UTC's Justin Tuoyo puts up a shot past Wofford's Matthew Pegram during the Mocs' 79-67 loss on Saturday. Tuoyo and Tre' McLean scored a combined 31 points to bring the Mocs within striking distance of the Terriers, but a 3-pointer by Wofford's Fletcher Magee broke the Mocs' comeback, allowing the Terriers to expand their lead and take the game. 
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - As had happened on numerous occasions throughout the 2016-17 season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball offense hit a wall Saturday afternoon.
And with the season on the line, the Mocs weren't able to climb back from a self-dug hole.
Wofford started the second half with a 14-4 run and fought off every UTC comeback for a 79-67 victory at the U.S. Cellular Center in the Southern Conference quarterfinals.
The loss ends what started as a promising season for the Mocs, as they lost five straight games and eight of their final 12 to finish with a 19-12 record.
Tre' McLean, back from a one-game suspension, led the Mocs with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in his final game. Justin Tuoyo, another senior, had 13 points and a pair of blocks, while forward Makinde London had 11 points, three rebounds and two steals in 25 minutes, but senior point guard Greg Pryor missed his second game after injuring his hand after the home loss to Mercer a week earlier.
Fletcher Magee scored 20 of his 24 points for Wofford in the second half, with 12 coming on 3-pointers. The Terriers (16-16), who will face top-seeded UNC Greensboro today in the semifinals, made eight 3s in the final 20 minutes.
"It's extremely disappointing in the ending to our season, but you've got to give Wofford an enormous amount of credit," UTC coach Matt McCall said. "I felt like we did a terrific job of guarding the 3-point line - they made two 3s in the first half - but they finished 10-of-23 for the game. I don't know how many were clean, but that's what those guys do."
While the Terriers were making shots, the Mocs struggled on offense as they had done for much of the season. They were 8-for-17 from 3-point range but shot less than 50 percent from the field for the eighth consecutive time, were only 11-for-19 from the foul line and committed 14 turnovers - eight in the second half, including on each of their first three possessions.
The miscues sparked the Terriers run that broke open a 31-all tie.
"The start of the second half was the difference in the game," McCall said. "We had some costly turnovers that they capitalized on, but we fought, we battled."
The Mocs closed the gap to five on three occasions and to four, at 53-49, on a Rodney Chatman feed to London with 10:12 to play, but Wofford responded then with a 7-0 run.
UTC trimmed the deficit to six with 4:42 to play on a three-point play by McLean, but another 7-0 run by the Terriers put the game away, capped by a back-breaking 3-pointer by Magee right before the shot-clock buzzer sounded with 1:46 to play.
That was one of many Terriers made shots that were well-contested by UTC players. Freshman Nathan Hoover, who finished with 17 points, made a few of those, while Eric Garcia, who had 18 points and five assists, did most of his damage on the free-throw line, making all 10 of his attempts.
"They executed their stuff pretty good," Tuoyo said. "They've got great guards, great shooters. We did our best and defended them, made it tough on them, but they're pretty hard to deal with."
The Terriers finished 17-for-19 from the line.
McCall pulled seniors McLean, Tuoyo, Johnathan Burroughs-Cook (eight points) and Casey Jones (seven points) with 40 seconds to play.
The five-player senior class finished with a record of 48-18 record, a SoCon title and a 2016 NCAA tournament bid. Pryor finished his career with more starts than anybody in program history, while Tuoyo ended his career with 270 blocks.
Jones, Pryor and Tuoyo each topped 1,000 points in their careers, while McLean finished 27 points shy of that mark.
"Sometimes you have seniors and you worry about what's next for them, where they go from here," McCall said. "I don't worry about any of these individuals, not one of them. They're all going to be successful because of the type of people they are. Whether it's playing the game of basketball, or anywhere in the world in the work force, they're going to be successful."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.