The Chattanooga Mocs wrapped up the home portion of the regular season with a 64-54 loss to Mercer Saturday evening. There were a total of 11 ties, a season high, and nine lead changes.
The Mocs took a 45-43 lead on a Rodney Chatman free throw with 7:41 to go. Mercer scored the next seven points before Justin Tuoyo’s 3pt from the left corner at 5:39.
It was a four-point game, 52-48, on two more Chatman free throws. Jordan Strawberry got an open look and buried a three to get the lead to seven, 55-48. The Mocs battled with layups by Tuoyo and Makinde London, but the Bears made five-for six from the free throw line to net the win.
Each team had three tally double digits with the Strawberry scoring a game-high 17 points. Tuoyo led UTC with 14, while Casey Jones and Greg Pryor chipped in 11 and 10, respectively. Pryor added six assists and four rebounds.
The Mocs were locked in defensively in the first half. They limited Mercer to just 17 points, a season low against a DI opponent. They took a 23-17 advantage into the break.
"The final chapter is not written until the end of the last game," senior Greg Pryor said. "You never know what happens. You can never call it. We're a really talented team, if we just find the heart in each other to be a team and not just basketball players playing basketball, there's no telling where we could go."
The Mocs travel to the Citadel on Monday for the final regular season game.