STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Men's Basketball will honor its seven seniors on Thursday night prior to the home finale which starts at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles face UT Arlington in the penultimate regular season game of the 2014-15 season. Georgia Sothern then closes the regular season on Saturday afternoon against in-state rival Georgia State in Atlanta. 

Seven seniors will be honored before Thursday's game. Redshirt seniors Jelani Hewitt, Eric Ferguson, and Trent Wiedeman as well as seniors Angel Matias, Curtis Diamond, Zach Altany, and D.J. Suter will be recognized starting at 7:15 p.m. for their contributions to the University.

The Eagles are in first place entering the final weekend of the regular season, and can clinch the top seed for the upcoming Sun Belt Tournament with a pair of wins in the games on Thursday and Saturday. The 2015 Sun Belt Tournament starts on March 12th at the Lakefront Center in New Orleans. All-session tournament tickets are available from the Georgia Southern Athletics Ticket Office for $99. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS to get your tickets now.

DATE: Thursday, March 5th, 2015
TIME: 7:30 p.m. (ET)
LOCATION: Statseboro, Ga. | Hanner Fieldhouse (4,325)
VIDEO STREAMING: 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
Let the Madness begin and #PackHanner
SENIOR DAY CEREMONY (7:15 p.m.) | Seven seniors who have taken Eagle basketball to new heights in its first season in the Sun Belt will be honored before the game
FREE STUFF | First 500 fans in attendance will receive free pom-poms | A crazy amount of t-shirts will be thrown out to fans during the game | Lucky fans will find Georgia Southern Prize packs in their seats
TV GIVEAWAY | One lucky GSU student at the game will win a big-screen TV
Enter here - gseagles.com/packhanner

SERIES HISTORY: Series Tied 1-1 (3rd Meeting)
LAST MEETING: 12-30-2014 | Arlington, Texas | Loss | 61-62

GEORGIA SOUTHERN EAGLES (20-7, 13-5 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

UT ARLINGTON MAVERICKS (16-12, 10-8 Sun Belt)
Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | Media Guide | Game Notes

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!

GS IN CONTROL OF ITS DESTINY
With two games remaining in the regular season, Georgia Southern controls its own destiny in the race for the Sun Belt Regular Season Championship and the top-seed for the tournament. With two wins, the Eagles would, at worst, clinch a tie with ULM for first place.

FIRST 20-WIN SEASON SINCE 2005-06
Georgia Southern earned the program's eighth 20-win season in the Division I Era and the first 20-win season since 2005-06 season with the February 26th win over Appalachian State. It is the 16th 20-win season of all-time. The school record for wins in a season came in 1965-66 when J.B. Searce's Eagles win 26 games. The most wins in the Division I Era came in 1991-92 when the Eagles won 25 games and made their last trip to the NCAA Tournament.

JELANI SETS TWO SCHOOL RECORDS
Jelani Hewitt has earned a pair of career school records at Georgia Southern, winning the steals (245) and free throws (373) records. He needs just one more three-pointer to claim the career three-pointers record, matching Terry Williams and Elton Nesbitt (262).

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 1,756 career points and passed Elton Nesbitt for sixth place on February 21st. He needs 87 more points to match Kevin Anderson's (1975-79) total of 1,843 career points in fifth place.

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...............................10,895 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 42-30 career record with a 35-26 mark at Georgia Southern in his second season in Statesboro.

THE WEATHER
Thursday will bring a high of 79 degrees before a cold front and afternoon rains cool things off as evening approaches. Tipoff temperatures should be around 60 degrees while conditions remain dry inside Hanner Fieldhouse.

UP NEXT
The Eagles travel to Georgia State on Saturday afternoon for the 2014-15 regular season finale against the Panthers. Tipoff between the in-state rivals is set for 2 p.m. inside the Georgia State Sports Arena high above downtown Atlanta.

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.