The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team just keeps winning.
Even when, at first glance, it looks like the Mocs have done just the opposite.
On an afternoon when they didn’t have their best, the Mocs had just enough to survive Saturday at McKenzie Arena, closing out their home schedule by beating The Citadel 76-75, a surprisingly hard-fought victory that pushed UTC’s winning streak to nine games with a week to go in the regular season before tournament time for the Southern Conference.
This one took a little bit of luck, too, as Sola Adebisi’s final shot of the game went through the net for the struggling Bulldogs (5-22, 0-16) but — as confirmed by officials after a brief review — did so after the final buzzer, allowing the Mocs (21-9, 13-3) to have a happy ending on senior day.
UTC (21-9, 13-3), which took sole possession of first place in the SoCon standings earlier in the week, maintained its one-game lead over second-place UNC Greensboro (19-10, 12-4), which beat the Mocs 78-75 on Jan. 9 in Chattanooga. UTC heads to North Carolina to face the Spartans in a high-stakes rematch at 7 p.m. Thursday, then visits Virginia Military Institute two days later with a 1 p.m. tipoff.