Men's Basketball Opens 2010-2011 Season at Notre Dame

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The second year of the Charlton "C.Y." Young era officially tips off Friday, November 12th, as the Georgia Southern Men's Basketball team faces Notre Dame at 8:30 p.m. from the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. The Eagles open the 2010-2011 season away from home for the fourth time in the last five years. This is the first meeting between Notre Dame and Georgia Southern.

Karl Werl will have the call for the Georgia Southern Radio Network. The game can be heard on 107.3 FM locally in Statesboro and globally on http://www.GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision with pre-game beginning 30 minutes prior to tipoff.  The webcast is available through the Notre Dame athletics website at http://www.und.com/allaccess/.

"We're super excited about getting this season underway," said Head Coach Charlton Young. "Preseason was long and tough and we are tired of playing against each other. It will be good for us to get out and play against another program, evaluate our  progress and get our season going."

Georgia Southern must rely on experience from its returners and talent from the new freshman class that earned a ranking from ESPN.com as the sixth best mid-major class in the nation. Senior Rory Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.), junior Ben Drayton III (St. Marys, Ga.) and sophomore Cameron Baskerville (Marietta, Ga.) will anchor a squad dominated by newcomers. Spencer and Drayton averaged 9.8 and 9.4 points, respectively, with Spencer leading on the boards with 4.6 rebounds a game. Baskerville started the 2009-10 season with three straight games with double-figure rebounding totals before sitting out with an injury.

A season-ending injury took senior Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) out of commission earlier this fall, leaving the Eagle coaching staff to look to the five-man freshman class to contribute immediately in the starting lineup and off the bench. Drayton and freshman Jelani Hewitt (Oakland Park, Fla.), will share responsibilities at the point guard position, with Marvin Baynham (Miami, Fla.) providing a presence inside the paint. Statesboro native Eric Ferguson will see significant minutes at small forward. Also vying for playing time coming out of preseason camp will be guard Tré Bussey (Lithia Springs, Ga.) and forward Sam Mike (Atlanta, Ga.).

Notre Dame, an 2010 NCAA Tournament team, returns three starters in Tim Abromaitis, Ben Hansbrough and Tyrone Nash, all who helped the Fighting Irish to a 23-12 record a year ago. Abromaitis is the leading scorer returning with 16.1 points per game while Nash led on the boards with 5.2 rebounds per game. Hansbrough averaged 12 points a game last season just behind Abromaitis. Head Coach Mike Brey begins his 11th season as head coach of Notre Dame.

Follow the Eagles on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or get short updates on facebook.com/GSAthletics or twitter.com/GSAthletics. For in-game scoring, visit twitter.com/GSScores or follow live stats by clicking on the "live stats" link in the schedule section at the bottom of the athletics website www.GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com.

Category: Men's Basketball

Published on Thursday, 11 November 2010 01:23