Box Score | Notes/Quotes

CHATTANOOGA (February 5, 2026) – The streak is snapped. The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team ended its four-game skid with a physical and gutty performance during a 79-75 victory over Mercer in Southern Conference action on Thursday night inside an energetic McKenzie Arena.
 
Chattanooga improves to 10-14 and 4-7 inside SoCon play after halting its slide with tonight's win. Mercer, who entered the contest one game back of first place, drops to 15-9 overall and 7-4 inside the league after the loss. UTC has now won three-straight over Mercer in the series and made it six-straight wins over the Bears inside McKenzie Arena.

Quick Records
Chattanooga: 10-14, 4-7 SoCon
Mercer: 15-9, 7-4 SoCon

Series History
Meeting: 92nd | UTC leads 50-42 (H: 28-13; A: 18-28; N: 4-1)
*UTC now leads 15-8 in SoCon regular season meetings

Game Breakdown

• Brennan Watkins connected on his first two three-point attempts before a Tate Darner layup gave UTC an early 8-2 lead (18:14).
• Mercer responded with a 9-1 scoring run to jump ahead 11-9 (16:01) before capitalizing at the free throw line which included six-straight freebies to help build a 22-17 edge (10:29).
• Makai Richards capped off a 12-3 run with an emphatic slam off a Teddy Washington Jr. entry pass to tie the game 33-33 before the Bears ultimately took a 37-34 lead into the halftime break.
• Chattanooga scored the first six points of the second half to pull back ahead, 40-37 (18:40), with the help of a Houston Holland three and a Washington and-one conversion.
• Mercer responded by holding UTC scoreless for more than four minutes as a 10-0 scoring run led to an eventual 52-44 lead with 12:26 left.
• Local kid Houston Holland sparked a rally as his fourth triple of the game pulled the hosts within two, 54-52, before two Watkins free throws and a Washington layup put UTC back in front, 56-54, with 9:34 remaining.
• Mercer went more than 10 minutes without a field goal before Kyle Cuffe, Jr., tied the game at 66-66 with a second-chance three. The Bears scored 13 points from the free-throw line over the stretch to keep within striking distance.
• Jordan Frison provided the game's dagger on a step-back three with under a minute remaining to give UTC a 76-70 lead before the squad closed out the 79-75 victory from the free-throw line.

Notes to Know / Inside the Box Score

• Chattanooga has won six-straight over Mercer inside McKenzie Arena… three-straight overall… Bears last win in the Roundhouse came on 2/22/2020 (W, 85-80).
• Mercer finished 33-43 (76.7%) from the FT line… 33 FTM is second-most by a Mocs opponent in program history (34; @Kennesaw State, 11/29/2014)… the 43 FTA is third-most by an opponent… just the fifth time a UTC opponent recorded 40+ FTA… UTC is 4-1 in those five occurrences.
• Five different Mocs reached double figures in scoring… Tate Darner finished with a season and career-high 18 points… Darner also led the team in minutes (35) and +/- (+16).
• Houston Holland made second career start… scored career-high 12 points… went 4-of-5 from 3FG… added three boards… local walk-on product from Silverdale Baptist in Chattanooga.

Postgame Quotes
Dan Earl's opening statement:
"Super proud of our guys. We needed this win. As you can tell, we've been going through it recently. You look at a stat sheet, and there should be virtually no way you win this game in that they took 43 free throws. We had 17 turnovers. They had 16 offensive rebounds. We only had three. But I thought we fought, you know? The home crowd who has continued to be awesome, we really appreciate that. But they saw that we fought today, and we need to continue to do that."

Up Next | Schedule
Chattanooga quickly turns around to host The Citadel on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. (ET) inside McKenzie Arena on ESPN+. Tickets can be purchased at the schedule link located above. Please join us in welcoming back the 2015-16 championship Mocs team for a special 10-year reunion.

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