CULLOWHEE, N.C. — So much for building momentum.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team lost at Western Carolina 78-70 on Saturday in the final game of the regular season and will head into the Southern Conference tournament having lost seven of its last eight games.
The Mocs’ seeding and opponent in the first round of the tourney Friday will not be determined until Monday night, when UNC Greensboro hosts Georgia Southern. UTC (14-17, 6-12) could end up with any seed ranging from third to sixth based on results from late Saturday and the Monday game.
“We’re determined to go into Charlotte and win the whole thing,” UTC guard Ricky Taylor said. “We got within three today and things didn’t go our way. But we have the tournament to look forward to.”
Junior Jake Robinson led the Catamounts with 18 points on senior day. Keaton Cole set a career high with 16, and Brigham Waginger added 15 for WCU (21-10, 11-7).
Taylor led UTC with 13 points, Keegan Bell had 12 and forward Ridge McKeither scored 11. Troy Cage had eight points in his sixth game as a Moc.
“The regular season is over,” McKeither said. “It’s put up or shut up time now. It’s big-boy ball now.”
WCU scored the first 15 points in Saturday’s game. UTC coach John Shulman called his second timeout after Richie Gordon stole the ball from Jasper Williams and dunked for a 21-5 lead with 13 minutes to go.
UTC made three buckets and two free throws in the first 12 minutes and trailed 21-9 with 7:57 to go in the first half. The Mocs trailed by 17 points before closing within 35-26 at halftime. They got within 42-38 on a 3-pointer by Patterson with 14:47 to go in the game and then within 48-45 on a Bell trey a couple of minutes later. But they never got closer.
WCU inched ahead 61-53 with nine minutes to play and made it 69-57 with Robinson scoring eight straight points.
“We battled back and gave ourselves a chance,” Shulman said. “Once again, it was the little things. We have three days to fix every one of those little things.”