SoCon Friday Review

Chattanooga 83, Western Carolina 73

Key Stat: Mocs 45% OR, Catamounts 34% OR. The Mocs and Catamounts were the two leading offensive rebounding teams in the SoCon. They each did a good job on the boards. The Mocs though, did a significantly better job than Western Carolina on the glass. That was one of the major reasons the Mocs came up with the win.

Player of the Game: Gee McGhee. McGhee collected 15 rebounds and scored 16 points. McGhee made 5 of 11 from the floor. He made 1 of 2 from three point range. He made 5 of 6 from the free throw line. His fifteen rebounds were huge as well. He also collected five assists. McGhee may have had the best game of his career in a lot of ways.

What It All Means: For Western Carolina, Sunday's game at UNCG just became unbelievably big. They are playing the Spartans, the team down two games to them in the standings. If UNCG wins, Western will be up just one game for the final bye. The Catamounts looked good at times, but could not knock down enough shots tonight to come up with a win. For Chattanooga, this win means their magic number is one for locking down a bye in the SoCon Tournament. Any win by the Mocs or loss by UNCG clinches a bye for the Mocs. Beyond the bye, the Mocs are hoping to clinch a second or third seed at least. They now hold the tiebreaker on Elon and Wofford, who are two games and one and a half games back, respectively. The Mocs needed to stop the bleeding, and they dominated this game during the first half of each half, before letting the Catamounts back in both times. The Mocs have off until next Thursday, when they host Georgia Southern. That game will matter a lot to the Mocs chances of getting the two or three seed. The Mocs will get the chance to watch Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday as the season progresses.