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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College men’s basketball team was defeated 84-77 by Chattanooga on Thursday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena. Wofford had an eleven point lead early in the second half, but a 13-0 run by the Mocs late in the game was the difference.

Wofford is 9-11 overall and 5-6 in the conference, while Chattanooga is 11-12 overall and 7-5 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Junior Salters with 18 points, including 6-of-8 from three, Tim Johnson with 13 points and five rebounds, and Kevin Giltner with ten points. The Mocs were led by Ty Patterson with 23 points as five players scored in double-figures. Khalil Hartwell led all rebounders with eleven.

“We could not get the things that we needed to get without Dahlman,” said head coach Mike Young. “We could not put them away in the second half. We were able to go up ten or twelve points and I thought we were pretty good offensively, but obviously we did not do the things we needed to do on the defensive end. We need to dust ourselves off and get back at it for Saturday when we play Samford.”

The Terriers jumped out to an early 9-0 lead after a three pointer by Brad Loesing and two threes from Junior Salters at the 17:19 mark. A three pointer by Matt Estep pushed the Wofford lead to 21-9 with 12:27 left in the first half. Additional threes by Corey Godzinski and Junior Salters kept the lead at ten points with 8:42 remaining.

Chattanooga pulled within four points at 27-23 at 7:37, but the lead was quickly back to 35-25 after a couple more threes from Salters. Wofford had an eleven points lead after a three from Kevin Giltner with 1:26 left in the half, but two late threes from Jasper Williams made it a 44-37 lead for the Terriers at the half. In the first twenty minutes, both teams made over 60% from behind the arc and combined for 20 three pointers.

In the second half, Wofford pushed the lead to eleven points just two minutes into play at 50-39 after a lay-up by Terry Martin. Five minutes later at the 12:54 mark, the Terrier lead was down to only three points at 55-52. Wofford made it a seven point game at 7:51 after a basket from Terry Martin.

With five minutes on the clock, Wofford had a 70-64 lead after a bucket from Corey Godzinski. Over the next four minutes, the Mocs would go on a 13-0 run to take a 77-70 lead with just 42 seconds left in the game. A key factor in the run was the Mocs making 9-of-9 free throws. A three by Corey Godzinski with 34 seconds left ended the run, but more free throws down the stretch sealed the 84-77 comeback win for Chattanooga.

Wofford shot 49.1% from the floor and 55.6% from three. The Terriers were 58.8% from the line. The Mocs shot 57.8% from the floor and 57.9% from behind the arc. Chattanooga was 70.0% from the free throw line. Wofford was out rebounded 37-26 and had a season-low nine turnovers.

Noah Dahlman did not play due to injury. Corey Godzinski was back in the line-up after missing seven games due to injury. Terry Martin and Junior Salters both fouled out in the game for the Terriers. Wofford had 15 three-pointers in the game, the most this season and the most since hitting 17 against Chattanooga last season (1/3/08).

The Terriers will be at home next Saturday, as they host Samford at 7:00 pm as part of a doubleheader with the women’s team which hosts Furman. Wofford will host Davidson on February 12 after a road trip to UNC Greensboro on February 9. The Davidson game is sold-out.