Eagles Host Samford on Thursday Night
1/11/2012 8:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Following a split in the season's first conference road swing, Georgia Southern Men's Basketball returns home on Thursday evening for a date with the Samford Bulldogs at Hanner Fieldhouse. Game time is 7 p.m. and fans are invited to bring donations to "Pennies for Pink" and give loose change to the fight against breast cancer. The first 50 fans through the door will receive free sandwiches from Chick-fil-A.
The Eagles saw their best league start since the 2005-06 season hit a road block last Saturday against Davidson. Georgia Southern dropped its first conference game to move to 3-1 after taking a thrilling comeback victory over Elon a week ago. The Eagles have won four-straight home games including a pair of demonstrative league wins over Appalachian State and Chattanooga to enter Thursday night's game with an overall record of 5-9.
Sophomore Eric Ferguson (Statesboro, Ga.) is on a tear of late, scoring 20.5 points per game over the last two contests including a double-double against Elon with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Overall this season, Ferguson is averaging 15.9 points per game and has scored at a 56.1% clip from the field.
Jelani Hewitt (Miramar, Fla.) has been the Eagles' biggest three-point threat this season with 9.9 points per game while shooting 42.2% from downtown. Senior Willie Powers III (Gainesville, Fla.) averages 5.4 assists per game to rank second in the league and 45th in Division I. Powers is also scoring 11.9 points per game.
Georgia Southern's offense is shooting 47.4% from the field this season to rank 50th nationally. From downtown the Eagles rank 43rd in both three-point field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage defense. The offense is scoring at a 38.5% rate while the defense is holding opponents to 29.8%.
Samford (3-11, 0-3 SoCon) enters Thursday's game on a five-game losing streak, dropping games to Appalachian State (68-63) and The Citadel (73-62) to open 2012. The Bulldogs run a Princeton style motion offense to score a league-best 8.9 three-pointers a game. Center Drew Windler leads the team in scoring with 11.9 points per game, while four other Bulldogs are posting over 8.0 points per game. Samford is a perfect 3-0 when shooting better than 50% from the field and 0-11 when below the even mark from the field.
Following Thursday's game, the Eagles will take to the road for a pair of games in South Carolina's Upstate. GSU faces Wofford on Saturday night, January 14th, at 7 p.m. in Spartanburg. On the following Thursday, January 19th, the Eagles travel to Furman to face the Paladins at 7 p.m. inside Timmons Arena.
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