Men's Basketball | 1/27/2016 8:35:00 PM

Georgia Southern (7-11, 3-5) vs. Little Rock (17-2, 7-1)
Thursday, Jan. 28 - Jack Stephens Center (5,600) – 8:15 p.m. ET
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series: Georgia Southern leads 16-12, W2
Last meeting: 2/14/2015, W 72-70 OT (A)
Probable Starters:
#2 Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller
#14 Coye Simmons

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

Little Rock Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@LittleRockMBB]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern caps a four-game road trip with a stop off in Arkansas. The Eagles take on first-place Little Rock Thursday and travel to Arkansas State Saturday.
• Thursday's contest is the first between the Eagles and Trojans this season. Georgia Southern is in the midst of a stretch in which the Eagles play three games in six days.
• Georgia Southern is 3-2 in its last five contests and coming off a 101-100 win at Appalachian State Monday.
• Georgia Southern freshman Tookie Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (5th, 17.6 ppg), assists (7th, 3.4 apg), steals (2nd, 2.1) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.6).
• Brown became the first freshman to score 30-plus points in a game at Georgia Southern. He netted 34 at Appalachian State Monday.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in six games and reached double figures in 17 of 18 contests, including the last 16.
• Brown (17.6 ppg) is half of the second-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (12.5 ppg) combine to average 30.1 points a game.
• Georgia Southern is 2-8 on the road this season and has lost five of its last six on the road.
• 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.
• The Eagles were picked 10th in the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Coaches Poll.
• Little Rock enters the game in first place in the Sun Belt with a 7-1 record. 
• The Trojans lead the league in scoring defense (58.1/gm) and field goal percentage defense (.369).
• Little Rock is 7-0 at home and 3-0 in home league games.
• The Trojans were picked fifth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, while Josh Hagins (2nd team) and Roger Woods (3rd team) were named preseason all-league.

The Series
• This will be the 29th meeting in the all-time series, which began in 1988. 
• Georgia Southern leads it 16-12 and swept the Trojans last season. Those contests were the first in the series since the 1990-91 season, when both schools were members of the TAAC.
• Three of the last four meetings have been decided by five points or less.
• The Eagles are 6-7 against the Trojans on the road but have won the last two. 
• Last Meeting - 2/14/2015 - Jack Stephens Center: Jelani Hewitt drilled three free throws with 1.7 seconds on the clock to force an extra period as Georgia Southern erased an eight-point deficit with 3:27 left in regulation and squeaked by UALR for a 72-70 win in overtime.
• Hewitt pump faked and got Josh Hagins to leave his feet and then went up for the 3-point try from the wing as the junior came down on top of him with 1.7 left in regulation. Hewitt calmly sank all three free throws to tie the score 64-64 after the Eagles had trailed 59-51 with 3:27 left in the second half.
• The Trojans' long heave as the buzzer sounded was nowhere close, and Hewitt hit a 3-pointer from the opposite wing to get things started in the extra period. A step-back jumper from the elbow by Curtis Diamond gave the Eagles a 72-68 lead with 2:00 remaining.
• Hagins hit a runner for the Trojans and after a defensive stop, tried a 3-pointer that rimmed out with 42 second left. Georgia Southern ran the shot clock all the way down on its possession, and an errant pass found its way to Hagins hands. But Angel Matias was able to poke it away as the Trojans tried to break and Diamond picked it up and was fouled with four seconds left.
• Diamond missed both free-throw attempts, and the Trojans got the ball to James Reid, whose 3-point try from the wing was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.
• Hewitt finished with 21 points, five assists and five rebounds for the Eagles, while Wiedeman collected 14 points and eight rebounds. Matias notched 11 points and five rebounds, while Mike Hughes scored 12 points.
• Reid hit four 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 23 points for UALR, and Hagins scored 11 points. Ben Dillard finished with 10 points.

Team Storylines
• The Eagles are led in scoring by a pair of freshmen in Tookie Brown and Ike Smith. The last time a freshman led Georgia Southern in scoring was the 1999-2000 season, when the school's all-time scoring leader, Julius Jenkins, led the Eagles with 15.5 points a game. Elton Nesbitt averaged 15.7 points a game to lead the Eagles in scoring as a newcomer to the program in 2003-04, but it was his sophomore season after spending a year at Compton Community College.
• Brown and Smith average 30.1 points a game combined, making them the second-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (31.5 ppg) lead the nation.
• The Eagles 101-100 win over Appalachian State Jan. 25 was their first win when allowing 100 points since a 112-104 triumph over Old Dominion Jan. 7, 1978. It was just the third time Georgia Southern has won a game when conceding 100 points (135-109 vs. Piedmont, 2/24/1951 and 110-106 vs. Samford, 1/20/1975)
• Georgia Southern is averaging 9.6 turnovers in its last six games (58 total).
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Tuesday, Jan. 19 (11-1).
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 31-5 in games when leading at half and 38-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 13 Georgia Southern league games have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 8-6.
• The Eagles are averaging 78.1 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in seven games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 17-5 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 23 contests there.
• Georgia Southern posted a 4-6 record in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
• Georgia Southern has used nine different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles played their Sun Belt opener on the road for the second straight season. Georgia Southern is 0-2 in Sun Belt openers.
• Georgia Southern played its first ranked opponent since 2008 when the Eagles traveled to No. 7/6 Duke Dec. 15. Their last game against a ranked opponent was also at Duke Nov. 11, 2008.
• Georgia Southern's 21 steals against Bob Jones (11/30) was one shy of the school record set against Little Rock in 1981 and tied against The Citadel in 2004.
• After not playing an SEC opponent since a 78-75 loss to Auburn Dec. 30, 2011, the Eagles have faced two this season. Georgia Southern fell 82-72 at Ole Miss Nov. 16 and 92-62 at Auburn Nov. 20.
• Georgia Southern's 116 points in a 116-49 season-opening win over Webber International Nov. 13 were tied for the 16th most all-time and the most since a 116-73 neutral site win over UC Davis Nov. 12, 2006, which was the 2006-07 season opener.
• The Eagles' 40 3-point attempts tied for the second-the most in school history (West Georgia, 1/2/1992).

Next Up
• Georgia Southern finishes its four-game road trip at Arkansas State Saturday. Tipoff is set for 8:05 p.m. ET, and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.

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.