Basketball Wraps Up Busy Stretch on Saturday Night
2/6/2009 5:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Georgia Southern wraps up a three-game homestand on Saturday night (Feb. 7) as the men's basketball team plays host to UNC Greensboro. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Chris Blair and Frank Kerns will call the action in Eagle 102.9 FM and via the internet at www.GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com with the pregame show starting 30 minutes prior to tip.
Georgia Southern evened the all-time series with UNCG last month, winning 72-63 in Fleming Gymnasium. Tyler Troupe (Gallatin, TN/Iowa Central CC) and Ben Drayton III (St. Marys/Camden County) both turned in career-highs at the time scoring 23 and 21 points, respectively. The Eagles committed a season-low eight turnovers in the win.
Drayton has since improved on his career-point total (22 earlier this week against Appalachian State). Troupe is coming off his second career double-double, 14 points/career-high 16 rebounds in a hard-fought 57-54 loss to Elon Thursday. Drayton scored a game-high 17 points. Antonio Hanson (Fort Worth, TX/Independence CC) added 11 points in the game.
The Eagles (7-14 overall, 5-8 Southern Conference) held a 54-52 lead in the final three minutes but missed on a couple of 3-point attempts that would have been for the lead. Now heading into Saturday, Georgia Southern is not only looking to snap a four-game losing streak but also finish a stretch of five games in 10 days.
Hanson leads the Eagles averaging 12 points per game. He is fourth in the league averaging 2.7 ?3s' per game. Troupe's career-high 16 rebounds moved him up to 14th in the league averaging 6.0 boards per game.
Drayton moved into sixth place among the SoCon field goal percentage leaders at 51.1 percent, and remains second hitting 45.6 percent from 3-point range. The true-freshman guard is averaging 12.2 points in league play, 9.6 overall.
Head coach Jeff Price remains two wins shy of 300 in his coaching career. The next opportunity is against a Spartan team looking to snap a six-game losing streak. UNCG (3-18, 2-10) won at App State in overtime last month, lost to the Eagles, defeated Elon then began its losing streak.
UNC Greensboro is coming off a 75-54 loss Thursday night to league-leading Davidson. Ben Stywall scored a team-high 13 points while Kendall Toney and Damian Eargle added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Eargle also blocked six shots as he and Stywall grabbed seven rebounds each. Davidson held a 51-34 edge on the boards and both teams shot near the same percentage. UNCG committed 20 turnovers to Davidson's 13.
In the earlier meeting with Georgia Southern, Stywall turned in a 14-point/13-rebound double-double. Mikko Koivisto made just 3-of-11 from 3-point range but still finished with 11 points. Landon Clement scored 11 points off the bench.
Mikko Koivisto leads the scoring attack at 12 points per game, followed by Stywall's 11.2 ppg. However, in Southern Conference play Stywall leads the way at 14 ppg followed by Eargle (13.7) and Koivisto (13.1). Stywall averaged more than 10 rebounds per SoCon game while Eargle is at 6.2 rpg and Koivisto at 2.8 assists.
