UTC’s Collin Mulholland cradles the basketball as Furman players celebrate a victory.
photo by Ray Soldano/GoMocs.com
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - This wasn’t the way things were supposed to end for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team.
After winning the Southern Conference regular season title in impressive fashion to enter the SoCon Tournament as the No. 1 seed, three days inside the Harrah’s Cherokee Center was to serve as a coronation to validate what the Mocs had already proven over the past two months, a mere exercise of formality.
But Furman’s Nick Anderson and PJay Smith obviously did not get a copy of the script that was to advance the Mocs into the Field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the potent pair of Paladin guards opted to write their own ending, and it didn’t bode well for Chattanooga.
Anderson and Smith combined to score 22 of Furman’s final 23 points in Sunday’s semifinal showdown, propelling the 5th-seeded Paladins to an 80-77 victory to secure a spot in Monday’s championship final against Wofford.
Chattanooga (24-9) suffered a heartbreaking loss in the semis for the second straight year, the defeat made even more difficult to swallow after sweeping the Paladins in the regular season. The Mocs do expect to receive a bid into the National Invitational Tournament that will allow their season to extend, but it didn’t serve as a consolation in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss.
UTC was again without the services of second-team all-conference forward Frank Champion following an injury earlier in the week. But junior guard Honor Huff led an inspired effort for the short-handed Mocs by scoring 28 points including makes on 8-of-11 3-point attempts to set a new school record in tournament play.
But it wasn’t enough, as the Mocs were unable to capitalize on a final second shot to win in regulation and Trey Bonham’s long-range heave to send the game into a second overtime misfired.
“It's hard, but that’s sports for you, the highs and lows,” UTC head coach Dan Earl said. “You have injuries like Frank Champion, and I feel for him as much as anybody to not be out there giving it his all. This is obviously a low. We wanted to get to the NCAA tournament. We were the No. 1 seed. We played really well throughout the season, and then this is a tough spot. We’ve got the NIT, but that wasn't the ultimate goal. So we'll turn the page, and then some point soon as well, we'll reflect on the season and these guys. They've been awesome to coach.”
Furman (25-8) never trailed in the overtime period, and were held to a lone basket in the extra frame. But the Paladins were true on 8-of-10 free throws to build a four-point edge with Bonham at the line with 3.5 seconds remaining. After making the first, Bonham intentionally missed the second and the Mocs had a faint pulse when the rebound went out of bounds off Furman. But after receiving the in-bounds pass near midcourt, the senior guard was unable to pull off the miracle with his desperation 3-pointer.
In a contest that featured a series of momentum-shifting runs for both teams, Chattanooga seemed to be poised to finally seize control in the final minutes. The Mocs held Furman scoreless for more than five minutes, overcoming an eight-point deficit with 12 consecutive points to lead 59-55 with just over six minutes remaining.
But Anderson, who finished with 23 points, scored eight straight for the Paladins including a pair of 3-pointers to again give Furman the lead at 65-64.
Consecutive threes from Huff again gave Chattanooga what seemed to be a comfortable 70-65 cushion with 1:33 left, only to have Smith drain a 3-pointer followed by a step-back jumper after a Moc turnover to tie the game with 24 seconds left in regulation.
Chattanooga called a timeout to set up a potential game-winning play, but Bonham’s driving layup attempt was blocked to force extra time.
Smith, who finished with 25 points on the day, scored four points in overtime on free throws, and Anderson scored five points on the Paladins lone basket plus three free throws to give Furman its third championship game appearance in the last four years.
“Credit to Furman and Coach (Bob) Richey and what they did today, what they've done over the last two days and this season,” Earl said. “They are a very good basketball team. Obviously, Smith and Anderson are unbelievable players, but they're a team, and they know their roles and they play the right way. So hats off to them.
“I thought we fought throughout. This was not a lack of being competitive or fighting. We just picked a bad day to not have our best game. We missed some two-point shots, had some uncharacteristic turnovers, and not as many assists as we usually have. Stuff like that happens, but our guys should hold their heads high.”
Chattanooga parlayed a 13-0 run in the first half to build an early 16-9 lead thanks to a trio of Huff 3-pointers, only to see Furman later respond with 13 straight points of its own to grab a six-point advantage in the latter stages of the first half.
Huff scored eight straight points for the Mocs as part of his 17-point first half outburst to spark UTC to a four-point lead just before intermission, but Smith – who had 14 points of his own in the opening stanza – connected on a 3-pointer in the waning moments to give Chattanooga a 35-34 edge at intermission.
Multiple second-chance opportunities for Furman early in the second half enabled them to go on an 8-0 burst to grab a 49-41 advantage, and the Paladins maintained that margin until the Mocs 12-0 surge set the stage for the thrilling final minutes.
In seeing the top-seeded team fail to capture the tournament title for the first time in eight years, Furman’s Richey was proud of his squad’s ability to pull off the upset after starting the season 12-1 in non-conference play and finishing the SoCon regular season with an 11-7 mark.
“It's been an unbelievable year in a lot of ways with this group, and I just give glory to God for allowing me to lead it,” Richey said. “We had a tough day in this building a year ago in a lot of ways. We had a lot of things that we went through as a program the last 12 months. Sometimes life is challenging, and you got to endure and you got to push through. But this team has been written off time and time again. Nobody had us winning this game.
“No team in the Southern Conference has as many wins as this group. But everybody wants to talk about everybody else for some reason, and that's fine. But this team has embraced that, and the reason they've embraced that is because of the hard we went through in the spring when Twitter world thought that everybody was leaving our program, and we had no players. Well, we had players, and, more importantly, we had values, and we knew what we were built on as a program. I've been able to coach with a tremendous peace this this weekend, because there's no pressure. We have purpose.”
Bash Wieland finished with 16 points for Chattanooga while pulling down a team-high eight rebounds and two steals, while Bonham added 14 points and five rebounds. Garrison Keeslar led the Mocs with four assists to complement his five rebounds snagged and two blocked shots.
Garrett Hein joined Anderson and Smith in double figures for the Paladins with 10 points.
In a contest that featured 16 lead changes and ten ties, UTC shot 44% (28-of-64) from the floor and 44% (11-of-25) beyond the arc. Furman finished at 47% (27-of-57) on field goals and 43% (12-of-28) from 3-point range.
Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com