ASHEVILLE, N.C. — As he was making the trip from the locker room to the press area after Sunday night's 74-62 win over Wofford to advance to the Southern Conference championship game against Furman, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior forward Jake Stephens was stopped numerous times to slap high-fives and take pictures.
He had the same message for everyone he encountered.
"We've got one more," the 7-footer said.
That type of chance is why he chose to join UTC as a graduate transfer after a successful career under Dan Earl at Virginia Military Institute, picking the Mocs over a bevy of other opportunities once Earl got the head job in the Scenic City last April. Stephens wanted a championship, and it would be even more special to do so in the same league where he played the past four seasons.
But he has found out something along the way: Chattanooga has a rich college basketball history, and the fans turn out. Despite an up-and-down regular season that ended 15-16 and with Stephens missing the final 11 games due to injury, the Mocs finished second in the SoCon in attendance.
So the past three nights, once the game has been in hand, the "U-T-C!" chants rang out around a portion of Harrah's Cherokee Center.
"You can't ask for a better fan base," said Stephens, who finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, four steals and two blocks. "This time of year just brings it out of everybody, so I'm super excited — not only for the team and everybody, our support staff, but the fan base. Honestly, they are awesome. They support our games, no matter what. Big losing streaks, big winning streaks, they've been through it all, and they've constantly filled McKenzie Arena. And now you see them traveling, which is awesome.
"It's not like this is down the road. It's a three-, four-hour drive, so for people to come want to watch us is awesome."
The Mocs' success so far in Asheville has made the late chants celebratory, but the cheers start much, much earlier.
"I kind of zone out before the game, I'm drawing up plays or whatever," Earl said. "They announce one team, the other, and you can hear the Mocs fans out there and the band is loud, so we certainly appreciate them supporting us all year long."
But now the seventh-seeded Mocs (18-16) are on a run that might seem improbable but really isn't. Despite the struggles with injuries to Stephens and others, the Mocs found a way to win seven league games during the regular season, with four of those victories coming without Stephens.
And even with Stephens' return at the start of the SoCon tourney, where the Mocs have won three games in three days to keep alive their bid to repeat as champions, they've gotten contributions from everyone: Dalvin White had 13 points and three assists Sunday against sixth-seeded Wofford (17-16), while Jamal Johnson added 12 points and A.J. Caldwell scored 10. Chattanooga native Randy Brady chipped in eight points in 23 minutes and paired with Demetrius Davis to make life difficult on Wofford big man B.J. Mack, who finished with 16 points but shot just 4-of-10 from the field.
Wofford, which has made an average of 7.6 3-pointers per game this season, finished 3-for-23 from long range.
And now the Mocs take on preseason favorite and No. 1 seed Furman (26-7), which needed overtime to beat fourth-seeded Western Carolina in Sunday's first semifinal and might have revenge in mind Monday night after the vivid memories of how last season ended for the Paladins, with UTC fans pouring onto the court after David Jean-Baptiste's 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer sent the Mocs to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016.
Most of those Paladins are still there; most of those Mocs aren't still around. But the stakes will be the same when the game tips off at 7 p.m. with ESPN televising the matchup with a March Madness spot on the line.
Furman swept the regular-season series with the Mocs, winning 77-69 on Jan. 18 in Chattanooga and 79-58 on Feb. 1 at home. But the UTC women were swept by Wofford during the regular season, too, and they came out on top of the Terriers to win their SoCon tourney earlier Sunday.
"We'll see if I have any motivational stuff going on," Earl said. "But obviously, we were at VMI, Jake and myself, and we watched that game, and it was an unbelievable battle. We've competed against Coach (Bob) Richey and Furman and had the utmost respect for their team and what he's been able to do, so I don't think we're going to make a huge deal about it, just 'Hey, this is the next game.' This is for a championship and the opportunity to go to the NCAA tournament.
"We'll lean on some of those older guys like A.J., KC (Hankton), Randy and some of the guys that were here in the past and see if they want to say anything to add to that, but we're just going to go out and be the best we can."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.