Box Score | Notes/Quotes

CHATTANOOGA (February 14, 2026) – The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team fell behind early and put together another strong second half run, but ultimately fell short during an 81-76 loss to Western Carolina in Southern Conference action on Saturday evening inside McKenzie Arena.
 
Following the defeat, Chattanooga falls to 10-17 overall and is now 4-10 inside SoCon play while sitting ninth in the league standings. Western Carolina improved to 10-15 on the year and upped its conference record to 6-8, landing in a tie for seventh with The Citadel.

Quick Records
Chattanooga: 10-17, 4-10 SoCon
Western Carolina: 10-15, 6-8 SoCon

Series History
Meeting: 107th | UTC leads 74-33 (H: 41-8; A: 26-23; N: 7-2)
*UTC now leads 62-30 in SoCon regular season meetings

Game Breakdown

• Chattanooga struggled from the floor in the early stages as a 3-of-8 FG (0-of-3 3FG) shooting start led to a 16-6 Western Carolina lead with 12:56 left in the opening half.
• The Catamounts doubled up the Mocs on the scoreboard, 28-14 (8:30), before taking its largest lead of the half, 30-14 (6:21), following a Marcus Kell layup off a UTC turnover.
• Chattanooga chipped away at its deficit down the first half stretch as a Jordan Frison pullup mid-range jumper with under a minute left sent the hosts into halftime trailing by 10, 39-29.
• The Catamounts raced out of the halftime break with 13 of the first 18 points to build a sizable 52-34 lead with 15:36 remaining in the contest.
• Chattanooga continued its fight over the next few minutes of action as its deficit slowly dwindled all the way down to four, 69-65, with just 2:42 left on the board.
• Western Carolina's Julien Soumaoro quickly thwarted the UTC comeback effort with back-to-back buckets to push the advantage back up to eight, 73-65 (1:38), before the guests iced the game down the stretch.

Notes to Know / Inside the Box Score

• Chattanooga suffered another large disadvantage at the charity stripe… finished -19 (25-6) in total FTA… WCU went 20-of-25 (80.0%) from the FT line… UTC just 6-of-6 (100.0%)… UTC has surrendered 20+ FTA to its opponent in 12 of the 14 SoCon games this season… combined 116 FTA over the past four games.
• Chattanooga dished out 19 assists while committing just eight turnovers… the 19 assists marked the most against a DI opponent this season… most since 22 against Tennessee Wesleyan on November 28, 2025… snapped five-game streak of finishing with 10+ turnovers.
• F Josh Bowman recorded six points, one rebound and three blocks in 13 minutes of action… the three blocks put him at 21 on the season… most blocks in a single season for a UTC freshman in program history… surpassed Sam Alexis' 19 blocks during the 2022-23 season.

Postgame Quotes
Dan Earl on tonight's efforts.
"I'm proud of the guys for fighting. But just to be honest with you, I'm getting tired of kind of saying the same thing over and over. You know, what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I thought we competed throughout against ETSU. We just didn't shoot it well. We didn't shoot well again tonight, but it was a little different. How physical we were, how much we battled in the second half, compared to the first. We have to figure out how to do it for 40 minutes regardless of what's going on with making shots or missing shots."

Up Next | Schedule
Chattanooga gets set for an extended road trip next week with a Thursday night contest in Macon, Ga., against Mercer and a Saturday afternoon visit to Charleston, S.C, for a battle at The Citadel. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. (ET) on Thursday night and 1 p.m. (ET) on Saturday.

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