into a timeout. Makai Richards provided eight points and three boards during the spurt while the UTC defense forced four turnovers which translated to nine points.
 
Parker Robison blocked a Samford three-point attempt and immediately found Jikari Johnson on a breakaway for an easy two as Chattanooga continued to lead, 39-18 (6:02). The Mocs led by as many as 28 (49-21; 2:19) in the opening half before Samford ended the frame with seven unanswered to allow for a 49-28 halftime score.
 
UTC forced eight turnovers in the opening half against a Samford team who entered the contest ranked eighth in NCAA DI in fewest turnovers-per-game (9.3). The Mocs capitalized on the Bulldogs miscues with an 11-3 advantage in points off turnovers over the first 20 minutes.
 
Josh Bowman stepped out and connected on his first career three to put Chattanooga ahead 56-33 (18:27) before another response saw Samford trim its deficit to 18, 58-40 (16:01), forcing the hosts into a timeout. The Bulldogs continued to make its charge over the next few minutes as a Dylan Faulkner layup saw UTC's lead dwindle to just 11, 61-50, with 11:45 left in the contest.
 
The separation continued to tighten as another Faulkner driving layup brought Samford all the way back to just a six-point difference, 75-69, with 3:41 on the board. Jordan Frison helped close things out down the stretch with a big-time late triple at the top of the key before free throws sealed the ultimate 88-79 final score.
 
Inside the Box Score
· G Jordan Frison finished with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting… went 2-of-2 from 3FG… 2-of-2 from the FT line… added six assists, two rebounds and two steals… surpassed 300 career rebounds (entered with 299).
 
· Chattanooga shot an extremely efficient 91.7% (22-of-24) from the free-throw line during the win… season-high FT%... highest FT% on 20+ attempts since shooting 95.8% (23-of-24) against VMI at home on 2/12/20.
 
· F Makai Richards finished with 10 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes of action… surpassed 200 points at UTC (entered with 197)… 95^th career game at the NCAA DI level.

3 Notes to Know
· Chattanooga head coach Dan Earl earned his 75^th win at the helm in the Scenic City… 35^th SoCon win at Chattanooga… now 75-48 overall and 35-23 in SoCon play during his fourth season at UTC.
 
· Chattanooga's bench outscored the Samford reserves by a wide 36-5 (+31) margin… widest positive margin against a DI opponent this season… the UTC bench has produced 30.8 points-per-game this season (524 total)… opponents averaging 19.8 per game off the bench… +11.0 edge for UTC.
 
· Chattanooga avoided what would have been just its third 0-4 start to SoCon play in program history (49 seasons)… the 0-3 start was just the fifth in the same time span… with the UTC victory, all 10 league members now have at least one win inside SoCon play just four games in.
 
Postgame Quotes
Head coach Dan Earl on the home crowd.
"I thought the crowd was awesome, and we certainly appreciate it. I know we've been struggling, our guys will continue to fight. We appreciate them coming out and supporting us, and even, when Samford was on the free throw line, McKenzie was rocking. So, you know, again, we're very appreciative of that. We hope people continue to come out and support us."
 
G Jordan Frison on how it felt to win the game after what this team has gone through this season.
"It was a really good feeling, you know, down the stretch we had scored a big basket and the crowd popped and stuff like that. Like, those are the things you want, you know, especially playing a home game in a game that you can win. And, yeah, we're just trying to, you know, stack it from here and just keep this positive energy we got going and try to build on it as we continue out through a conference play."
 
Up Next | Schedule
Chattanooga will hit the road for a Wednesday night Southern Conference matchup in Spartanburg against Wofford. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. (ET) inside Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium with live video coverage available on ESPN+.

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