The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team lost 79-64 to Bellarmine on Wednesday at Knights Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Mocs, who are the reigning Southern Conference regular-season and National Invitation Tournament champions, fell to 5-7 with just one more game remaining before they tip off league play. The Knights, who also have one more game before they open their Atlantic Sun Conference schedule, improved to 5-6.
UTC led 36-27 at halftime, but the Knights fought back to tie things up at 51, then used a 13-0 run to assume control of the contest.
The Mocs were led by Jordan Frison and Brennan Watkins, who had 20 points each, but the rest of the team struggled from the field as no one else scored more than seven for UTC. Billy Smith, who played the past two seasons at Bellarmine, had just six points and missed all 10 of his 3-point attempts in his return game.
On a positive note, UTC got back a trio of sophomores who had been sidelined by injury — forwards Collin Mulholland and Latif Diouf (although he got hurt again Wednesday) and guard Parker Robison — but played without guards Sebastian Hartmann, a junior who got hurt during a home win against Oakwood on Dec. 9, and Tate Darner, a freshman who got hurt in Saturday’s loss to Auburn in Atlanta.