Mocs Travel To ETSU Seeking Atonement On Saturday

  • Friday, January 24, 2025
  • Paul Payne
UTC guard Jack Kostel drives the ball in Thursday's Samford game
UTC guard Jack Kostel drives the ball in Thursday's Samford game
photo by Trevor Jolley/GoMocs.com

As the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team moves past Thursday night’s lost opportunity to take down defending champion and Southern Conference leader Samford, they have little time to ruminate over that disappointing loss.

Ahead of them lies a Saturday trip to Johnson City to take on an improved ETSU squad that managed to end Samford’s 28-game home winning streak last Saturday with a 65-60 win over the Bulldogs. The Bucs have won four of their last five games, and are 12-8 overall and 5-2 in SoCon play.

Large momentum swings have been the theme of the Mocs last three contests. UTC was able to overcome deficits of 20 and 16 in wins over Wofford and Furman. The pendulum swung the other direction on Thursday, though, as Chattanooga was outscored by Samford 47-27 in the final 21 minutes of action.

As the Mocs digest how a 16-point lead over Samford dissolved into a 73-69 loss inside McKenzie Arena, hopefully their focus will turn to settling a score inflicted by ETSU that abruptly ended last season. In the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament in Asheville, Chattanooga saw a 20-point advantage evaporate in the game’s final 14 minutes before falling in overtime, 85-84.

No doubt, there is a measure of atonement that UTC (12-8, 4-3 SoCon) hopes to exact against the Bucs inside Freedom Hall where the game is slated to tip at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

This will be the 102nd meeting between the two schools with Chattanooga owning a 54-47 edge all-time. The Mocs lead 40-26 in SoCon encounters, as the two schools established a spirited rivalry dating back to the days when they both joined the league in the late 1970s.

ETSU claimed six of the first seven meetings before UTC went on a 16-1 run that lasted from 1982-88. The Mocs were a nemesis for their in-state rivals, twice ending their season when the conference tournament was held in Charleston, W.V. as Murray Arnold led Chattanooga to its first three NCAA Tournament appearances in Division I.

The Bucs were able to put together a 10-game winning streak over the Mocs from 2017-20, and Chattanooga has managed to have the upper hand lately by winning 7 of 10 including the last four times they visited Johnson City.

ETSU features the top two scorers in the SoCon in Quimari Peterson (18.1 points per game) and Jaden Seymour (17.5). John Buggs III is averaging 12.0 points per outing and ranks 17th nationally in 3-point percentage at a 44.2% success rate. Seymour is coming off a career-high 34 points in the Bucs 85-58 win over Western Carolina on Wednesday.

Chattanooga enters the game with three scorers averaging double figures, led by Bash Wieland’s 13.6. Close behind are Trey Bonham (13.2) and Honor Huff (13.0), while Frank Champion scores at a 9.8 points per game clip.

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com

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