UC Irvine Men’s Basketball (32-7, 17-3) finished their 2024-2025 season with a loss against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (29-9, 15-3) in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championship in Indianapolis, Ind. on April 3.
Chattanooga came into the night as hot as any team in college basketball. The Mocs had won 16 of their last 17, their only loss being in the Southern Conference Tournament Semifinal against Furman University.
Armed with two all-conference guards in junior Honor Huff and senior Trey Bonham, UTC ran their offense primarily through their two lead scorers. The two guards began their careers at Virginia Military Institute and eventually reunited at UT Chattanooga.
Irvine looked to their usual contributors for early offense in the first half. Redshirt-senior forward Devin Tillis looked like the veteran leader UCI has come to love in the first period, hitting on his first three attempts from deep and finishing with 13 points after 20 minutes.
Outside of Tillis and graduate guard Justin Hohn, Irvine’s offense stalled early, a trend that has plagued the Anteaters throughout their postseason run. Most notably, Irvine senior center Bent Leuchten was largely kept off the box score in the first half. Leuchten finished with just two points on five shot attempts in the first period.
During a halftime interview with ESPN, UCI head coach Russell Turner spoke about what his team needed to do to come out on top against Chattanooga, including putting his larger players, such as Leuchten, in a position to dominate against the much smaller Mocs.
“We need to assert ourselves around the rim with our bigger and what should be more powerful players. We didn’t do that very well in the first half, but it’s a long game,” Turner said to ESPN’s Ashley ShahAhmadi.
A half with multiple ties and lead changes ended fittingly — Irvine sophomore guard Myles Che found Tillis in a tight slip-pass window to give UCI a lead, but Chattanooga got a 45-foot three to go at the buzzer from Bonham to end the half with the lead, 38-37.
After the hit, Bonham put his phone to his ear in a “telephone” motion, signaling you can call him any time for a three. Conversely, after Tillis’ makes early in the first half, he could be seen making the same hand gesture but putting the telephone down.
Postgame, Tillis spoke about the gamesmanship between himself and the Mocs.
UCI responded to Turner’s pleas for more aggressiveness to open the half. Leuchten, Hohn and Tillis all got layups in the first few minutes of the half to open up a five-point Anteater lead.
All night, Irvine was willing to sag back on Chattanooga redshirt freshman forward Collin Mulholland’s shot attempts to allow Leuchten to muck up the Moc’s driving and passing lanes. Early, the Canadian native seemed poised to punish UCI’s lax coverage, hitting his first two threes of the night. Mulholland was streaky throughout the game — after his initial success he missed eight straight threes, then hit on two more. He finished the night with 19 points on 19 shots, fouling out in overtime.
Irvine picked up offensive steam in the second half, going to various players to create quality shots. Redshirt freshman guard Jurian Dixon, Tillis, Leuchten, Che and Hohn all put tough shots in to keep UCI in the lead for most of the second half.
Chattanooga weathered the offensive storm, pushing back on each UC Irvine run. Forcing turnovers on Leuchten and Tillis, the Mocs used their defense as offense, getting out in transition for easy scores.
A game with 10 lead changes ended in the drama that followed the matchup all night — the two teams traded three-point fouls, with Bonham making all three of his attempts and Che making two of his three.
Mulholland had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but missed the layup. After a scramble for the loose ball ended in possession going back to Chattanooga, Mulholland got another attempt but missed the three.
Tied at 76, the NIT Championship went to overtime.
A back-and-forth overtime period mirrored the regulation time dogfight between the two mid-majors. Irvine held leads at multiple points, but could never separate. After Che made a midrange jumper to give UCI an 84-83 lead, UTC senior guard/forward Garrison Keeslar found himself wide open at the free-throw line for two.
The Mocs never relinquished the lead.
Hohn turned the ball over on an entry pass to Leuchten, forcing an Anteater foul to save the clock. Huff missed both freethrows, giving UCI a chance to win the game, only down one with just over two seconds to go.
After a pair of timeouts by both teams, Tillis threw a baseball pass down the court to Leuchten, who then found Dixon for a wide-open layup. The layup, a right-side floater, rimmed out and UC Irvine lost its first game since dropping the Big West Championship to UC San Diego on March 15.
Freethrows broke the Anteaters, missing tries at the line all night long. A team that shot 79% on freethrow attempts coming into the night shot 61% in the NIT Championship.
Irvine’s season ends in absolute heartbreak after a country-leading 19 road/neutral site wins and a program record-breaking 32 victories.
Postgame, Turner spoke about the feelings after watching the end of perhaps the most successful season in UCI Men’s Basketball history.
“I think the season became more than anybody expected it would. I think this team’s overall achievement will be what was remembered,” Turner said at the postgame press conference.
Irvine now looks to the 2025-2026 season and a Big West Conference where they are expected to be favored, especially following the departure of former head coach Eric Olen from UC San Diego’s program.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor