The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team picked up the biggest win yet of coach Dan Earl's tenure with the Mocs, leading for more than 34 minutes and building as much as a 21-point second-half lead on the way to an 81-71 win Friday night over host Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center.
The victory in Kentucky, which improved the Mocs to 2-0 in Earl's second season at UTC, is the program's first win over a power conference opponent since an 82-69 season-opening victory against Tennessee in Knoxville in 2016. It's the program's first win over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent since the Mocs defeated Clemson in the 1985 National Invitation Tournament.
UTC is home for its next game, facing Bellarmine (0-2) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at McKenzie Arena.
The Mocs were led by their guard tandem of sophomore Honor Huff and freshman Myles Che, who combined for 47 points, including nine 3-pointers. Sam Alexis was dominant on the interior with 16 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, and Tyler Millin had 11 rebounds to go with five points.
Coming off a 25-point outing Monday at home against Covenant, UTC's Jan Zidek was only 2-for-7, but one of those was a huge 3-pointer with 1:14 to play that halted a late Louisville run. He finished with eight points.
UTC hit 14 3-pointers, compared to six on 18 tries from distance for the Cardinals. The Mocs battled to a tie on the glass, with each team grabbing 41 rebounds, and the visitors' 24-point advantage on 3-pointers helped offset a 20-point edge in points in the paint for Louisville (1-1).
"We certainly made that interesting down the stretch," Earl said on a postgame Zoom call, "but I'm really proud of our guys. I thought we stuck to the game plan overall. Defensively we stuck to the game plan, and then offensively, we shared the ball much better. At halftime, I thought we made the game far more difficult than it needed to be.
"But overall, super proud of our team."
Demetrius Davis didn't score, but he chipped in five rebounds for the Mocs, who got just one basket from their bench — a Noah Melson 3-pointer.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.