STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Men's Basketball will have a chance to bounce back from a tight loss to Troy when they battle South Alabama on Saturday night. The game is being shown on ESPN3 and WatchESPN.com as a part of the league's television contract. Tipoff between the Jaguars and Eagles is 7:30 p.m. at the friendly confines.

Saturday's game is the annual GATA Club and T-Club Reunion with former Georgia Southern and Georgia Teacher's College athletics' alumni welcomed back to Statesboro.

The Eagles are among three Sun Belt schools that have punched their ticket for the Sun Belt Tournament in New Orleans. The Eagles beat the Mardi Gras rush and earned their trip to the Big Easy with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The festivities run March 11-15 at the Lakefront Arena in the Crescent City.

DATE: Saturday, February 21st, 2015
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Hanner Fieldhouse (4,325)
VIDEO STREAMING: ESPN3 / WatchESPN.com
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 

SERIES HISTORY: GS Trails 2-6 (9th Meeting)
LAST MEETING: 1-10-2015 | Away | Win | 81-73

GEORGIA SOUTHERN EAGLES (18-6, 11-4 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

SOUTH ALABAMA JAGUARS (9-18, 7-9 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

PROMOTIONS
GATA CLUB REUNION – Former Georgia Southern student-athletes return to Statesboro.
T-CLUB REUNION – Members of the T-Club, the Georgia Teacher's College letterman's club reunite in Statesboro.

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!

JELANI SETS TWO SCHOOL RECORDS
Jelani Hewitt has earned a pair of career school records at Georgia Southern, winning the steals (238) and free throws (366) records.

HEWITT NEARING ANOTHER RECORD
Jelani Hewitt is nearing the school record in career three-pointers made. He has 256 career buckets from downtown and needs six more to match Elton Nesbitt and Terry Williams' record of 262 three-pointers.

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 1,710 career points and passed Matt Simpkins for seventh place on February 14th. He needs just 21 points to match Elton Nesbitt's (2003-06) total of 1,731 career points.

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..................................9,285 mi.
2014-15 total season mileage................12,283 mi.
2013-14 total season mileage...................9.216 mi.

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 40-29 career record with a 33-25 mark at Georgia Southern in his second season in Statesboro.

THE WEATHER
Saturday will represent a dramatic warming compared with recent days. A high temperature of 66 will give way to an evening low of 48 under partly cloudy skies.

UP NEXT
The Eagles are on the road for the next two games with an extended road swing to Appalachian State and UL Lafayette. Georgia Southern starts the swing on Thursday against the Mountaineers from 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.