UTC’s Trey Bonham sparked UTC’s last win on the road at ETSU with 17-second half points.
photo by Casey Crigger/GoMocs.com
The Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball team aims for its fourth-straight Southern Conference road victory heading into a Wednesday night matchup at Western Carolina inside the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
Chattanooga (13-8, 5-3 SoCon) is coming off an impressive 71-63 road victory at in-state rival ETSU on Saturday after trailing by as much as 12 in the first half. Currently holding the tiebreaker, UTC is in a three-way tie with ETSU and Wofford for third in the SoCon standings, trailing UNCG (6-2) by a single game and Samford (7-1) by two.
Western Carolina (6-13, 2-6 SoCon) looks to keep its momentum after picking up an 80-78 overtime victory at The Citadel on Saturday afternoon in Charleston, S.C. Despite the victory, the Catamounts have struggled a bit in the first half of SoCon play under head coach Tim Craft, who is in his first season at WCU after spending the previous 10 seasons at Gardner-Webb.
STORY LINES
WESTERN CAROLINA RECENT RESULTS: WCU (6-13, 2-6 SoCon) is coming off its second league victory of the season after outlasting The Citadel, 80-78, in overtime on Saturday afternoon in Charleston, S.C.
The Catamounts’ first SoCon win of the season was an 85-82 home win over Mercer back on January 12. Outside of a 77-69 road loss at Wofford, WCU’s average margin of defeat in league play losses stands at 23.8 points.
SERIES HISTORY: Chattanooga and WCU will square off for the 104th time. UTC holds the overall edge at 71-32. WCU won the last meeting 82-63 in McKenzie Arena on 3/2/24. The Mocs are 4-6 in its last 10 trips to Cullowhee after earning a 91-85 win last season to move to 24-23 all-time at WCU.
BONHAM TAKES OVER IN SECOND HALF... AGAIN: Preseason SoCon Player of the Year Trey Bonham scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half during Saturday’s win at ETSU. He went 6-10 from the field (5-5 FT) in the second half alone to help keep UTC ahead in the waning moments. Bonham has reached double figures in the second half three times in SoCon play this season and seven in total for the season.
HONOR HUFF MOVING UP UTC’S ALL-TIME RANKS: Junior sharpshooter Honor Huff continues to climb UTC’s all-time 3-pointer ranks with another efficient season from behind the arc. Huff’s 169 made 3-pointers in a UTC uniform is currently 7th all-time, just five shy of tying AJ Caldwell (2018-23) and Tim Parker (2000-03) for 5th (174). Huff has made at least one 3-pointer in 12-straight games while his 60 for the season is currently 34th in NCAA DI.