Men's Basketball | 2/5/2016 3:00:00 PM

Georgia Southern (9-12, 5-6) vs. Texas State (9-10, 3-7)
Saturday, Feb. 6 - Hanner Fieldhouse (4,325) – 7 p.m.
Live Video | Live Stats | Tickets | Season Promotions | Gameday Guide: Basketball
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Promotions: 11th annual Pack the House in Pink Game - The first 500 students in attendance will receive a free rally towel, courtesy of The Forum at Statesboro, and the Zeta Tau Alpha and Phi Mu sororities will be decorating Hanner Fieldhouse in pink. The sororities will be handing out pink lemonade, ribbons and cards to fans as they enter. The Statesboro-Bulloch County Breast Cancer Foundation and the Statesboro Service League will be in attendance, and there will be a special presentation at halftime of both games in support of Breast Cancer Awareness and Education. Pack the House in Pink began in 2004 in honor of the late Kathy Brunson, who was a local Phi Mu alumnus who died of breast cancer. She was also a member of the Statesboro Service League.
Series Record: GS leads 3-1, L1
Last meeting: 12/30/15, L 80-66
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)]

Texas State Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@TXStateMBB]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern plays host to Texas State Saturday at 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• It's the second meeting of the season against the Bobcats. Georgia Southern lost 80-66 at Texas State in its first Sun Belt Conference game of the season - back on Dec. 30.
• The Eagles are in seventh place in the Sun Belt standings, one game ahead of eighth. Texas State sits in 10th place, two games back of Georgia Southern. The top-8 teams make the Sun Belt Championship March 9-13 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
• Georgia Southern plays five of its final nine games in Hanner Fieldhouse, including four in a row from Feb. 18-25.
• The Eagles are 26-11 under head coach Mark Byington in Hanner Fieldhouse and posted a 13-2 record in the building last season. The Eagles are 6-3 this season.
• Georgia Southern is 3-2 in its last five contests and coming off an 82-73 win over UT Arlington Thursday night in Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles have won five of their last eight.
• Georgia Southern freshman Tookie Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (5th, 17.9 ppg), assists (7th, 3.5 apg), steals (2nd, 2.0) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.7). He ranks sixth among freshmen in NCAA Division I scoring.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in seven games and reached double figures in 20 of 21 contests, including the last 19.
• Brown (17.9 ppg) is half of the second-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (12.8 ppg) combine to average 30.7 points a game.
• Texas State is 1-4 in its last five and coming off a 59-56 setback at Georgia State Thursday. The Bobcats have lost their last three contests.
• Texas State is 3-8 on the road and 1-5 in road Sun Belt games.
• The Bobcats rank third in the league in scoring defense.

The Series
• This will be the fifth meeting in the series, which began in 1965. The teams renewed the series last season as members of the Sun Belt Conference, and both contests were settled by a combined six points.
• Texas State won the first meeting of the season 80-66 back on Dec. 30.
• The Eagles' 40-36 win over Texas State (1/3/15) was the fewest points allowed since Dec. 5, 1987, when they held Savannah State to 36 points. It is the first 40-36 game in the shot clock era and ranks in a tie for 19th lowest scoring game for two teams combined and the lowest scoring Sun Belt game in the shot clock era.  The Eagles were on the losing end of a game that topped that mark in a 38-36 setback to Georgia State in the Sun Belt Championship (3/15/15).
• Last Meeting - 12/30/2015 - Strahan Coliseum: Ethan Montalvo scored 19 points, and Texas State shot 53 percent from the floor to open Sun Belt Conference play with an 80-66 win over Georgia Southern.
• Ike Smith and Tookie Brown each netted 14 points to lead Georgia Southern, while Coye Simmons and Mike Hughes each scored seven points. 
• Montalvo hit four 3-pointers as Texas State canned 6 of 13 from behind the arc. Amani Gant finished with 16 points for Texas State, and Kavin Gilder-Tilbury collected 15 points and six rebounds.
• Gant scored six points in a 20-5 Texas State run to start the game. The Bobcats were in the free-throw bonus 6:45 into the contest and went 16 of 18 from the charity stripe in the half. 
• Texas State outscored the Eagles 9-1 over the first 3:45 of the second half, and a four-point play by Montalvo, who was fouled as he hit a 3-pointer, helped the Bobcats extend the margin to 18 points. 
• The margin grew to as many as 22 points midway through the half before the Eagles made a late run. A pair of Smith free throws trimmed the margin to 10 with 2:16 to play, and Georgia Southern got two consecutive stops but came up empty on the offensive end.
• Last time in Hanner - 1/22/2015: Trent Wiedeman posted 12 points and nine rebounds, and Georgia Southern held Texas State to 15 points in the second half to gut out a 40-36 win over the Bobcats.
• It was the first Sun Belt Conference victory in program history for the Eagles, who joined the league this season.
• Jelani Hewitt tallied 10 points and five rebounds, and Eric Ferguson registered 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
• Emani Gant was the only scorer in double figures for Texas State with 10 points to go along with six rebounds. D.J. Brown posted eight points and four boards.
• With the Eagles trailing 33-30, Hewitt knocked in a 3-pointer from the wing with 3:50 left, and after the teams traded free-throws, Angel Matias got his own rebound and put it back in for a 37-35 Georgia Southern lead.
• On Texas State's trip down the floor, Mike Hughes stole a laser pass after it bounced off a few Bobcats and through the lane. The Eagles ran the shot clock all the way down on their possession, but Wiedeman was whistled for a foul trying to get the rebound off a Hewitt miss.
• Cameron Naylor made 1-of-2 from the line, and Wiedeman got the rebound. Hewitt was fouled and hit two from the stripe to put the Eagles ahead 39-36 with 16 seconds left, and Georgia Southern elected to foul Brown with eight seconds remaining to avoid a game-tying 3-point attempt. Brown was short on the front end of the 1-and-1 opportunity, and Hewitt corralled the rebound and was fouled. The senior made 1-of-2 to seal the win.

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 30.7 points a game combined, making them the second-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (33.6 ppg) lead the nation, and Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis are third (29.7).
• Three Eagles are in the top-15 in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers made per game. Mike Hughes (7th, 2.0), Jake Allsmiller (11th, 1.8) and Ike Smith (15th, 1.6) are in the top-15. Tookie Brown averages 1.57 a contest.
• Brown, Smith and Mike Hughes all scored 20-plus points in the win over UT Arlington Feb. 4. The last time three Eagles scored 20-plus points in a game was Jan. 16, 2014, an 88-81 overtime over Furman in Hanner Fieldhouse. Angel Matias (21), Jelani Hewitt (21) and Tre Bussey (26) all scored 20-plus points.
• Georgia Southern's 11 blocked shots against UT Arlington Feb. 4 were one shy of the school record, set against Texas San Antonio in 1989.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 98th career game today.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 31-5 in games when leading at half and 40-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 16 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 10-6.
• The Eagles are averaging 77.4 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in eight games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• The Eagles have played every team in the league at least once and posted a 4-6 record through the first half of conference play.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 18-5 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 23 contests there.
• Georgia Southern posted a 4-6 record in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
• 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.
• Devince Boykins is the lone scholarship senior on the Eagles' roster, but this is his first year in the program.
• 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.
• Three student-athletes who redshirted last season - Jonathan Sanks, Aubrey McRae and Shawn O'Connell - are making their debuts this season.
• Georgia Southern has used nine different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Jan. 19 (12-1).
• 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). It was the first time the Eagles put up 100 points against a Division I opponent since a 116-73 victory over UC Davis Nov. 12, 2006.
• 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.
• The Eagles played their Sun Belt opener on the road for the second straight season. Georgia Southern is 0-2 all-time in Sun Belt openers.
• The Eagles played six of their first eight games on the road, a stretch that included contests at Ole Miss, Auburn and No. 6 Duke.
• 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).

Inside Georgia Southern Basketball is Back
• Inside Georgia Southern Basketball, presented by Gnat's Landing airs each Monday from 7-8 p.m. live from Gnat's Landing at 470 South Main Street, just across from Beautiful Eagle Creek in Statesboro.
• Men's basketball coach Mark Byington and women's basketball coach Kip Drown will sit down with the Voice of the Eagles, Danny Reed, each week throughout the remainder of the season to review the recent games and talk about upcoming contests.
• Fans can enjoy the show live from Gnat's stage, listen on the radio via affiliates (103.7 WBMZ-FM Statesboro, 102.1 WZAT-FM Savannah, 1370 WLOP-AM Jesup) or online for free at GSEagles.com. Fans can also interact live during the show by tweeting their questions to @GASouthernRadio or by joining the audience in the restaurant.

Next Up
• Georgia Southern heads back out on the road for its swing through Alabama.
• The Eagles travel to Troy for a contest Feb. 11 with tipoff set for 8:30 p.m. ET.

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.