Houston Holland was one of five players whom University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach Dan Earl felt really played — rather, competed — in the second half of Sunday’s loss at Furman, when the Mocs fell behind by as many as 24 points in the first half before losing 75-70.
Earl rewarded Holland, freshman Tate Darner and the senior trio of Makai Richards, Teddy Washington Jr. and Brennan Watkins with starting assignments for Thursday’s home game against Mercer, one of the hottest teams in the Southern Conference.
That group helped the Mocs deliver a win, with UTC snapping a four-game losing streak with a 79-75 victory over the Bears in front of 3,183 at McKenzie Arena.
Holland, a sophomore guard who prepped at Chattanooga’s Silverdale Baptist Academy, had four of the Mocs’ 10 3-pointers and was one of five scorers in double figures for UTC (10-14, 4-7 SoCon). The 6-foot-4, 195-pounder had scored a total of 25 points in his first 20 games of the season, but Holland now has back-to-back career highs with seven points at Furman and 12 against the Bears (15-9, 7-4), who had won seven of their past eight games entering Thursday.
Darner led the Mocs with 18 points, while Watkins had 15. Washington matched Holland’s point total and had a team-high six rebounds, while Jordan Frison came off the bench to score 11, including a huge 3 as the shot clock was expiring with 59 seconds to play to put the Mocs up 76-70.
UTC vs. Mercer men’s basketball on Feb. 5, 2026
“We’ve all bought in,” Holland said. “We are competing better each day in practice right now, and there’s some guys that we need more from and some guys that we’re just asking a lot from. It takes a toll on the mental side, but collectively you build that relationship early in the season, and then hopefully later on in the season you continue to build and stay strong and just not give up when you get punched in the mouth.”
The Mocs, who are back in action at home at 2 p.m. Saturday against The Citadel (8-16, 5-6) have been punched in the mouth a lot this year. It could be injuries, poor shooting, lack of toughness or an unwillingness to compete, depending on the game, but it’s been a grind.
But on Thursday, if only for a brief moment, the Mocs got to smile, got to celebrate. It doesn’t mean anything going forward as there’s still a lack of a cohesive identity for the team as a whole, but even that could change with another win or two.
After all, despite the struggles, the Mocs were a last-second shot away from beating league-leading East Tennessee State, split with second-place Wofford and just beat the Bears, who entered the game third in the SoCon standings. On the other hand, the loss to Wofford was in pretty porous fashion, and the Mocs also have a loss to Virginia Military Institute, which sits at the bottom of the 10-team league standings.
So who knows what to expect next?
“We needed this win,” said Earl, whose third season at UTC yielded a SoCon regular-season title and the National Invitation Tournament championship last year. “As you could tell, we’ve been going through it recently. I thought we fought; if you watched us play, hopefully everyone saw that we fought today, and we need to continue to do that.
“We did some things to give ourselves a puncher’s chance, and we were able to come out on top tonight.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.