STATESBORO, Ga. -- The Mocs repeatedly gave Georgia Southern the ball, but in exchange, GSU gave the Mocs a victory.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga beat GSU 75-63 to claim its first Southern Conference victory of the season.
The Mocs (9-6, 1-1 SoCon) won despite committing 27 turnovers in a game that resembled a November contest more than one in January.
"Tonight was just a funky game," UTC point guard Keegan Bell said. "We were all making turnovers, we were all making bad decisions. It was an ugly game. It's one of those games and we're lucky to come up with the win."
The Mocs countered their mistakes with career nights from senior Ty Patterson and freshman Josh Odem.
Patterson scored 25 points and Odem, the lanky lefty, set his career high with 22 points. The two wing players combined to shoot 11-of-13 from the 3-point line.
"Most of the shots were open because they were speeding us up and trapping so somebody had to be open," Patterson said. "The big guys did a good job of finding me and Josh open. We just hit the shots."
Patterson, who entered the game averaging 16 points per game, reached that mark by halftime. He shot 6-for-6 including five 3-pointers in the first half.
Odem had only seven points in the first half but took advantage in the second half when GSU paid closer attention to Patterson on the perimeter.
"We thought we could run Patterson off the 3-point line, but we didn't expect the freshman to come in and drop 22 points," said GSU coach Charlton Young, who was an assistant under Shulman in 2004-05. "He stuck his open shots. For a freshman to come off the bench and score 22 on the road is very impressive."
The Mocs found a variety of ways to give the ball to GSU, and they did so from baseline to baseline.
They threw passes out of bounds. Some passes bounced off their hands and right to GSU, they traveled, they charged, they set illegal screens and simply had the ball stripped. They lost it against one-on-one defense, and more often, when trapped.
GSU denied Bell the ball and forced other players to play the role of point guard resulting in 27 turnovers, seven by DeAntre Jefferson and five by Bell.
But all of the mistakes led to only five points off turnovers for the Eagles (3-13, 0-3) who were led Willie Powers with 25 points.
"CY (Young) made it players versus players and I don't like that," UTC coach John Shulman said. "I don't like that. I need control of the game and he knows that. I thought they played how they needed to play in order to win."
But the Eagles couldn't stop Patterson and Odem or hit their own open shots. GSU shot 34.3 percent from the floor.
"We defended OK, we could have rebounded better," Patterson said. "We always kept a lead and didn't let them back in the game.
UTC led 32-18 at halftime despite 16 turnovers. In the second half, they led by as many as 18 and maintained at least a 10-point lead until the final minute.
"When we lost to Elon I didn't think we'd win another game," Shulman said. "Now we've won four in a row and we're going in a positive direction."