Chattanooga beats Western Carolina in SoCon tourney 73-69

Mar 6, 2016, 09:58 pm

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Greg Pryor scored 16 points and top-seeded Chattanooga edged No. 5 seed Western Carolina 73-69 on Sunday in a Southern Conference tournament semifinal.

The Mocs (28-5) broke the school record for wins in a season and will face second-seeded East Tennessee in the title game on Monday night.

Western Carolina led early, but Chattanooga closed the gap with a 7-1 spurt near the end of the first half and it was tied at 36 at intermission.

A 12-2 run at the start of the second half -- including consecutive 3-pointers by Pryor and Dee Oldham -- pushed the Mocs' lead to 55-42. The Catamounts clawed back and cut the deficit to three on Torrion Brummitt's layup with 1:01 left and to two on Justin Browning's layup with four seconds to go, but ran out of time.

Chuck Ester added 13 points for Chattanooga.

Brummitt led Western Carolina (16-17) with 23 points. Mike Brown had 19 and Browning added 14 points and 11 boards.