DAVIDSON, N.C. — Georgia Southern’s perfect start to conference play to open the 2011-12 season came to an end against a hot-shooting Davidson squad on Saturday afternoon at Belk Arena. The Wildcats (10-4, 4-0 SoCon) shot 60.0% from the field to take the 96-74 victory over the Eagles (5-9, 3-1 SoCon). Jake Cohen had a huge night for Davidson with 29 points and 12 rebounds. Eric Ferguson earned top scorer honors for the Eagles with 20 points.

"Big credit to Davidson tonight, there is a reason they beat Kansas earlier this season," said Head Coach Charlton "C.Y." Young. "I feel like we learned a lot about Davidson and ourselves in this game. We get them back at our place later this season and we will be ready for that contest."

Ferguson added a pair of blocks to his 20 points in the game, while senior Ben Drayton III scored 13 with eight assists for the Eagles. Sophomore Jelani Hewitt was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc to post 11 points, all in the second half.

The Eagles had a big effort from the corps of true freshman. Tyrone Brown was 4-for-4 from the field to match his career high with eight points while Jessie Pernell added seven points, one off a career high. Kameron Dunnican scored twice from the free throw line and Chad Waddell recorded his first career points with a late layup.

Davidson got off to a hot start in the first half draining five of its first six shot from downtown over the game’s first 10 minutes to take a 28-12 lead early. Cohen finished the opening period with 24 points as the Wildcats carried a 53-31 lead into the halftime break.

The Wildcats finished the first half shooting 63.0% from the field. Georgia Southern went 12-of-23 for a first half field goal percentage of 52.2%. De’Mon Brooks finished the night as the Wildcats’ other 20-point scorer with 24 points in 20 minutes of action.

Georgia Southern mounted a run to open the second period and cut the lead to 20 points at 17:48 before the Wildcats went up by 27 at the 14:29 mark. The Eagles would make another run just inside the 10-minute mark on the heels of two three-pointers from Hewitt. The buckets cut the Davidson lead to 76-55 (21 points) at the 8:23 mark.

That, however, would be as close as Georgia Southern would get as Davidson finished the game with a big run to take the lead back to 31 points with three minutes remaining. Davidson finished the game shooting 57.1% from the field in the second half and an impressive 11-for-19 (.579) from downtown to take the win.

Georgia Southern matched a season-low with 11 turnovers, but were out-rebounded 36-19. The Eagles forced 14 turnovers and grabbed six steals.