Men's Basketball | 11/16/2016 12:23:00 PM

Georgia Southern (1-1) at Mercer (1-1)
Sunday, Nov. 20 - Hawkins Arena (3,200) – Macon, Ga. - 2 p.m.
Savannah Invitational
TV: ESPN3
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup), 100.9 WLYU (Lyons)
Series Record: GS leads 74-39, W2
Last meeting: 11/26/2007, W 80-69 (vacated)
Probable Starters:
#0 Montae Glenn
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller
#11 Shawn O'Connell

Georgia Southern Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [Game Notes]

Mercer Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule]

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern renews one of its oldest rivalries when the Eagles travel to Mercer Sunday. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.
• The contest is part of the Savannah Invitational, an in-season tournament in which each participant will play four games. This is the first year of the tournament, and organizers hope to make it an annual event.
• Georgia Southern plays at the on-campus sites of Mercer (Nov. 20) and Akron (Nov. 22) to begin the tournament and then plays games against Florida A&M (Nov. 25) and Radford (Nov. 26) at the Savannah Civic Center in downtown Savannah.
• Mercer, Akron, Stetson, East Carolina, Radford, Florida A&M and Air Force all will finish the tournament by playing two games in the Savannah Civic Center Nov. 25-26 (ticket info).
• The Eagles' contest at Mercer will be the 114th meeting between the schools. Georgia Southern has played Mercer more than any other opponent.
• It's the Eagles' first contest against the Bears since 2007.
• Georgia Southern is coming off a 92-43 home-opening win over Coastal Georgia Monday.  Mercer topped Brewton-Parker 87-53 in its season opener at home last Friday and fell 76-54 to Florida in Jacksonville Sunday. 
• The Eagles play 10 of their first 12 games away from home. Three of those games are in Savannah (two in Savannah Invite and at Savannah State Dec. 1).   
• Georgia Southern returns all five starters from last season's 14-17 squad that finished fifth in the Sun Belt with a 10-10 record.
• The Eagles were picked fourth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, and Tookie Brown and Mike Hughes were named preseason all-conference.
• Mercer returns eight lettermen from last year's team that went 19-15 overall and 8-10 in the Southern Conference.
• The Bears were picked fourth in the SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll, and junior Stephon Jelks was named preseason all-conference.
• Mercer is 71-12 at Hawkins Arena since the start of the 2011-12 campaign. The Bears were 11-3 in the building last season.

The Series
• Georgia Southern has played Mercer more than any opponent in the 87-year history of the program (113 times).
• The Eagles lead the all-time series, which began in 1933, 74-39, and have won the last two meetings. It's the second time the Eagles will play in Hawkins Arena, which opened in 2005.
• The teams have not played since 2007, an 80-69 Eagle win in Hanner Fieldhouse, which was later vacated.
• GS is 22-23 on the road and won the last meeting 61-59 in 2006 in Hawkins Arena.
• The teams competed against each other as members of the Trans America Athletic Conference for 10 seasons. Georgia Southern held a 14-10 edge in the regular season and topped the Bears twice in the TAAC Tournament.

Three Things to Know about the Eagles
1 -  Georgia Southern returns all five starters and 11 lettermen. Ninety-four percent of the Eagles' scoring and rebounding is back in uniform, and Georgia Southern is still young. Walk-ons James Holder and Dominique Holder are the team's lone seniors.
2 -  Georgia Southern was picked fourth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, Tookie Brown was named preseason first-team all-league and Mike Hughes earned second-team honors.
3 - Last year, Georgia Southern set new school records with 3-pointers made (282) and attempted (834) in a season. 
• The Eagles made 10 or more triples in a contest 13 times, hitting nine from long distance on four more occasions. 
• Georgia Southern averaged 26.9 (28th nationally) attempts and 9.1 makes (27th nationally) a game. 
• Three Eagles were in the top-15 in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers made per game - Mike Hughes (4th, 2.2), Jake Allsmiller (6th, 2.1) and Tookie Brown (14th, 1.6).

More Team Storylines
• The Eagles picked up the 1,200th win in the history of the program, which began play in 1926-27, when they topped Coastal Georgia 92-43 Nov. 14.
• GS held Coastal Georgia to 23.1 percent shooting from the field, the lowest for an opponent since holding North Georgia to 22.7 percent in 2003.
• The Eagles play 10 of their first 12 games away from home. The stretch ends Dec. 20 at Winthrop. GS does play three contests in Savannah (55 miles East) during that time.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 110th career game today and his 99th at Georgia Southern. His 51 wins in his first three seasons at Georgia Southern are the best of any coach in the modern era.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 37-5 in games when leading at half and 45-2 when leading with five minutes to go. 
• Georgia Southern led the Sun Belt and ranked 11th in the country in turnover margin (+3.4) last season. The Eagles recorded less than 10 turnovers in 10 games and averaged 11.6 per game. GS had seven turnovers at NC State and eight against Coastal Georgia.
•  GS scored 75.9 points a game last season, the Eagles' best offensive output since averaging 77.5 points a game in 2005-06. GS scored 80-plus points in 10 games and 100-plus in three contests. The Eagles are averaging 85.5 this year and scored over 80 once.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 19 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 12-7.
• Georgia Southern is 23-6 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 29 contests there and 31-12 under Mark Byington.
• Georgia Southern used 11 different combinations of starting lineups last year. GS has used two this season.
• The Eagles are 17-1 in Sun Belt games when leading 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.