Men's Basketball | 12/21/2016 7:51:00 AM

Georgia Southern (6-6) vs. Fisk (1-10)
Thursday, Dec. 22 - Hanner Fieldhouse (3,897) – Statesboro, Ga. - 4 p.m.
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Radio: 105.5 FM WIFO (Jesup), 100.9 FM WLYU (Lyons), 103.7 FM WBMZ (Metter), 900 AM WJLG (Savannah)
Promotions: Fans can enjoy photos and candy canes with Santa Claus, participate in an Ugly Sweater Contest, take a jab at the Fruit Cake Eating Contest and enjoy their favorite holiday music. Fans are also asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the Toys for Tots Foundation.
Series Record: First meeting
Probable Starters:
#2 Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller
#14 Coye Simmons

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

Fisk Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule]

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern finishes its non-conference schedule with a 4 p.m. contest against NAIA Fisk Thursday afternoon in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• The contest is the nightcap of a doubleheader with the GS women's team, which takes on South Carolina State at 1:30 p.m.
• Fans can enjoy photos and candy canes with Santa Claus, participate in an Ugly Sweater Contest, take a jab at the Fruit Cake Eating Contest and enjoy their favorite holiday music. Fans are also asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the Toys for Tots Foundation.
• It's the first meeting between Georgia Southern and Fisk on the hardwood.
• A victory would give the Eagles a 7-6 mark in the non-conference portion of their schedule, their first winning record in non-conference play since 2014-15, when the Eagles went 8-3. It would be just the second time in the last eight seasons that the Eagles were above .500 in non-conference games.
• Georgia Southern is 2-1 at home this season. The Eagles are 31-13 under head coach Mark Byington in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• The game begins a four-game homestand for the Eagles, which includes Georgia Southern's first three Sun Belt Conference contests.
• GS is 2-3 in its last five and coming off an 86-84 loss at Winthrop Tuesday afternoon.
• 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.
• Fisk, a member of the NAIA, is 1-4 in its last five contests and coming off a 97-67 loss at Dalton State last Friday.

More Team Storylines
• Last year, Georgia Southern set new school records with 3-pointers made (282) and attempted (834) in a season. GS ranks fifth in the SBC in threes per game (8.6) this season, and the Eagles have made 10 or more threes four times.
• 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 played 10 of their first 12 games away from home. The stretch ended Dec. 20 at Winthrop, which also capped a four-game road trip that covered 4,120 miles of travel as the Eagles went from Minnesota to Ft. Myers to Miami to South Carolina and back home. 
• GS played three contests in Savannah this season and won all three. The Eagles defeated Florida A&M (83-72) and Radford (65-64) in the Savannah Invitational and won 94-75 at Savannah State.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 120th career game today and his 108th 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 38-7 in games when leading at half and 49-4 when leading with five minutes to go, but three of those losses in each category have some this season.
•  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 75.8 this year and scored over 80 five times.
• 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 24-7 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 31 contests there and 31-13 under Mark Byington.
• Georgia Southern used 11 different combinations of starting lineups last year. GS has used four this season.
• The Eagles are 17-1 in Sun Belt games when leading at halftime.

Talking 1K
• A trio of underclassmen are nearing the 1,000-point mark for their careers. Junior Mike Hughes has 775 points, sophomore Tookie Brown has 729 and sophomore Ike Smith has 594.
• No Eagle in the program's modern era has reached the mark as a sophomore. Two Eagles did it in their second seasons at Georgia Southern (Elton Nesbitt and Johnny Mills).
• Three Eagles reached the mark in the same season once. Nesbitt, Terry Williams and Jean Francois scored their 1,000th point in 2004-05.
• The 2004-05 trio and Jelani Hewitt, Eric Ferguson and Trent Wiedeman in 2014-15 are the only times Georgia Southern had three 1,000-point scorers on the same team (Wiedeman scored 886 points at College of Charleston before transferring to GS).

Next Up
• Georgia Southern plays its Sun Belt Conference opener on New Year's Eve against Georgia State.
• It's a doubleheader with the GS women's team, and the men's game tips off at noon in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• One point is on the line in the Southern vs. State Rivalry Series, which State leads 5-2.
• Four Holiday Getaways will be raffled off at halftime of the men's game. Fans can register online but must be in attendance to win.

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.