For the 13th time this season, the Chattanooga Mocs hit road for an away game on Wednesday night.
For the 13th time, they returned with a loss.
This time it was Appalachian State. The Mountaineers rolled past the Mocs in a 79-70 victory at the Holmes Center that saw the UTC starters benched for most of the second half.
Chattanooga fell to 10-18 overall and 4-11 in the Southern Conference.
The Mocs trailed by as many as 22 points in the second half before coach John Shulman’s reserves cut the ASU lead down to nine with two minutes remaining.
The rally fell well short.
Backup guards Dontay Hampton (17 points) and Ronrico White (16) both notched career highs in points for UTC. Drazen Zlovaric (12 points) was the only starter to finish in double digits, while the others — Keegan Bell, Ricky Taylor, Omar Wattad and Jahmal Burroughs — were a combined 5-for-27 from the field. The Mocs shot 26.5 percent (9 of 34) from the field in the first half and went 6-for-25 for the game from behind the arc.
Mike Neal scored a game-high 23 points for ASU (11-15, 7-9), which shot 45.8 percent from the field. Isaac Butts pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds in 23 minutes and made a pair of free throws to give the Mountaineers their largest lead, 52-31, with 15:47 left in the second half.
The Mocs, losers of nine of their last 10 games, will face The Citadel (4-21, 1-13) on Saturday at McKenzie Arena.
