CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- John Shulman and Charlton Young sat on the same bench and won the 2005 Southern Conference men's basketball tournament.
Only one could win Friday night.
Shulman and his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga squad punished GSU 82-62 in the first round of the 2010 SoCon tournament.
The Mocs (15-17) followed Shulman's principles of defense, rebounding and scoring in the lane while bruising through an athletic team that prefers to run and gun.
"There's a formula we have in tournament play, and it worked tonight," said Shulman, who improved to 10-3 in SoCon tournament games. "We didn't come down tonight to win a game. We came down to win the tournament.
"Now we just have to win three in three nights."
UTC scored a season-high 54 points in the paint to counteract 24 turnovers. The Mocs outrebounded GSU 49-20 after having a 45-12 advantage at one point. And they limited GSU (9-23) to 22-of-64 shooting from the floor while shooting 66.7 percent themselves. UTC made 18 of 21 shots from the field in the second half.
"We are a group of guys who have never been in a tournament setting," Young said. "It all comes back to rebounding. That was 31-10 at halftime, and I remember a large number of offensive rebounds for them."
UTC junior forward Ridge McKeither tied a career high with 19 points and had nine rebounds. One of his substitutes, Chris Early, had 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while freshman guard Josh Odem added 13 points.
Rory Spencer led GSU with 15 points. Antonio Hanson and Willie Powers each scored 12 for the Eagles.
A large second-half lead allowed Shulman to substitute even more freely than usual to save some energy for UTC's game tonight against the College of Charleston, which earned a fist-round bye. The Cougars (19-10) beat UTC 90-66 in McKenzie Arena and led by 29 points when the teams played in Charleston.
"The conference tournament is a new season," UTC point guard Keegan Bell said. "We feel that we're going to peak at the right moment. I feel we're all confident that we can get a victory."
The Mocs were shaky in the opening minutes Friday but quickly built confidence behind the power of McKeither and Early, who combined for 19 points and 16 rebounds in the first half.
"It was the fight in us," McKeither said. "Coach had us ready to fight. But we don't want to fight for just one game."
The Mocs scored on eight straight possessions to turn a 16-14 lead into a 31-18 advantage with 5:34 to play in the opening half. The Eagles pulled within 38-29 at halftime before a crowed of 2,446 in the spacious arena.
"Our post guys played well," Bell said. "It wasn't just throwing it in there and them making moves. They did a great job of rebounding and putting stuff back in.
"They're going to continue to have to do that if we're going to be successful in the tournament."
The Mocs built a 21-point lead five minutes into the second half and a 28-point margin with 12:04 to go before easing up a bit.
"We're a very talented team, but we're a very immature team," Shulman said. "Who knows? If we can make the right choices and do what we do defensively and on the glass, everything will work out."