For the second game in a row, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team dug itself into a hole but was able to battle out of it, this time rallying to defeat Furman 75-71 for the Mocs’ third consecutive victory.
Now 12-7 overall and 4-2 in the Southern Conference after Saturday’s outcome in Greenville, South Carolina, the Mocs return home to face Samford (15-4, 5-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday in a key league matchup that will be televised by ESPNU. The Bulldogs, who lost 65-60 to East Tennessee State on Saturday, are tied with UNC Greensboro (12-7, 5-1) for first place in the SoCon, with UTC one of three teams in third place behind that duo.
At Furman, the host Paladins (15-4, 3-3) scored the first 11 points of the game and jumped out to a 22-6 lead early, taking advantage of the combination of poor shooting and bad ball-handling by the Mocs. UTC rallied to close the gap to 34-27 entering halftime, then took its first lead on a three-point play by redshirt freshman Collin Mulholland with 4:35 to play.
On the next two UTC possessions, Jack Kostel made a pair of free throws and Mulholland grabbed an offensive rebound before finding Trey Bonham in the corner for a 3-pointer that put the Mocs up by five. From that point forward, it was a free-throw contest for the Mocs, who hit eight straight and got a Honor Huff steal and layin to help provide the final margin.
“I wish we knew going into the game and really could bring it to fruition instead of just talking about it,” Huff said of the team’s awareness of avoiding the need for comebacks. “The last couple of games you could see us putting ourselves in the hole, but on a positive note, it shows our will and fight and perseverance.”
Furman’s PJay Smith scored a game-high 18 points despite being 4-for-15 from the field, with all of his makes (and 11 of his attempts) from 3-point range to go with a 6-for-7 showing on free throws.
Huff, Bonham and Frank Champion had 16 points apiece as they topped the scoring list for UTC. Champion added nine rebounds and three assists.
The Mocs, who had hit at least five 3-pointers in all 86 of Dan Earl’s games as head coach, were limited to four on just 13 tries beyond the arc Saturday, but they carved up the Paladins inside of the 3-point line in the final 20 minutes, shooting 13-of-24 (54%) on 2-point tries.
“We’ve had some hard-fought Southern Conference games, and unfortunately for us, we came out of the gate poorly. We were walking in mud tonight,” said Earl, whose Mocs rallied from down 20 on Wednesday to defeat Wofford in overtime. “I don’t know why that is, because the previous two or three games we came out unbelievably well, so we’ve got to find that consistency.
“I think there’s something good there, because when we got down, we figured out how to compete and brought the defense; that’s what got us back in the game. But we can’t turn it on and off if you want to be towards the top of the conference or a championship team.”
Compiled by Gene Henley. Contact him at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.