Men's Basketball | 11/19/2015 10:23:00 AM

Georgia Southern (1-1) at Auburn (1-1)
Friday, Nov. 20 - Auburn Arena (9,121) – 9:30 p.m. Eastern
Live Video | Live Audio | Live Stats 
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series: GS trails 6-0
Last meeting: 12/30/11, L 70-75 (A)
Probable Starters:
#0 Montae Glenn
#1 Devonte Boykins
#2 Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#10 Jake Allsmiller

Georgia Southern Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@GSAthletics_MBB] [Game Notes (PDF)]

Auburn Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@AuburnMBB]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern plays its second straight contest against an SEC opponent when the Eagles travel to Auburn Friday. Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m. Eastern because the Tigers host a volleyball match against Ole Miss in Auburn Arena at 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
• The game will be broadcast live on SEC Network + and can be seen at WatchESPN.com or the Watch ESPN app.
• Georgia Southern is coming off an 82-72 setback to Ole Miss Monday in its first road game of the season.
• Prior to the game at Ole Miss, the Eagles had not faced an SEC opponent since a 78-75 loss at Auburn Dec. 30, 2011.
• Auburn is 1-1 and coming off a 91-84 loss to Colorado Tuesday afternoon. Both of the Tigers' contests have been at home.
• Georgia Southern returns just four scholarship letterwinners from last season's 22-9 team that advanced to the Sun Belt Conference Championship game.
• 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.
• Georgia Southern lost 76 percent of its scoring and 72 percent of its rebounding from last season.
• Georgia Southern was picked 10th in the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Coaches Poll.
• Auburn returns three starters in seniors Cinmeon Bowers (12.1 ppg, 9.6 rpg) and Jordon Granger (4.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and junior Tahj Shamsid-Deen (6.1 ppg, 1.5 apg), who missed the final 11 games of the season due to injury. TJ Lang made six starts last season.
• Auburn returns 33.8 percent of its scoring and 58.3 percent of its rebounding from last year's team that finished 15-20 overall, 13th in the SEC with a 4-14 record. The Tigers won three games in the SEC Tournament for the first time in 30 years and reached the semifinals.
• The Tigers were picked 10th in the Preseason SEC Media Poll.
• Kareem Canty, a junior transfer from Marshall, leads Auburn in scoring with 22 points a game, and Tyler Harris, a 6-foot-10 forward, is averaging 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. The senior began his career at NC State, transferred to Providence, where he graduated, and then transferred to Auburn for grad school.

Season Tickets
• Season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at GSEagles.com/tickets. Season ticket options are available for both general admission and reserved seating. Fans can enjoy chair-back seats in the reserved sections for $90 a season ticket for either men's or women's basketball. Alternatively, general admission season tickets are $65 and are located behind the baskets on bleachers. A combo package is also available for $120 and includes both men's and women's basketball contests.

Preseason All-Sun Belt
• Mike Hughes was named fourth-team Preseason All-Sun Belt by College Sports Madness. Hughes averaged 7.6 points and 4.9 rebounds a game, started every contest and finished second on the team in assists (70) and steals (40).

A Memorable Campaign
• Georgia Southern's 2014-15 men's basketball campaign saw the Eagles enter a new league and produce the program's deepest postseason run in over two decades. Picked ninth in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll, the Eagles finished second in the regular-season standings. Georgia Southern also made its first appearance in a conference championship game since 1992.
• Georgia Southern posted the 16th 20-win season in school history and the eighth in the Division I Era. It was the first 20-win season since the 2006-07 campaign.
• Defensively, Georgia Southern ranked 29th nationally while holding opponents to 60.2 ppg. The Eagles held opponents to .393 from the field (24th nationally) and .305 from downtown (24th nationally).
• 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 topped that mark in a 38-36 setback to Georgia State (3/15/15).
• Georgia Southern is the only Division I team in the shot clock era (since 1986) to play two games scoring 76 points or less combined points.
2014-15 by the Numbers
3 – The Eagles improvement of seven wins sparked a 191-place jump in the RPI, the third-biggest leap of any team in the country, according to NCAA RPI.
13 – The Eagles posted a 13-2 record in Hanner Fieldhouse.
16 - Sixteen games in 2014-15 were decided by six points or less, and the Eagles won 10 of them. The Eagles were 1-1 in overtime and 3-5 in games decided by three points or less.
22 – By going 22-9, Georgia Southern earned its first 20-win season since 2005-06.
32 - Under coach Mark Byington, the Eagles are 32-1 while leading with five minutes left and were 16-0 in 2014-15.
1992 - Georgia Southern made its first appearance in a conference championship game since 1992.
4,325 – The Eagles filled Hanner Fieldhouse to its capacity multiple times in 2014-15.

Apples and Trees
• Five Eagle student-athletes' fathers played and/or coached college basketball.
• Jake Allsmiller's dad, Brian, played at Vanderbilt (1978-81); Devonte and Devince Boykins' father, Robert, played at Johnson C. Smith (1992-95); Shawn O'Connell's father, Dave, played at Duke (1973-76); Jason Burnell's dad, Frank, is the head coach at Edward Waters College in Florida and is in his fifth season. He played at Stetson from 1981-85.
• Aubrey McRae's father, Travis, coached him at Glenn Hills High School.

Boarding the Mothership
• Eleven Georgia Southern games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of Networks this season.
• Games at No. 4 Duke (12/15) and Georgia State (2/23) will air on ESPN2. 
• Seven Sun Belt contests will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and the matchups at Ole Miss and Auburn will be shown on the SEC Network +. 

Road warriors
• The Eagles play six of their first eight games on the road this season, a stretch that includes contests at Ole Miss, Auburn and No. 4 Duke.

Next Up
• Georgia Southern plays in the Upstate Challenge over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The Eagles take on The Citadel Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m. and USC Upstate Friday, Nov. 27, at 5 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, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, visit GSEagles.com/tickets.