It didn’t happen the way they would have preferred, but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs maxed out their seeding for next week’s Southern Conference men’s basketball tournament.
The Mocs lost their regular-season finale Saturday at McKenzie Arena, 71-50 to Furman, but losses also by Samford and Mercer secured UTC the No. 5 tournament seed. The Mocs (12-19, 7-11) will play No. 4 seed East Tennessee State at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina.
Furman (24-6, 13-5), which set a program record for single-season wins, is the No. 3 seed.
Matt Rafferty led Furman with 20 points and 13 rebounds, with guard Alex Hunter netting 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting. The Paladins shot 48.3 percent for the game compared to 34.5 percent for the Mocs, who were led by David Jean-Baptiste’s 13 points, six rebounds and four steals.
The loss is the Mocs’ ninth in their past 11 games, and it continued a run of poor second halves. UTC trailed by just five at halftime but quickly saw the Paladins push the lead to double digits and never recovered.