Rodney Allison

CHARLESTON, S.C. — After so many blowout losses this season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga players said they were thrilled to finally be in a ballgame late in the fourth quarter. But following Saturday’s 24-21 loss at The Citadel, they said the Mocs’ ninth- traight defeat was by no means a moral victory because it was close.

“It hurts, especially when you lose that close,” UTC running back Brent Hayes said. “It was a tough loss. ... In the past we don’t lose real bad — we’re always in it in the fourth quarter — and it just brought back some old memories.”

In a season that never really got off the ground and included the Oct. 21 announcement that coach Rodney Allison’s contract will not be renewed, Saturday’s game was the first in which the Mocs let a win get away.

They took a 21-17 lead on the opening drive of the third quarter when Jare Gault passed to Blue Cooper for a 31-yard touchdown. The lead held until Andre Roberts’ 43-yard punt return for a touchdown with 1:46 to play in the game.

“I can’t tell how much a great feeling it is,” The Citadel coach Kevin Higgins said after the Bulldogs’ six-game losing streak was snapped. “It’s been a while in this locker room after a win.”

It’s been even longer for the Mocs, who haven’t won since beating Cumberland, an NAIA school, on Sept. 6. In fact, the Mocs’ second-half lead was their first since that win over Cumberland.

Quarterback Gault, whose fourth-and-5 pass attempt to Cooper on the Mocs’ final drive fell incomplete, said losing when you’re so close to a win hurts far worse than being blown out by Appalachian State, like the Mocs were last week, 49-7.

“To be so close, it hurts even worse,” Gault said. “We were battling back and forth, and it’s awesome to finally have a game like that, to have a game come down to the wire in the fourth quarter.

“That’s what you play for, but it still hurts really bad to not come out on top at the end.”

If there is anything good that comes from the loss, Gault said, it’s that the team got its first taste of some confidence for the first time in weeks, and that might help as UTC prepares for this Saturday’s finale against Samford.

“We feel a little better about ourselves — we showed we can be competitive — and that should help us,” Gault said. “We did a lot of things well but just came up short at the end. There’s definitely some things we can build on heading into the last game.”