Mocs Fall Hard on the Road to Furman 79-58
(gomocs.com) GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team saw a second-half surge but ultimately fell to Southern Conference leader and preseason favorite Furman 79-58 on Wednesday night inside Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C. Following the loss, Chattanooga moves to 12-12 overall and 4-7 inside SoCon play. Furman has now won five in-a-row and improves to 18-6 this season and 9-2 inside league action. Connecting on five early threes and trailing by just one, 28-27, with 7:08 remaining in the first half, UTC allowed a 15-3 run to close the opening half and went to the locker rooms down 11, 42-31. Chattanooga shrunk an 18-point second-half deficit to six, 58-52 (10:22), before Furman closed out the 79-58 victory. “Obviously, a tough night for us. Credit to Furman, they had 21 offensive rebounds. That can’t happen. They were more physical than us, played with more confidence than us,” said head coach Dan Earl. “We kept a fight that cut it to eight or so, but you can’t dig a hole that big especially to a team like Furman. We ran out of gas at the end. Tough night all the way around.” Dalvin White and Jamaal Walker led the team with 15 points each while Walker hauled in a team-high five rebounds. Jamal Johnson also reached double figures with 12 points in addition to a team-best three assists.HOW IT HAPPENEDChattanooga connected on three of its first four attempts from deep while Furman matched with a four-of-eight start from the field as UTC held a slight 13-12 (14:34) lead. The threes continued to fall for the visitors as they held a 20-19 edge with 11:45 left in the opening half. Furman earned its largest lead of the game at the time, 28-24 (8:24), before Dalvin White connected on his fourth three of the half to pull UTC within one, 28-27 (7:08). A Chattanooga scoring drought that lasted nearly five minutes in the final stages of the first half led to an eventual 42-31 halftime deficit. The Paladins opened the second half with five quick points from Jalen Slawson to build a 16-point lead, 47-31, just 1:09 into the final 20 minutes. Furman continued the offensive efficiency over the next few minutes as the lead grew to 56-38 (15:42), forcing UTC into a timeout. A 12-0 run over nearly three minutes saw Chattanooga cut the deficit all the way down to six, 58-52, with 10:22 left in the game. Furman immediately responded with an 13-0 run of its own to build back the sizable lead to 19, 71-52 (5:37), before the eventual 79-58 final.RECORDS/SERIES – Chattanooga 12-12, 4-7 SoCon · Furman 18-6, 9-2 SoCon · Series: Chattanooga now leads the series 57-39.NOTES TO KNOW– Chattanooga was outrebounded 53-32 in the loss… largest deficit margin this season (14, 42-28, at Ole Miss, 11/15/22)… largest deficit overall since a -25 margin (48-23) at UAB on 11/13/17. – Chattanooga went scoreless for 4:53 during the final six minutes of the first half… 0-of-8… 1-of-10 in total from the field during the stretch… allowed a one-point deficit to grow to a 42-31 halftime difference.QUOTESJamaal Walker on stringing consistency.“We gave up way too many offensive rebounds and they just wanted it way more than us tonight. We have to go back as a team and see where we aren’t clicking. We’ve had a lot of close games. We need to be more consistent.”NEXT UP – at Western Carolina – Saturday, Feb. 4 – 2:00 p.m. ET – Cullowhee, N.C. – ESPN+
