Men's Basketball | 1/29/2016 4:27:00 PM

Georgia Southern (7-12, 3-6) vs. Arkansas State (10-10, 6-3)
Saturday, Jan. 30 - Convocation Center (10,038) – 8:05 p.m. ET
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
TV: ESPN3
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series: Georgia Southern leads 7-3, W5
Last meeting: 2/12/2015, W 65-60 (H)
Probable Starters:
#2 Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller
#14 Coye Simmons

Georgia Southern Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@GSAthletics_MBB] [Game Notes (PDF)]

Arkansas State Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@AStateMB]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern caps a four-game road trip with a contest at Arkansas State Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
• It's the first of two games against Arkansas State this season. 
• Georgia Southern caps a stretch in which the Eagles play three games in six days.
• Georgia Southern is 2-3 in its last five contests and coming off an 80-67 loss at first-place Little Rock Thursday.
• Georgia Southern freshman Tookie Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (5th, 17.5 ppg), assists (7th, 3.3 apg), steals (2nd, 2.1) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.6).
• Brown became the first freshman to score 30-plus points in a game at Georgia Southern. He netted 34 at Appalachian State Monday.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in six games and reached double figures in 18 of 19 contests, including the last 17.
• Brown (17.5 ppg) is half of the second-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (12.5 ppg) combine to average 30 points a game.
• Georgia Southern is 2-9 on the road this season and has lost six of its last seven on the road.
• With 11 of 12 scholarship student-athletes who are freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores (92 percent), Georgia Southern has the highest percentage of underclassmen on its current roster of the 345 NCAA Division I squads. Liberty (91 percent), Ohio State (85 percent), Fairleigh Dickinson (85 percent) and Wyoming (80 percent) round out the top 5.
• Georgia Southern lost 76 percent of its scoring and 72 percent of its rebounding from last season.
• The Eagles were picked 10th in the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Coaches Poll.
• Arkansas State is 2-3 in its last five and coming off a 75-69 overtime win at home over Georgia State Thursday night.
• The Red Wolves are 8-2 at home and 4-1 in home Sun Belt games.
• Arkansas State was picked fourth in the Preseason Sun Belt Coaches Poll, and Anthony Livingston was named preseason first-team all-league.
• Devin Carter leads the Red Wolves in scoring with 17.2 points a game, and Livingston averages 15.2 points and 9.4 rebounds.

The Series
• This will be the 11th meeting in the all-time series, which began in 1956. Georgia Southern owns a 7-3 edge and has won the last five.
• The Eagles are 3-2 on the road against the Red Wolves and have won the last two.
• Georgia Southern swept the season series against Arkansas State last year.
• Last Meeting - 2/12/2015 - Hanner: Jelani Hewitt scored 15 points and set the Georgia Southern career free throws made record to lead the Eagles to a 65-60 win over Arkansas State.
• Hewitt set the mark during a pivotal 7-2 Georgia Southern run which saw the senior score all seven points. After Arkansas State trimmed a 12-point deficit to five, Hewitt hit a jumper, drilled the two record-setting free throws and capped the stretch with a long 3-pointer.
• Hewitt passed Elton Nesbitt who had 353 free throws from 2003-06. He hit four of his five free throws tonight while the Eagles struggled as a team from the charity stripe, making just 5-of-15.
• The Red Wolves made a final push and got the margin down to five points with under a minute to go, but Hewitt was there again to hit a floater and put the lead back to seven points with 37 seconds left.
• Trent Wiedeman posted 14 points and six rebounds for Georgia Southern, and Curtis Diamond collected 11 points and nine rebounds. Angel Matias chipped in 10 points and six rebounds, and Hewitt added five rebounds, four assists and three steals with 11 of his points coming in the second half.
• Nouhoum Bocoum posted 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Arkansas State, and Anthony Livingston finished with 16 points and 16 boards. Sean Gardner scored 10.
• The Eagles took control of the game with a 13-5 run, capped by consecutive dunks by Hewitt and Ferguson, to open a 50-38 lead with 11:07 left in the contest. Livingston scored four points, and Gardner hit a 3-pointer in an 11-4 Red Wolves run that made it a five-point game with 6:09 to play.
• Georgia Southern held Arkansas State to 42 percent shooting from the floor, and the Red Wolves made just 8-of-18 from the free-throw stripe.
• Last time in the Convo Center - 1/8/2015:  After playing one of the lowest scoring games in recent history, Georgia Southern rolled to a 73-61 win over Arkansas State .
• The Eagles were led by 18 points from Jelani Hewitt who also added five rebounds and two steals.
• The Eagles rattled off a 24-0 run early in the first half en route to leading 41-26 at halftime and didn't look back in the second period. 
• Curtis Diamond scored his first collegiate double-double with 12 points and a career-best 10 rebounds. Angel Matias and Eric Ferguson each scored 11 points with both players scoring 4-of-7 from the field. Matias had eight rebounds, and Ferguson pulled six boards.
• Arkansas State was led by 17 points from Cameron Golden, while PJ Hardwick had 12, and Anthony Livingston scored 5-of-15 from the field for 11 points.
• Jake Allsmiller got his first collegiate start and nailed a big three-pointer to give Georgia Southern an early 3-0 lead. The Red Wolves tied the game shortly thereafter, but a 24-0 run by the visitors gave the Eagles a big lead throughout the first half.
• Midway through the second period, Arkansas State made a run to cut the lead back to 10 points, but the Eagles answered that, pushing the lead back to 19 in the final five minutes. A late 9-0 run by the home side gave the local fans hope, but good free-throw shooting iced the victory.

Team Storylines
• The Eagles are led in scoring by a pair of freshmen in Tookie Brown and Ike Smith. The last time a freshman led Georgia Southern in scoring was the 1999-2000 season, when the school's all-time scoring leader, Julius Jenkins, led the Eagles with 15.5 points a game. Elton Nesbitt averaged 15.7 points a game to lead the Eagles in scoring as a newcomer to the program in 2003-04, but it was his sophomore season after spending a year at Compton Community College.
• Brown and Smith average 30.0 points a game combined, making them the second-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (31.5 ppg) lead the nation.
• The Eagles 101-100 win over Appalachian State Jan. 25 was their first win when allowing 100 points since a 112-104 triumph over Old Dominion Jan. 7, 1978. It was just the third time Georgia Southern has won a game when conceding 100 points (135-109 vs. Piedmont, 2/24/1951 and 110-106 vs. Samford, 1/20/1975)
• Georgia Southern is averaging 9.7 turnovers in its last seven games (68 total).
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Tuesday, Jan. 19 (11-1).
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 31-5 in games when leading at half and 38-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 13 Georgia Southern league games have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 8-6.
• The Eagles are averaging 78.1 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in seven games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 17-5 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 23 contests there.
• Georgia Southern posted a 4-6 record in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
• Georgia Southern has used nine different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles played their Sun Belt opener on the road for the second straight season. Georgia Southern is 0-2 in Sun Belt openers.
• Georgia Southern played its first ranked opponent since 2008 when the Eagles traveled to No. 7/6 Duke Dec. 15. Their last game against a ranked opponent was also at Duke Nov. 11, 2008.
• Georgia Southern's 21 steals against Bob Jones (11/30) was one shy of the school record set against Little Rock in 1981 and tied against The Citadel in 2004.
• After not playing an SEC opponent since a 78-75 loss to Auburn Dec. 30, 2011, the Eagles have faced two this season. Georgia Southern fell 82-72 at Ole Miss Nov. 16 and 92-62 at Auburn Nov. 20.
• Georgia Southern's 116 points in a 116-49 season-opening win over Webber International Nov. 13 were tied for the 16th most all-time and the most since a 116-73 neutral site win over UC Davis Nov. 12, 2006, which was the 2006-07 season opener.
• The Eagles' 40 3-point attempts tied for the second-the most in school history (West Georgia, 1/2/1992).

Next Up
• Georgia Southern returns home to face UT Arlington Thursday.
• It's Military Appreciation Day - all military personnel will receive free general admission, and their family can receive discount $5 general admission tickets.
• Over 150 student-athletes will be honored for their achievements in the classroom at halftime.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.