By Justin Mathis (@J_Math23)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Citadel let it fly, and the shots kept falling.
The Bulldogs (11-21) turned the three-point line into their biggest weapon Friday night in the Southern Conference tournament quarterfinals against Chattanooga. Behind a barrage from downtown, The Citadel outlasted the Mocs for a thrilling 88-85 victory.
Both sides emerged from the halftime break deadlocked at 49, but the Bulldogs wasted little time, using a 9-0 run in the first three minutes of the second stanza to build a 66-56 advantage at the 14:14 mark.
During the flurry, Braxton Williams buried a jumper, Christian Moore drained back-to-back triples, and Eze Wali added a bucket of his own. Chattanooga charged back as Collin Mulholland finished strong at the rim, Jordan Frison hit from midrange, and Billy Smith canned two shots from long distance for a 70-69 Mocs lead.
Over the next 10 minutes of regulation, the sides traded the lead five different times and tied once. Sola Adebisi and Dante Kearse pushed the Bulldogs ahead 73-70, only to see Mulholland, Frison, and Teddy Washington, Jr. stake the Mocs to a 78-75 lead with 4:18 left.
“Credit to The Citadel,” stated Chattanooga head coach Dan Earl. “They played extremely hard. They had a couple guys step up and make shots, in particular (Keynan) Davis and Adebisi, so give them a ton of credit for doing that. It was unfortunate we couldn't get stops. The last minute of the game was kind of a microcosm of our season: A free-throw line blockout, couldn't grab it, and couldn't grab an offensive rebound. We couldn't get stops down the stretch, so it's hard. This thing comes to an end really quickly, as you know, and I want to thank our seniors for giving everything they did.”
A thunderous Adebisi slam off a baseline inbounds play pulled The Citadel within a point, only for Smith to swish a triple and push it back to four on the ensuing Chattanooga possession. Williams drained a triple and Carter Kingsbury went up strong in the paint for an 82-81 Bulldog lead, but Frison quickly responded with a jumper to reclaim the advantage for the Mocs.
Moore hit a shot from the top of the lane for a one point Citadel cushion, but it was short-lived as Frison answered again for Chattanooga with a basket for an 85-84 lead with 1:23 left.
On the next-to-last possession of the contest, Williams drove along the left baseline, then quickly turned around and fired to Adebisi for a wide open triple from the left wing with 7.7 seconds left, staking the Bulldogs to an 88-85 lead.
“I knew once Braxton got the ball, (Chattanooga) would put two on him,” Adebisi recalled. “He’s our leading scorer and teams look to shut him down all the time, especially at the end of the game. He was able to play behind and find me for the open shot. I just shot with confidence because my teammates trust me.”
Chattanooga called a timeout with three seconds left, but a three-point try went begging and the Bulldogs outdueled the Mocs for a quarterfinal win.
In the win, Adebisi’s go-ahead trey set a new Bulldog program record for most 3-pointers in a SoCon Tournament game with 15. Keynan Davis also tied the individual program SoCon tournament record with six made three-pointers.
“(It comes) with all the reps we get in practice,” Davis stated about his performance. “All my teammates are looking for me, trying to get me open by setting screens and other things. Obviously after a few of them, you’re going to start feeling good.”
“It’s honestly great,” exclaimed Adebisi about the record-breaking shot. “During practice, we get a ton of reps with our three-point shots. It’s really nice to be able to shoot it with confidence and knock them down when it matters the most in the tournament.”
For The Citadel head coach Ed Conroy, that consistency started with something his team had to learn over time throughout this season.
“It’s been a little bit of a struggle,” Conroy admitted. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of similar pieces that helps us be effective, but we don’t necessarily have a dominant low post threat or a guy that’s just a creator. We have several guys that are good basketball players. It’s been a struggle all year to get to where we can share the basketball. We had a really bad performance here in a November game against Presbyterian. We were learning how to take care of the ball.”
“As we went into January, we started taking care of the ball better, especially down the stretch in games when they really seemed to lock in. Even though we lost some games in February, we started realizing how we could share it and get some assists. We had 18 assists tonight. That was the consistency I was looking for – can we share it all night for 40 minutes? We did and sure enough, the shots went in.”
This marks the 17th SoCon tournament win for The Citadel in program history, and first since 2022, when the Bulldogs beat ETSU in overtime. Adebisi led all scorers with a game-high 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting, along with seven rebounds. Williams tallied 17 points, followed by Davis with 20 points and Moore with 14 points. As a team, the Bulldogs were 15 for 31 from long distance, 32 for 59 from the floor, and won the bench scoring category 22-21. Next up for The Citadel is a matchup with top seed ETSU at noon on Saturday.
Chattanooga saw five players finish in double figures, led by Frison and Tate Darner with 16 points apiece. Brennan Watkins tallied 14 points, followed by Mulholland with 12 points and Washington with 10 points. The Mocs outscored the Bulldogs 14-9 in points off turnovers and 34-32 in points in the paint. Chattanooga finishes the 2025-26 season at 13-19 overall.
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