BOX SCORE | NOTES/QUOTES

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 6, 2026) - The No. 8-seeded Chattanooga men's basketball team fell to No. 9 The Citadel, 88-85, in the opening round stage of the 2026 Southern Conference Tournament on Friday evening inside Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C.

The two sides played a back-and-forth game that featured a season-high 21 lead changes and a lead time difference of just 46 seconds. The Citadel's Sola Adebisi knocked down the game-winning three to break a tie with less than ten seconds left to lift the Bulldogs to its 88-85 victory.

Records/Series
Chattanooga 13-19
The Citadel 11-21
Chattanooga leads the all-time series 76-23… now 2-1 against The Citadel in SoCon Tournament games.

Chattanooga Leaders
G Tate Darner – 16 points, 6-9 FG and 4-7 3FG, 8 rebounds
G Jordan Frison – 16 points, 7-14 FG and 2-4 3FG, 9 assists*, 2 steals (*season high)
G Brennan Watkins - 14 points, 4-6 FG and 2-4 3FG, 4-4 FT, 4 rebounds, 2 assists

Game Breakdown

• Chattanooga opened up an early 12-7 lead behind four points from both of its interior players, Makai Richards and Collin Mulholland.

• The Citadel knocked down five of its first nine attempts from three, allowing it to take its first lead of 22-21 at the 10:51 mark.  

• As the first half moved along, triples from Frison and Darner (one of four he made in the opening 20 minutes) on back-to-back possessions gave the Mocs an eight-point lead at 35-27, leading to a Bulldogs timeout. 

• Once the game started back, The Citadel responded by scoring eight points in 1:14 of gametime to tie the game back up at 35 by the under-four media timeout.

• In the closing minutes of the first half, both teams were making shots at a high level. They combined for six triples in the closing four minutes as the score read 49-49 at the intermission. 

• The Bulldogs came out strong to begin the second half, scoring the first eight points, holding the Mocs scoreless for 3:15 of gametime. 

• Later on, a 14-3 UTC run, highlighted by consecutive Billy Smith 3-pointers, put his side back ahead at 70-69. 

• After The Citadel retook the lead for a few minutes, back-to-back layups from Chattanooga's guard duo of Frison and Teddy Washington Jr., put it up 78-75 with 4:18 remaining. 

• Frison hit two more big shots for the Mocs down the stretch, giving UTC an 85-84 lead with 1:23 left in the game. 

• With the game tied, Sola Adebisi for the Bulldogs knocked down the deciding shot, an open 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down with nine seconds remaining. He scored 26 points for the Bulldogs. On Chattanooga's final possession, Mulholland's triple from the top of the key clanked off the right rim as time expired.

Game Notables

• Chattanooga's eighth appearance in the SoCon Tournament opening round stage… now 5-3 in first round games… format began in 1993… first time dropping a first round contest since 2013.
• Chattanooga finished the game shooting 55.9% (33-of-59 FG) from the floor… fourth time over shooting north of 50% from the floor in the past five games… now 39-4 under Dan Earl (since 2022) in games shooting better than 50%.
• Chattanooga scored 80+ points for the fifth consecutive game… went just 3-2 in those five games… finished 8-2 this season when scoring 80+… now 52-7 under Dan Earl in such cases.
• G Tate Darner knocked down four threes in the opening half… second one was his 51^st 3FGM of the season… new UTC single-season freshman record… surpassed Kevin Easley's 50 in 2019… finished with 16 points and eight rebounds… season-high rebound total.

Opening Statement
Dan Earl, head coach: "Obviously, a very difficult game. Credit to The Citadel, they played really hard. They had a couple of guys step up and make shots in particular, Keynan Davis and Sola Adebisi. So give them a ton of credit on that. It was unfortunate we couldn't get stops. So it was kind of, you know, the last minute of the game was kind of like a microcosm of our season, freezer line blockout, then we couldn't grab an offensive rebound, couldn't get stops down the stretch. So it's hard. This thing comes to an end really quickly as you know, and I want to thank our seniors for giving everything they did." 

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