Chattanooga Prevails to capture Men’s NIT Championship

Chattanooga Prevails to capture Men’s NIT Championship

by: Steven Stremming/Excel H Sports/USBWA

photos by: Tony Harper/Indiana Sports Network

The Chattanooga Moccasins prevailed, when a last second UC Irvine layup hit the side of the rim and dropped to the floor creating pandemonium for the Chattanooga faithful, as they claimed the 2025 NIT Men’s Championship.

The night started off at the Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse with a large contingent of Chattanooga fans and an impressive fan base from UC Irvine gathered outside the facility waiting to get in and get the action going.

Once everyone was seated, the officials brought to the floor, the awesome rendition of our National Anthem the fireworks began as Chattanooga shot their way to an early lead.

The Anteaters didn’t settle for any of that and came back to be down by a point, at eight to seven. Funny how eight and one point became such a factor in the game in its later stages.

The largest lead of the night for Chattanooga was that eight point burst from the tip-off till the 17:58 mark in the first half and the largest lead of the night for UC Irvine was again, eight points at the 14:07 mark in the second half and we will get to that single point reference in a bit.

In a game fitting for its place in NIT history (the first championship game in overtime since 2017 with Florida and Stanford) every possession had meaning, every free throw attempt had purpose and in the final seconds of overtime those factors became even more crucial.

Back and forth we went all night long between two goliaths neither one giving an inch of floor space to their opponent.

Honor Huff

UTC’s Honor Huff hit three quarters of the floor three to give the Moccasins a narrow one-point advantage at the halftime intermission 38 to 37 after UC Irvine’s Sophomore, Myles Che had secured a go-ahead basket a moment sooner.

Myles Che

The second half was no friend to anyone’s blood pressure as both teams battled and neither team giving an inch.

The second half ended not quite as the first half did but this time UC Irvine had the one-point advantage, tying the score at 76 to 76 forcing an extra amount time to be played.

Devin Tillis

It all came down to the last seconds as UTC missed a shot, after a series of time-outs UC Irvine’s Devin Tillis threw a court long pass to Bent Leuchten who shoveled a pass to Dixon, who hit off the side of the rim giving UTC the coveted NIT Championship and trophy.

Ben Leuchten

For the game, UTC was led by Collin Muholland  and Trey Bonham’s nineteen points with both Garrison Keeslar and Honor Huff’s fourteen points apiece.

Collin Mulholland

Trey Bonham

UC Irvine was led by Devin Tillis’ 19 points followed by Justin Hohn’s 17, Jurian Dixon’s 16, Bent Leuchten’s 17 and Myles Che’s 13.

Justin Hohn

  Jurian Dixon

Interesting information from the game were the facts, UC Irvine won the war in the paint 42 points to 20 while UTC scored 17 points to UC Irvine’s 12 on second chance points.

UC Irvine hit on 29 of 62 shots from the field, were five of sixteen from deep but managed only to, unchararestically sink only 21 of 34 free throw attempts. UC Irvine pulled down 44 rebounds while UTC hauled in 40.

UTC handed out 18 assists on their 26 made field goals while UC Irvine assisted on 12 of their 29 made field goals.

All in all, solid and memorable years for both institutions!