UC Irvine loses OT heartbreaker to Chattanooga in NIT title game

INDIANAPOLIS — One of the best seasons in the history of the UC Irvine men’s basketball program ended in heartbreak, undone by errant free throws and a point-blank miss as time expired.

Chattanooga’s Garrison Keeslar made a go-ahead jumper with 11 seconds left in overtime and UCI’s Jurian Dixon missed a short jumper at the buzzer as the Mocs defeated the Anteaters, 85-84, in the NIT championship game on Thursday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

It was a devastating end to a record-setting season, but the Anteaters did their best to keep things in perspective.

“It’s been fun,” UCI senior forward Devin Tillis said of their five-game NIT run. “Being able to play in a hard game every night, that’s something everybody lives for, to compete. Just came up short tonight.”

UCI coach Russell Turner echoed that, hopeful that his players can move past the disappointment in time.

“I know some will focus on the fact that we didn’t win any championships. That’s short-sighted and a shame,” Turner said. “I understand that from young guys and the pain they feel from falling short of their goals, but that’s a lot of what is great about sport – that you have to go through things that can give you an opportunity to grow.”

UCI center Bent Leuchten had erupted for 11 second-half points to help stave off a Chattanooga comeback in regulation. But the 7-foot-1 German’s limited defensive mobility, and his team’s offensive reliance on him on its penultimate possession proved costly.

Leuchten had been effective patrolling the paint all night, but the Mocs took advantage of his positioning late, with a pair of jump shots in the 5-minute overtime period.

UCI led 82-80 with 1:23 left, but UTC freshman forward Collin Mulholland looped around the 3-point arc for an open 3-point shot, Leuchten trailing behind. The play had worked only four times before out of 16 tries, but this one went in and changed the game.

UCI (32-7) regained the lead on a Myles Che baseline jumper with 1:13 left. Chattanooga (29-9) missed a 3-point attempt with less than a minute left, but Leuchten missed a pair of free throws with 31 seconds left. Chattanooga then took advantage of Leuchten on defense, with Keeslar converting a wide-open look near the foul line for an 85-84 lead before both teams squandered key opportunities.

With the Anteaters trailing but deciding against using any of their four remaining timeouts, Justin Hohn looked for the reliable Leuchten at the offensive end, but his pass was telegraphed and forced, and wound up in his the Mocs’ hands.

UCI was forced to foul, and Chattanooga’s Honor Huff missed two free throws with 2.7 seconds left, giving the Anteaters one final attempt.

With 2.4 seconds left, Tillis launched the ball down the court to Leuchten near the UTC free-throw line, where the big man caught it with one hand and fed an open Dixon near the basket but his shot bounced off the rim as time expired.

“There’s a lot of things that happened that affected the game tonight,” sixth-year guard Justin Hohn said of the painful finish. “Whatever happened at the end, that’s not the big picture.”

Tillis had 19 points and eight rebounds as all five UCI starters scored in double figures. Leuchten had his 20th double-double of the season (15 points, 11 rebounds), while Hohn had 17 points and six rebounds, Dixon had 16 points and five rebounds and Che had 13 points.

Hohn said his goal for the season, aside from winning the Big West Tournament, was to win 30 games as a team. The Anteaters’ 32 victories are a program record and tied for the fourth-most in the nation this season.

The Anteaters held Chattanooga to 36.8% shooting from the field, but the Mocs outscored them 42-15 from 3-point range and UCI gave away points at the free-throw line. The third-best free-throw shooting team in the nation at better than 80%, UCI shot 21 for 34 (61.8%) on Thursday, including 2 for 6 in overtime.

“The game of basketball is so tough because the reality of it is, the bounce of a ball here or there changes people’s lives, changes people’s being champions or not,” said Chattanooga coach Dan Earl, whose team was 15 for 21 at the free-throw line. “It’s an awesome game, and you learn so many lessons. It’s a very unforgiving game at times, as well. So just proud of the guys for figuring it out, and we’ll take a little luck on our side with them missing that chippy down the stretch.”

Mullholland scored 19 points for the Mocs, who tied a single-season program record for victories after winning 17 of their last 18 games to capture the program’s first postseason title. Trey Bonham (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Keeslar (14 points, 10 rebounds) each finished with a double-double.

The Anteaters – playing for their first NIT title – created a bit of separation early in the second half with a 7-0 run for a 48-40 lead.

UTC chipped away down the stretch in regulation, a comeback fueled by a pair of Keeslar 3-pointers. The Mocs eventually went ahead with 16.3 seconds left when Huff drew a controversial foul by kicking his leg out on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws for a 76-74 lead.

UCI’s Che then drew a foul of his own on the other end and went 2 for 3 at the line, leaving the score tied. Chattanooga had multiple chances to win it in the waning seconds of regulation, including a Mulholland 3-point attempt that rimmed out at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

Mulholland and Keeslar were freed up to take 30 shots by a quirk in the UCI defense, a unit which had been among the top 20 in the country, per Kenpom.

The Anteaters tend to hound their opponents’ most effective 3-point shooters while leaving others open. The calculation has often worked this season, as teams divert shots away from their stars. Earl said he was weary of that in the leadup to the game.

“You don’t want to bait yourself into just shooting it all the time,” he said after the game. “But in each huddle I was asking the assistants, ‘Hey, we got to keep letting them shoot, correct?’ And everyone’s like, ‘Yep, let’s let them go.’

“This might have been our least efficient offensive game in I can’ t even tell you how long. There was some great defense involved in this game. We were fortunate to come out on top against a very, very good UC Irvine team. They are great on both sides of the ball.”

Turner said he made several matchup changes throughout the game to stave off the Mocs’ forwards.

“They made enough shots that they were able to come out on top,” he said. “But I don’t think that that was the difference in the game.”

In a road-like environment filled with plenty of blue and gold-clad fans from a Chattanooga campus that was 400 miles away, UTC fans were fueled by UCI’s free throw misses. Still, the battle-tested Anteaters were 19-5 away from their home court this season. Turner said the misses were “uncharacteristic.”

“You can attribute that to anything or nothing,” he said when asked if the environment had an impact. “I know how badly these guys wanted to make their free throws, wanted to make every play. We didn’t make enough of them tonight, barely. If we had come out on top, we would have made just enough.

“That’s game, that’s sport, that’s basketball.”

Turner praised his team for a memorable ride.

“The team I got this year is legendary. They have left an incredible mark on me, and on our community, our athletic department, our basketball program,” Turner said. “The season became more than anybody expected it would. I think this team’s overall overachievement is what will be evident in time. It’s hard to focus on that tonight with such a difficult loss. Accomplished some amazing things this season that we’re going to try to work through this pain and focus on and hopefully be able to use this tough experience to continue to get better.”