Saturday, February 13
Mobile, Ala.
5:05 p.m.
Georgia Southern University
at
South Alabama
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Frank Fortune - Georgia Southern Athletics
Men’s Basketball Preview: Eagles Face South Alabama Saturday
2/12/2016 3:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
Georgia Southern (11-12, 7-6) at South Alabama (10-14, 5-8)
Saturday, Feb. 13 - Mitchell Center (10,000) – 5:05 p.m. ET
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
Television: ESPN3 (Drew Fellios and Bob Donewald)
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series Record: GS trails 7-3, L1
Last meeting: 1/7/2016, L 64-58 (H)
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)]
South Alabama Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@SouthAlaMBK]
Layup Line
• Georgia Southern caps its two-game road swing through Alabama with a 5:05 p.m. ET contest at South Alabama Saturday.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Drew Fellios and Bob Donewald calling the action.
• It's the second meeting of the season against the Jaguars. South Alabama downed Georgia Southern 64-58 in Hanner Fieldhouse Jan. 7 in the season's first meeting.
• The Eagles are tied for fifth place in the Sun Belt standings, one game out of third and two games ahead of eighth-place South Alabama. The top-8 teams make the Sun Belt Championship March 9-13 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
• Georgia Southern is 4-1 in its last five contests and coming off a 77-71 win at Troy Thursday night. The Eagles have won seven of their last 10, including three on the road.
• Georgia Southern is 4-8 on the road and 3-4 in road Sun Belt games this season.
• Georgia Southern freshman Tookie Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (4th, 18.3 ppg), assists (7th, 3.4 apg), steals (2nd, 1.8) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.6). He ranks fifth among freshmen in NCAA Division I scoring.
• The last Sun Belt freshman to average over 18 points a game was Charlotte's Henry Williams in the 1989-90 season. For historical perspective, Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington was 14 years old in 1989, and assistant coach Larry Dixon played against Williams during his college career.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in nine games and reached double figures in 22 of 23 contests, including the last 21.
• Brown (18.3 ppg) is half of the second-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (11.9 ppg) combine to average 30.2 points a game.
• South Alabama is 3-2 in its last five and coming off a 79-78 overtime win over Georgia State at home Thursday.
• The Jaguars are 6-4 at home and 3-3 in home league games. South Alabama has won its last three home games.
• Ken Williams averages 14.8 points, and Georgi Boyanov averages 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds a contest
The Series
• South Alabama leads the all-time series, which began in 1978, 7-3, but Georgia Southern swept the Jaguars last season.
• The Jags won the first matchup this year 64-58 back on Jan. 7.
• The Eagles are 2-3 at South Alabama.
• Prior to last season, the teams had not met since 2010 and 2011, both South Alabama victories.
• The Jaguars won four of the first five meetings from 1978-80.
• Last Meeting - 1/7/2016 - Hanner Fieldhouse: Ken Williams scored a game-high 22 points, and South Alabama held Georgia Southern to 27 percent shooting from the field to post a 64-58 win.
• Ike Smith scored 20 points and added six rebounds for Georgia Southern, and Tookie Brown chipped in 17 points. Mike Hughes finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals.
• Georgi Boyanov collected 10 points and 10 rebounds for South Alabama, and Nick Stover scored 10 points.
• The game was marred by fouls as the teams combined for 54 and shot 72 free throws. The Eagles went 19 of 31 from the charity stripe, and the Jaguars were 18 of 41. Georgia Southern was 18 of 67 from the field and 3 of 26 from 3-point range, while South Alabama made 44 percent from the floor.
• Brown scored 11 points, and Hughes netted seven in a 24-8 Eagle run that erased a 16-point second-half deficit. Brown hit a triple from the wing and followed it with a fast-break layup to tie the score 49-49 with 8:01 to go. After a Jaguar turnover, the Eagles had a chance to take their first lead of the game, but Devonte Boykins' 3-pointer from the wing rimmed out with the shot clock winding down.
• Williams converted back-to-back conventional 3-point plays as the Jaguars scored eight straight points to open a 57-49 lead. Smith hit a 3-pointer from the corner, and Brown added a runner to help cut the margin to 57-54, but Georgia Southern came away empty on its next five possessions.
• Last time in Mitchell Center - 1/20/2015: Jelani Hewitt and Curtis Diamond combined for 41 points, and Georgia Southern shot 53 percent from the field to earn an 81-73 victory.
• Hewitt was 5-for-11 from the field with three from long distance and hit 9-of-12 from the charity stripe to score 22 points for the Eagles. Diamond scored a season-high 19 points, making 4-of-6 from downtown, and corralled five rebounds.
• Trent Wiedeman posted 12 points and nine rebounds, while Mike Hughes tallied 11 points, five assists and three rebounds. The Eagles made 28-of-53 from the floor, marking the second straight game they shot 50 percent or better, and logged 15 assists.
• Ken Williams scored 23 points to lead South Alabama, while Barrington Stevens, Dionte Ferguson and Taishaun Johnson each netted 10.
• After the Jags trimmed a seven-point Georgia Southern lead to 61-60 late in the second half, Diamond took over with a driving layup from the left side and then nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key. That ignited an 11-3 run for the Eagles, and two free-throws by Hewitt made the margin 74-63 with 2:24 remaining.
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 30.2 points a game combined, making them the second-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (33.2 ppg) lead the nation, and Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis are third (30.1).
• Three Eagles are in the top-15 in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers made per game. Mike Hughes (8th, 2.0), Jake Allsmiller (11th, 1.8) and Tookie Brown (15th, 1.7) are in the top-15.
• Tookie Brown, Ike Smith and Mike Hughes all scored 20-plus points in the win over UT Arlington Feb. 4. The last time three Eagles scored 20-plus points in a game was Jan. 16, 2014, an 88-81 overtime over Furman in Hanner Fieldhouse. Angel Matias (21), Jelani Hewitt (21) and Tre Bussey (26) all scored 20-plus points.
• Georgia Southern's 11 blocked shots against UT Arlington Feb. 4 were one shy of the school record, set against Texas San Antonio in 1989.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 100th career game today.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 33-5 in games when leading at half and 42-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 17 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 11-6.
• The Eagles are averaging 76.9 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in eight games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• The Eagles have played every team in the league at least once and posted a 4-6 record through the first half of conference play.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 19-5 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 24 contests there.
• Georgia Southern posted a 4-6 record in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
• 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.
• Devince Boykins is the lone scholarship senior on the Eagles' roster, but this is his first year in the program.
• 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.
• Three student-athletes who redshirted last season - Jonathan Sanks, Aubrey McRae and Shawn O'Connell - are making their debuts this season.
• Georgia Southern has used nine different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Jan. 19 (14-1).
• 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). It was the first time the Eagles put up 100 points against a Division I opponent since a 116-73 victory over UC Davis Nov. 12, 2006.
• 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.
• The Eagles played their Sun Belt opener on the road for the second straight season. Georgia Southern is 0-2 all-time in Sun Belt openers.
• The Eagles played six of their first eight games on the road, a stretch that included contests at Ole Miss, Auburn and No. 6 Duke.
• 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 opens a four-game homestand against Arkansas State Thursday, Feb. 18.
• It's First Responders Night - firemen, police officers and EMS receive free general admission, and their family can receive discount $5 general admission tickets.
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.
Saturday, Feb. 13 - Mitchell Center (10,000) – 5:05 p.m. ET
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
Television: ESPN3 (Drew Fellios and Bob Donewald)
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series Record: GS trails 7-3, L1
Last meeting: 1/7/2016, L 64-58 (H)
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)]
South Alabama Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@SouthAlaMBK]
Layup Line
• Georgia Southern caps its two-game road swing through Alabama with a 5:05 p.m. ET contest at South Alabama Saturday.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Drew Fellios and Bob Donewald calling the action.
• It's the second meeting of the season against the Jaguars. South Alabama downed Georgia Southern 64-58 in Hanner Fieldhouse Jan. 7 in the season's first meeting.
• The Eagles are tied for fifth place in the Sun Belt standings, one game out of third and two games ahead of eighth-place South Alabama. The top-8 teams make the Sun Belt Championship March 9-13 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.
• Georgia Southern is 4-1 in its last five contests and coming off a 77-71 win at Troy Thursday night. The Eagles have won seven of their last 10, including three on the road.
• Georgia Southern is 4-8 on the road and 3-4 in road Sun Belt games this season.
• Georgia Southern freshman Tookie Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (4th, 18.3 ppg), assists (7th, 3.4 apg), steals (2nd, 1.8) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.6). He ranks fifth among freshmen in NCAA Division I scoring.
• The last Sun Belt freshman to average over 18 points a game was Charlotte's Henry Williams in the 1989-90 season. For historical perspective, Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington was 14 years old in 1989, and assistant coach Larry Dixon played against Williams during his college career.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in nine games and reached double figures in 22 of 23 contests, including the last 21.
• Brown (18.3 ppg) is half of the second-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (11.9 ppg) combine to average 30.2 points a game.
• South Alabama is 3-2 in its last five and coming off a 79-78 overtime win over Georgia State at home Thursday.
• The Jaguars are 6-4 at home and 3-3 in home league games. South Alabama has won its last three home games.
• Ken Williams averages 14.8 points, and Georgi Boyanov averages 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds a contest
The Series
• South Alabama leads the all-time series, which began in 1978, 7-3, but Georgia Southern swept the Jaguars last season.
• The Jags won the first matchup this year 64-58 back on Jan. 7.
• The Eagles are 2-3 at South Alabama.
• Prior to last season, the teams had not met since 2010 and 2011, both South Alabama victories.
• The Jaguars won four of the first five meetings from 1978-80.
• Last Meeting - 1/7/2016 - Hanner Fieldhouse: Ken Williams scored a game-high 22 points, and South Alabama held Georgia Southern to 27 percent shooting from the field to post a 64-58 win.
• Ike Smith scored 20 points and added six rebounds for Georgia Southern, and Tookie Brown chipped in 17 points. Mike Hughes finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals.
• Georgi Boyanov collected 10 points and 10 rebounds for South Alabama, and Nick Stover scored 10 points.
• The game was marred by fouls as the teams combined for 54 and shot 72 free throws. The Eagles went 19 of 31 from the charity stripe, and the Jaguars were 18 of 41. Georgia Southern was 18 of 67 from the field and 3 of 26 from 3-point range, while South Alabama made 44 percent from the floor.
• Brown scored 11 points, and Hughes netted seven in a 24-8 Eagle run that erased a 16-point second-half deficit. Brown hit a triple from the wing and followed it with a fast-break layup to tie the score 49-49 with 8:01 to go. After a Jaguar turnover, the Eagles had a chance to take their first lead of the game, but Devonte Boykins' 3-pointer from the wing rimmed out with the shot clock winding down.
• Williams converted back-to-back conventional 3-point plays as the Jaguars scored eight straight points to open a 57-49 lead. Smith hit a 3-pointer from the corner, and Brown added a runner to help cut the margin to 57-54, but Georgia Southern came away empty on its next five possessions.
• Last time in Mitchell Center - 1/20/2015: Jelani Hewitt and Curtis Diamond combined for 41 points, and Georgia Southern shot 53 percent from the field to earn an 81-73 victory.
• Hewitt was 5-for-11 from the field with three from long distance and hit 9-of-12 from the charity stripe to score 22 points for the Eagles. Diamond scored a season-high 19 points, making 4-of-6 from downtown, and corralled five rebounds.
• Trent Wiedeman posted 12 points and nine rebounds, while Mike Hughes tallied 11 points, five assists and three rebounds. The Eagles made 28-of-53 from the floor, marking the second straight game they shot 50 percent or better, and logged 15 assists.
• Ken Williams scored 23 points to lead South Alabama, while Barrington Stevens, Dionte Ferguson and Taishaun Johnson each netted 10.
• After the Jags trimmed a seven-point Georgia Southern lead to 61-60 late in the second half, Diamond took over with a driving layup from the left side and then nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key. That ignited an 11-3 run for the Eagles, and two free-throws by Hewitt made the margin 74-63 with 2:24 remaining.
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 30.2 points a game combined, making them the second-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (33.2 ppg) lead the nation, and Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis are third (30.1).
• Three Eagles are in the top-15 in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers made per game. Mike Hughes (8th, 2.0), Jake Allsmiller (11th, 1.8) and Tookie Brown (15th, 1.7) are in the top-15.
• Tookie Brown, Ike Smith and Mike Hughes all scored 20-plus points in the win over UT Arlington Feb. 4. The last time three Eagles scored 20-plus points in a game was Jan. 16, 2014, an 88-81 overtime over Furman in Hanner Fieldhouse. Angel Matias (21), Jelani Hewitt (21) and Tre Bussey (26) all scored 20-plus points.
• Georgia Southern's 11 blocked shots against UT Arlington Feb. 4 were one shy of the school record, set against Texas San Antonio in 1989.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 100th career game today.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 33-5 in games when leading at half and 42-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 17 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 11-6.
• The Eagles are averaging 76.9 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in eight games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• The Eagles have played every team in the league at least once and posted a 4-6 record through the first half of conference play.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 19-5 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 24 contests there.
• Georgia Southern posted a 4-6 record in the non-conference portion of its schedule.
• 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.
• Devince Boykins is the lone scholarship senior on the Eagles' roster, but this is his first year in the program.
• 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.
• Three student-athletes who redshirted last season - Jonathan Sanks, Aubrey McRae and Shawn O'Connell - are making their debuts this season.
• Georgia Southern has used nine different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Jan. 19 (14-1).
• 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). It was the first time the Eagles put up 100 points against a Division I opponent since a 116-73 victory over UC Davis Nov. 12, 2006.
• 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.
• The Eagles played their Sun Belt opener on the road for the second straight season. Georgia Southern is 0-2 all-time in Sun Belt openers.
• The Eagles played six of their first eight games on the road, a stretch that included contests at Ole Miss, Auburn and No. 6 Duke.
• 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 opens a four-game homestand against Arkansas State Thursday, Feb. 18.
• It's First Responders Night - firemen, police officers and EMS receive free general admission, and their family can receive discount $5 general admission tickets.
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.
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