Loyola came up one win short of playing for a championship to end its 2024-25 season.
In a National Invitation Tournament semifinal Tuesday at Indianapolis’ Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Ramblers didn’t have a good answer for Chattanooga’s Trey Bonham. The Mocs senior guard scored 23 points to lead Chattanooga to an 80-73 victory over Loyola. Bonham made a fast-break dunk in the final seconds to punctuate the win.
Loyola pulled within 74-73 on senior guard Des Watson’s 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 37 seconds to play. Still trailing by one point with 1:21 left, Loyola sophomore center Miles Rubin came up with a steal, but Jayden Dawson missed a short jumper on the ensuing possession. The Ramblers didn’t score again.
Chattanooga’s Honor Huff made a 3-pointer with 35 seconds to play, and the Mocs (28-9) held on for the win.
Chattanooga will play for the NIT championship Thursday night against UC Irvine, which beat North Texas 69-67 in the first game Tuesday. The title game at Hinkle Fieldhouse starts at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Loyola ends its season 25-12, its second straight season with 23 or more wins and third in four years under coach Drew Valentine. The Ramblers were unseeded in the NIT and beat San Jose State, San Francisco and Kent State to make it to the semifinal.
Valentine told reporters at a postgame news conference he will remember this Loyola team as one that kept a “next-man-up mentality” and battled through challenges including injuries.
“Everybody thought we were dead in the water or we weren’t going to end up being the team that we were this year,” Valentine said. “For us to have 25 wins … just shows, one, why I recruit the way I do. Every offseason, everybody is like, ‘Man, how is Drew going to play all these guys?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, we need to have bodies just in case. We need depth.’ But I think the most important part this team will be remembered by is their belief in this place.”
Chattanooga made 9 of its first 14 shots in the second half, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, to pull to an eight-point lead with 11 minutes, 51 seconds to play. The Mocs lengthened that to 10 with 7:33 remaining.
But Loyola chipped away at the lead, thanks in part to two Watson 3-pointers in a span of 2:30, the latter the shot that cut it to a point.
Dawson led Loyola with 19 points and six assists, and Rubin had 14 points and six rebounds. Jalen DeLoach added 13 points off the bench.
Loyola led 38-34 at halftime after Dawson scored 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and had two assists in the half. Rubin had eight points, two rebounds and a block in the half. The Ramblers led by as many as nine points in the first half after a three-point play by DeLoach and two free throws from Sheldon Edwards Jr.
“(Chattanooga) battled us all first half long and really came out in the second half with a different level of energy — high, high level of competitiveness and want-to-win,” Valentine said. “Credit to their coach and their players. I told the group in the locker room after the game that I’m proud of what this group accomplished. I’m blessed to coach them.”
Chattanooga shot 52% from the field and had 38 points in the paint to help stage its comeback. Huff had 12 points, all on 3-pointers.
In the earlier NIT semifinal, Devin Tillis had 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead UC Irvine (32-6), and Justin Hohn had 12 points and eight assists.
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