During the final 22 seconds, when Georgia Southern needed someone to step up and take control of Saturday night’s Southern Conference men’s basketball game, Eric Ferguson accepted the challenge and led the Eagles to a 64-58 victory over College of Charleston.

Ferguson made a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 62-57 lead with 22 seconds to play. The 6-foot-7 sophomore forward then raced down the court and blocked College of Charleston guard Andrew Lawrence’s shot, pinning the ball against the glass backboard. Ferguson passed it to Willie Powers, who passed it to Jelani Hewitt, who lobbed it to Cameron Baskerville for an alley-oop dunk to give GSU a 64-57 lead with 6 seconds remaining.

"It was a set play," Ferguson said of his only 3-pointer of the game. "Willie was going to come off the ball screen. I haven’t been shooting the ball well, so I knew they were going to sag off (defensively). They believed in me and I just came out and shot it. I was ready to step up and hit it."

Of his only blocked shot of the game, Ferguson said, "I just sprinted back and tried to get to the next play because I knew they were going to try to get the ball back at us. Fortunately, I came up with a big block."

Ferguson, a former Statesboro High School star, finished with a game-high 19 points and team-high eight rebounds. He helped GSU (7-11, 5-3) secure a tie with Wofford (12-8, 5-3) for second place in the SoCon South Division. Wofford beat Furman, 79-72, on Saturday in Greenville, S.C.

Davidson (14-4, 8-0) is in first place in the South Division. The Wildcats played host to The Citadel on Saturday night and won, 80-51.

GSU also snapped a streak of eight consecutive losses to College of Charleston (12-7, 4-4) and snapped a two-game losing streak. The Eagles lost, 88-63, at Wofford on Jan. 14 and fell, 64-54, at Furman on Thursday.

"We had to come back and do some soul searching after the Wofford-Furman road trip," GSU head coach Charlton Young said. "And guys were locked in today. This team we beat today, (Cougars head coach) Bobby Cremins is one of the best coaches in the country."

GSU improved to 6-1 at home in front of a crowd of 3,025 gathered for the seventh annual "Pack the House in Pink" game to raise breast cancer awareness. The Lady Eagles played the first game of the doubleheader and beat Western Carolina, 41-40.

The roar within Hanner Fieldhouse was loud when Ferguson made his 3-pointer. It grew louder when he blocked Lawrence’s shot. And it was thunderous following Baskerville’s dunk.

GSU fans began the "Georgia" and "Southern" chant back and forth. With 9.8 seconds left, they began jingling their car keys, letting the Cougars know it was time to get back on the team bus.

GSU’s Hewitt and Ben Drayton III finished with 11 points apiece. Baskerville had eight points. Powers, limited to three points, had a game-high seven assists.

College of Charleston was led by Antwaine Wiggins, who scored 17 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Lawrence had 12 points.

The Eagles out-rebounded the Cougars, 40-30, and shot 49.1 percent (26 of 53) from the field in the game compared to the Cougars’ 35.7-percent shooting (20 of 56). GSU shot 65.2 percent (15 of 23) in the second half.

The game was tied eight times, including at 29 at halftime. The lead changed 12 times.

GSU’s next game will be at 7 p.m. Monday against The Citadel at Hanner Fieldhouse.

"I have to do a better job of keeping this young team locked in," Young said. "I have eight freshmen and sophomores, and to be quite honest, they’re very immature. And you can see it in their play. So I’m going to have to keep the reins tight because we jumped out to a lot of success and we didn’t handle it well."