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Chattanooga earns revenge over UNCG on the road to wrap up SoCon regular season title

It’s almost March, which means conference regular season titles are being wrapped up and conference tournaments are right around the corner. Chattanooga got its hands on its first SoCon regular season title since 2021-22 on Thursday night, taking down UNCG on the road 75-63. The Mocs fell at home to the Spartans in early January, but have come a long way since that loss, winning 13 of 14 and the last ten in a row.

In Thursday’s victory, it was the Mocs’ star-studded backcourt leading the way once again. Bash Wieland (14.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg) finished with 18 points on an efficient 6-of-7 performance from the field, while Trey Bonham (13.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg) added 16 points and Honor Huff (14.2 ppg, 40.7% 3P) added 15 of his own. Each of the trio had a bucket late in the first half as the Mocs flipped a four-point deficit to a three-point halftime lead and again came up big halfway through the second half to stretch the lead up to 14 in an eventual 12-point win.

Wieland, Bonham, and Huff make up one of the best backcourt trios in mid-major basketball and make this Chattanooga squad a scary draw for anyone in the NCAA Tournament if the Mocs win the SoCon Tournament. Added to the trio of talented guards is former Division II All-American Frank Champion (11.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.7 apg) in the frontcourt, the leading rebounder and assister on the team. This team has plenty of talent, proving it in the non-conference with close losses at Saint Mary’s and Indiana, and now everything has clicked over the last month and a half.

Riding its ten-game win streak into the conference tournament, the Mocs will still have their hands full, as the SoCon’s top six teams all reside between 104th and 152nd on KenPom. Without a bracket yet, it’s hard to predict what happens in the SoCon Tournament, but as we’ve seen in the past with SoCon teams like Samford, Furman, and Chattanooga, the winner can go toe-to-toe with whichever four or five seed it matches up with in the NCAA Tournament.

The Mocs wrap up the regular season on the road against VMI on Saturday, while Samford and UNCG will go head-to-head in Greensboro to decide who earns the conference’s two seed before all ten teams in the SoCon head to Asheville for the tournament at the Cherokee Center.

Other Things to Note:

• Nimari Burnett’s buzzer-beater lifts #15 Michigan past Rutgers at the buzzer 84-82
• #23 Saint Mary’s holds off Loyola Marymount on the road 58-55 for sixth straight win
• North Texas and UAB each pick up crucial road wins to improve to 12-3 in AAC play
• UC San Diego improves to 25-4 behind a 20-point night from Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones against CSUN
• #20 Purdue looks to snap four-game skid as it hosts UCLA (8:00 ET, FOX)