Something needs to happen to give Georgia Southern its confidence back.

The lights-out 3-point shooting of Chattanooga put the Eagles in another early hole Tuesday at Hanner Fieldhouse, and missed layup after missed layup has shaken the confidence of the GSU post.

“We’ve got to continue to encourage them to be aggressive,” said first-year coach Charlton Young. “They’ve got to attack the rim. Instead of throwing up little underhand money rolls and finger rolls, you’ve got to go up to dunk the ball so if you miss a shot in traffic, you at least get to the foul line. We got to the foul line 12 times (against Chattanooga Tuesday). We’ve got to get to the foul line more. Those guys inside are missing shots because they’re playing passively and they’re playing not to lose.”

The Eagles (3-13, 0-3 Southern Conference) will have another shot at the elusive first conference win of the season today as the surprising Western Carolina Catamounts (12-2, 2-0) come to Hanner Fieldhouse for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff.

“Western Carolina is the most important game of the season,” Young said. “The first 20 minutes are the most important 20 minutes of the season. We’re going to come out to scrap and try to get a win. …

“We’re just going to keep battling and battling until things go our way, and then we can make our run.”

Georgia Southern turned up the heat in the second half of the 75-63 loss to UTC. Willie Powers was held to just four points in the first half, but knocked down 21 points in the second. The Mocs held off the charge by shooting 60.9 percent from 3-point range on the night, and WCU will pose the same threat.

Young’s first concern against the Catamounts is taking away the perimeter. After that, he expects his Eagles to attack the rim.

“We have to be the more physical team on the court,” Young said. “Teams that play Western Carolina go to the foul line double to what they do because they play so aggressively and so physical. There are so many fouls they can’t call them all. The Citadel played us like that earlier and we struggled with it.”

Powers leads GSU with 14.7 points per contest, and shoots 83 percent from the charity stripe.

Western brings six players averaging double digits to Hanner.

Entrance to this weekend’s game is $1, good for the women’s game at 1 p.m. as well as the WCU game which follows.

Matt Yogus can be reached at (912) 489-9408.