STATESBORO, Ga.. --- The Chattanooga Mocs (2-5/0-1) dropped an 84-76 decision in its Southern Conference opener at Georgia Southern (2-4/1-0) in Hanner Fieldhouse. UTC saw its furious late comeback fall short in the end.

Ricky Taylor (Brownsville, Tenn.) scored 12 of his team-high 16 in the second half. Ten of the 12 came in a three-minute spurt that saw the Mocs cut a 16-point deficit to six just inside a minute to play.

Taylor started his run off a nice feed from Omar Wattad (Johnson City, Tenn.) with 3:44 left to make it 72-58. Tre Bussey responded for GSU, but the Mocs began to pick up momentum as Taylor drained his first three-pointer of the game on UTC"s next possession.

Back-to-back layups by Keegan Bell (Huntsville, Ala.) and Lance Stokes (Orlando, Fla.) cut it to six as Stokes' basket made it 80-74 with 49 seconds remaining. Down eight, 82-74, after two Willie Powers free throws, the Mocs' Dontay Hampton (Chattanooga, Tenn.) had his three-pointer waved off after an official called him for being out of bounds upon receiving the pass. The Eagles held on for the eight-point win from there.

Wattad and Drazen Zlovaric (Novi Sad, Serbia) each added 11 points for Chattanooga. One positive was the play from the bench which out-scored its counterparts 31-15. Stokes had eight, Hampton seven and Ronrico White (Knoxville, Tenn.) six in leading the reserves.

GSU was led by Jelani Hewitt and Ben Drayton with 20 points apiece. Eric Ferguson added 17 points with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

It was a nip-and-tuck game early until a 6-0 mini-run gave the Eagles a 27-18 lead on a Drayton layup at 8:08. The Mocs answered with a 9-2 run of their own as Hampton scored all seven of his points over a 1:12 stretch to slice the lead to two at 5:34.

Hewitt and Drayton combined for three three-pointers in the last four-plus minutes to send Georgia Southern into the break with an 11-point cushion, 42-31. Early in the second half the Mocs tried to make runs only to see the Eagles answer.

Both teams shot impressively from the floor. Chattanooga had a season-best 50 percent shooting night making 62.1 percent (18-29) in the second stanza. The Eagles' 51.7 percent performance was a season-high by an opponent with 11 three-pointers made, six by Hewitt in eight attempts.

The Mocs were beat 35-30 on the boards despite Chris Early's (Huntington, W.Va.) game-high seven. GSU claimed 13 on the offensive end resulting in 19 second chance points. Fourteen of the 19 second chance tallies came in the first half.

Chattanooga continues on the road in league play Saturday afternoon at College of Charleston. The game tips off at 4 p.m., and can be seen on ESPN3.com  Follow @GoMocs on twitter for stats and notes in game and go to GoMocs.com for links to live audio and stats as well as post-game information.