Georgia Southern’s women’s basketball team learned a tough but valuable lesson Monday night.

The Lady Eagles trailed Chattanooga by as many as 19 points with 6:38 to play in their Southern Conference game before rallying but losing, 66-60, before a crowd of 427 at Hanner Fieldhouse.

GSU head coach Rusty Cram will take the "rallying" part. He’ll even accept the "but losing" part on behalf of his young team. It’s the "trailed Chattanooga by as many as 19 points" part that its unsettling for Cram.

"We just waited too late to get started," said Cram, whose Lady Eagles shot 21.2 percent (7-of-33) from the field in the first half. "But thank God we didn’t let it get away. I think it was 59-40 at one point there before we decided, you know, we found a pretty good combination and we rode them ‘til they were about to pass out out there. We just didn’t have enough timeouts. I needed about five more so I could continue playing that same group."

GSU (5-10, 1-5) lost its second consecutive game. The Lady Eagles were led by junior forward Briana Scott, who scored a career-high 14 points. Senior guard Janay Wilson added 13 points, tying her career high. Junior guard Meredyth Frye chipped in 12 points, and sophomore guard MiMi DuBose had 10 points.

"We came out of the gates early and we were just too tight," Cram said. "We’ve got to loosen up and start putting the ball in the hole. That’s our biggest problem right now."

Chattanooga (10-4, 5-0) was led by senior forward Whitney Hood, who scored a game-high 17 points. Sophomore forward Faith Dupree came off the bench and added 10 points. Sophomore forward Taylor Hall grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds for the Mocs, who led, 31-17, at halftime.

"You knew at halftime they were going to make some runs," Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore said of GSU. "Sure enough, down the stretch, they attacked the basket and got to the foul line. They got some big 3s, and did a good job of stopping us, defensively, a couple of times in a row. And the next thing you know, we’ve got a nail-biter."

GSU’s Frye made a 3-pointer to cut the score to 62-57 with 37 seconds to play, but that was as close as the Lady Eagles got in the second half.

"It gives us confidence because these are some of the top teams in the conference and the fact that we’re competing against them, and we’re scrapping with them, and we’re running with them, we’re exploiting their weaknesses, I think that gives us confidence as a team to know that, even though we lost, we can still do it," GSU’s Scott said. "If we correct those mistakes, we can still do it."

GSU’s next game is at 7 p.m. Friday at Elon (6-9, 2-4).