STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern opens a five-game homestand on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. against a familiar foe as Appalachian State comes to Hanner Fieldhouse. Thursday's game is the annual "#TrueBlue Out" with all fans encouraged to wear blue. The game is expected to be a sellout, so get your tickets now by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or visiting the Georgia Southern Athletics Ticket Office adjacent to Paulson Stadium. The game can be seen live on GS All-Access at GSEagles.com with the radio broadcast starting at 7:00 p.m. on network stations and at GSEagles.com

DATE: Thursday, January 29th, 2015
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Hanner Fieldhouse – Statesboro, Ga.
TICKETS: 1-800-GSU-WINS
VIDEO: GS All-Access (Premium)
RADIO: Georgia Southern Sports Network from Learfield Sports
Play-by-Play – Chris Blair - @CSBRadio
Analyst – AJ Henderson - @AJHenderson_SID
Metter/Swainsboro – 103.7 WMBZ-FM
Savannah/Hilton Head/Brunswick – 102.1 WZAT-FM
Jessup – 1370 WLOP-AM
Worldwide – GS All-Access (Free)
LIVE STATS: GSEagles.com
TWITTER UPDATES: @GSAthletics_MBB 

PROMOTIONS:
#TrueBlue Out for both games - fans are encouraged to wear blue to the game to support the Eagles
The first 500 Georgia Southern students get a free blue rally towel, courtesy of The Hamptons
Border Pawtrol Frisbee Show will perform at halftime of both games

SERIES HISTORY: GS Trails 17-25
LAST MEETING: 1-18-2014 | Away | Loss | 68-81

GEORGIA SOUTHERN EAGLES (13-4, 6-2 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

APPALACHIAN STATE MOUNTAINEERS (8-10, 5-4 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

HEWITT SETS NEW STEALS RECORD
Jelani Hewitt passed Terry Williams' career total of 221 career steals against UL Monroe on Jan. 24th to seize the career record. Hewitt now has 223 career steals.

FIRST SELLOUT SINCE 2009
Georgia Southern posted its first sellout since 1-17-2009 in the UL Lafayette game. The Eagles took a 78-70 win over the Ragin' Cajuns to move into first place in the Sun Belt with the victory in front of 4,325 fans, the seventh-highest total in Hanner Fieldhouse history.

HEWITT MOVES INTO TOP-10
Jelani Hewitt continued his move up the Georgia Southern career scoring chart, moving into the top-10 in the win over South Alabama on January 10th. He has 1,601 career points and passed Louis Graham for ninth place at Texas State on January 22nd.

FEWEST POINTS ALLOWED SINCE 1987
Georgia Southern's 40-36 win over Texas State was the fewest points allowed by the Eagle defense since a 67-34 win over Savannah State on December 5th, 1987. It was the first 40-36 game in the shot clock (Division I) era, ranks in a tie for 19th lowest scoring game for both teams combined, and the lowest scoring Sun Belt game in the shot clock era. The contest is the lowest combined scoring game since January 14th, 1950 when J.B. Searce's Eagles defeated the Erskine Flying Fleet 39-36.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD
The Eagles will travel 12,283 miles in the 30 games scheduled for the 2014-15 schedule. That total is just 168 miles less than halfway around the Earth. Georgia Southern's farthest games away from home last season, played in Cancun (840 mi.), are closer than two of the Eagles' opponents at Texas State (971 mi.) and UT Arlington (893 mi.).

Season miles to date..................................8,035 mi.
2014-15 total season mileage..................12,283 mi.
2013-14 total season mileage....................9.216 mi.

GEORGIA STATE GAME PICKED UP ON WSAV BASKETBALL BLITZ
For the second-straight season, Georgia Southern will have a home game broadcast on the WSAV Basketball Blitz. The games will air on the WSAV MyLC channel in the Savannah/Hilton Head market. The channel is available over the air at 3.2, DirecTV 29, BTC Communications 7, Bulloch Co-Op 6, Comcast 237, Darrien Communications 104, Hargay CATV 100, Kennedy Cablevision 104, Northland-Statesboro 7, Northland-Vidalia 12, Pineland Cable 60, and Time Warner 1215.

TOURNAMENT TICKETS ON SALE NOW
All-session ticket books to this year's Sun Belt Basketball Championships March 11-15, in New Orleans are available for $99 at the Georgia Southern Ticket Office. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS!

BLUE WHITE WEEKLY BACK FOR 2015
Blue-White Weekly, the weekly television show about Georgia Southern Athletics is back for the 2014-15 basketball seasons. Fans can watch the show on Fox-28 Savannah on Monday nights at 6 p.m. The show can also be seen on GS All-Accss at GSEagles.com each week before it airs on Monday.
 
THE COACH
Head Coach Mark Byington enters this game with a 35-27 career record with a 28-23 mark at Georgia Southern in his second season in Statesboro.

THE WEATHER
After a few days with temperatures around 50 degrees, Thursday's forecast is for a high of 60 degrees under sunny skies with calm winds.

UP NEXT
Georgia Southern's run of five-straight home games continues on Saturday with the second game in the series. Arkansas-Little Rock comes to Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

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 and twitter.com/GSAthletics. To purchase tickets call 1-800-GSU-WINS.