Men’s Basketball Survives The Citadel 76-75; Extends Winning Streak to Nine

GoMocs-The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team earned its ninth-straight victory after coming away with a game-ending defensive stop to ultimately survive The Citadel 76-75 in crucial late season Southern Conference action inside McKenzie Arena on Saturday.

Entering the day with Division I’s sixth-longest winning streak (W8), Chattanooga (21-8, 13-3 SoCon) just couldn’t seem to pull away from an always-tough Citadel (5-22, 0-16 SoCon) squad, who entered the contest carrying Division I’s longest skid (L18). The Mocs remain one game ahead of UNCG (12-4) in the SoCon regular season standings and will make the trip to Greensboro on Thursday night for the ultimate conference showdown.

Despite leading by 14 with under seven minutes left, the Mocs needed a defensive stop on the game’s final possession to extend its winning ways and remain alone atop the conference table. UTC’s defense initially forced a highly-contest three during the possession, but a loose ball rebound resulted in a quick Bulldogs put-back winner at the buzzer… that fortunately for the Mocs faithful in attendance, was just a second too late after video review.

Chattanooga led 41-33 at the halftime break following a buzzer-beating three from Trey Bonham which marked just his first field goal of the opening period. The Citadel responded in the second half by shooting 60.9% (14-of-23) from the floor and out-scoring UTC 42-35 in total, falling just a point and second shy of snapping its lengthy skid.

Bash Wieland led the Mocs in scoring with a team-high 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting while tying a season high in assists with four. Trey Bonham scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half while Honor Huff reached double digits again with 14.