The Mocs were playing without two of their top players tonight. Starting senior forward Jahmal Burroughs (New Orleans, La.) and sophomore forward Z. Mason (Nashville, Tenn.) were both sidelined with injuries.

Despite being shorthanded, UTC played well for most of the night. Senior guard Keegan Bell (Huntsville, Ala.) broke out of a prolonged shooting slump by scoring the Mocs' first seven points. He had 10 points in the first eight minutes of play as UTC built a 16-9 lead.

Sophomore Drew Baker (Knoxville, Tenn.) added to the early run, coming off the bench for four quick points in place of Burroughs and Mason. He threw down a tip-dunk in traffic that got the season-high crowd of 4,170 on their feet.

Georgia Southern was playing a tough man-to-man defense, but the Mocs were able to run the floor. Junior Drazen Zlovaric (Novi Sad, Serbia) repeatedly beat defenders to finish with 10 points and eight boards in the game's first 20 minutes.

The Mocs were also playing tough defense of their own, holding the Eagles to 9-26 (34.6%) shooting in the first half. UTC carried a 10-point, 36-26, lead into the break.

Georgia Southern looked like they would get back in the game quickly, hitting five of their first seven shots after halftime. All five of those buckets were off assists as they started to move the ball against the Chattanooga defense.

The Eagles' Trey Bussey hit a three at the 17:01 mark to cut the lead to 42-38. The Mocs responded with a 16-4 run over the next five minutes to seemingly put the game out of reach. Freshman Ronrico White (Knoxville, Tenn.) hit back-to-back threes - one in the corner on a drive-and-dish by Bell and the other on a feed from junior Dontay Hampton (Chattanooga, Tenn.) after he rebounded his own miss - that extended the lead to 56-42 with 12:39 on the clock.

White found Zlovaric for another score to give the Mocs their largest lead at 58-42 with 12:03 left to play. From that point on, Georgia Southern started to slowly chip away at the lead and the Mocs' shooting went cold. Chattanooga went 5-13 from the field and 0-4 from 3-pt. range the rest of the way, compounded by seven turnovers in the final 10 minutes.

Georgia Southern took its first lead of the game, 70-68, when Eric Ferguson hit a three with 2:56 left. The Eagle's largest lead would be the final three-point margin.

Chattanooga tied it at 70 when senior Ricky Taylor (Brownsville, Tenn.) made a driving layup with 2:33 on the clock. He repeated the play just over a minute later to give the Mocs a 72-70 lead with 1:07 left. Hewitt nailed a jumper with 41 seconds left to tie it at 72 and set up the final sequence.

Chattanooga had the ball with a six-second differential between the game-clock and the shot clock. They worked the clock down to single digits when senior Omar Wattad (Johnson City, Tenn.) got the ball in the near corner. He drove into the lane and got a good look at a short one-handed floater that just fell off the right side of the rim.

Ferguson snatched the rebound and found Willie Powers, who drove to the basket. Powers was cut off, but found Hewitt for the game winner from the left side.

Bell and Zlovaric tied for game highs with 16 points each. Bell finished 6-10 from the floor and 4-8 from 3-pt. range. It was his first time in double-figures in seven games. Zlovaric logged his fourth double-double of the season by going 8-12 and grabbing 10 boards. Wattad had a career-high 10 rebounds and tied a career mark with five assists.

The Eagles were led by Hewitt and Ben Drayton's 16 points each. Ferguson added 15, while Powers had 11 points and a game-high seven assists.

This is the third-straight loss for UTC by three points or less and the fourth SoCon set-back by that margin. Six of UTC's seven losses in league play have been by eight points or less.

The Mocs are back in action next week with a pair of road games, beginning at Western Carolina on Feb. 2 televised by ESPN3 and Davidson on Feb. 4. The next home game is Thursday, Feb. 9 against Elon.