STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Men's Basketball continues its five-game home stand on Thursday night as in-state rival Georgia State visits Hanner Fieldhouse. The last time the teams played as members of the same league, Georgia Southern defeated the Panthers 95-82 to reach the program's third NCAA Tournament. Thursday's match is another pivotal game with the Eagles in first place of the Sun Belt conference by just a half game over the Panthers.

Tipoff for the game is 7:30 at Hanner Fieldhouse. A limited number of reserved tickets are still available at the Georgia Southern Athletics Ticket Office by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS. The game is expected to be a sellout as Georgia Southern football is recognized for its 2014 Sun Belt Championship at halftime. 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. The WSAV Basketball Blitz will be on hand, providing live coverage on WSAV's My LC Channel within the Savannah market.

DATE: Thursday, February 5th, 2015
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Hanner Fieldhouse – Statesboro, Ga.
TICKETS: 1-800-GSU-WINS (General Admission SOLD OUT, Limited reserved seats still remain)
VIDEO STREAMING: GS All-Access (Premium)
TELEVISION: WSAV Basketball Blitz (WSAV My LC)
Play-by-Play – Ken Slats
Analyst – Don Heath
SAVANNAH MARKET WSAV MY LC STATIONS
Over The Air – 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
Time Warner - 1215
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:
GATA Game
All Georgia Southern student-athletes in attendance
Eagle Football recognized at halftime
Whiteout
All fans encouraged to wear white for the game
Free T-Shirt for First 500 Students from University @ Southern and 111 South
Free Rally Towel from The Hamptons
UPB Block Party
Free food, games and more starting at 2:30 p.m. outside Hanner Fieldhouse

SERIES HISTORY: GS Leads 39-14
LAST MEETING: 12-20-2013 | Away | Loss | 61-73

GEORGIA SOUTHERN EAGLES (15-4, 8-2 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

GEORGIA STATE PANTHERS (15-7, 8-3 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

EAGLES ROUT MOUNTAINEERS
Georgia Southern improved to 8-0 at home this season on Jan. 29th with a rout of rival Appalachian State. The Eagles took the 83-46 win over the Mountaineers for the program's biggest win by margin over a D-I opponent since 11-12-2006 when the Eagles took a 116-73 win over UC Davis at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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 227 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 1,635 career points and passed Louis Graham for ninth place at Texas State on January 22nd. He needs just 24 points to match Johnny Mills (1970-74) for eighth place in school history.

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 37-27 career record with a 30-23 mark at Georgia Southern in his second season in Statesboro.

THE WEATHER
The warming trend over the last few days will continue on Thursday with a high temperature of 60 degrees with a 20% chance of rain showers early in the day under partly cloudy skies.

UP NEXT
UL Monroe comes to Hanner Fieldhouse for the first time since Ronald Regan's first term as President. The Eagles took a 57-53 win over the Warhawks on January 24th and will go for the season sweep this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. inside Hanner Fieldhouse in the fourth of five-straight home games.

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.