Men's Basketball | 3/2/2016 5:04:00 PM

Georgia Southern (14-14, 10-8) at ULM (17-12, 13-5)
Thursday, March 3 - Fant-Ewing Coliseum (7,000) – 8 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 Record: GS trails 9-5, W2
Last meeting: 1/16/2016, W 66-51 (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)]

ULM Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@ULM_MBB]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern caps the regular season with a trip to the Pelican State. The Eagles take on ULM Thursday and UL Lafayette Saturday.
• Georgia Southern has clinched a spot in the Sun Belt Championship March 10-13 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The top-8 teams in the regular-season standings make the tournament.
• The Eagles can finish as high as third and as low as seventh in the final standings. Little Rock has won the regular-season title, and ULM is locked in as the second seed. The top-two seeds receive double byes and the top-four teams get a single bye.
• If Georgia Southern wins both contests this week, which would include a win over UL Lafayette, and UT Arlington loses one game, the Eagles will finish third by virtue of a tiebreaker. The three would be tied for third and all split in the regular season, but in that scenario, the Eagles would have two wins over ULM, the second-place team.  
• Thursday's game is the second of the season against the Warhawks. Georgia Southern topped ULM 66-51 back on Jan. 16 in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• Georgia Southern is 3-2 in its last five contests and coming off an 88-63 home victory over Appalachian State last Thursday. The Eagles have won 10 of their last 15.
• Georgia Southern is 4-9 on the road and 3-5 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, 17.6 ppg), assists (7th, 3.4 apg), steals (2nd, 1.8), free-throw percentage (7th, .818) and assist/turnover ratio (6th, 1.5). He ranks eighth among freshmen in NCAA Division I scoring.
• Brown has scored 20-plus points in nine games and reached double figures in 26 of 28 contests, including 24 in a row from Nov. 20 to Feb. 20.
• Brown (17.6 ppg) is half of the third-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (11.7 ppg) combine to average 29.3 points a game.
• Eagle sophomore Mike Hughes is one of four Sun Belt players ranked in the league's top-10 in scoring (10th, 14.5) and top-20 in rebounding (T-19th, 5.0). Hughes is averaging 17.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in Sun Belt games.
• Since falling to the Eagles in Hanner Fieldhouse, ULM has won 11 of its last 12 contests. The Warhawks started league play 1-4 and are now 13-5. 
• ULM is 11-0 at home and 8-0 in home league games this season. The Warhawks are 25-4 at home in the last two seasons, but one of the losses was a 57-53 setback to the Eagles.
• Majok Deng ranks third in the league in scoring (18.9 ppg) and seventh in rebounding (7.0 rpg).

The Series
• ULM leads the all-time series, which began in 1976, 9-5 and has won four of the last seven.
• The Eagles are 1-5 against ULM on the road.
• All three meetings last season were decided by four points or less, and Georgia Southern won two of them, including a 44-43 decision in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament.
• The Eagles have won the last two, including a 66-51 decision in the season's first meeting back on Jan. 16.
• Last Meeting - 1/16/2016 - Hanner: Mike Hughes tallied 15 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists, and  Georgia Southern held ULM to 30 percent shooting to earn a 66-51 victory over the Warhawks.
• Hughes was 4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3-point range and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line for Georgia Southern (6-10, 2-4), which never trailed in the contest. Ike Smith collected 12 points and six rebounds while Tookie Brown chipped in 12 points and four assists. 
• Justin Robertson scored a game-high 20 points, and added four rebounds and three assists for ULM, while Majok Deng scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
• The Eagles held the Warhawks to 18 of 59 from the floor, including 6 of 28 in the first half while building a 32-21 cushion at the break. ULM finished 7 of 28 from 3-point range.
• Leading by three points, the Eagles outscored the Warhawks 11-3 over the first half's final three minutes. Hughes scored the final seven points of the stretch as the sophomore knocked down two triples and tacked on a free throw to one of them after he was fouled on the shot. An 8-0 ULM run, keyed by 3-pointers from Deng and Roberson, trimmed the margin to four points midway through the second half. Georgia Southern responded with a 13-3 run, ignited by a conventional 3-point play by Smith when he was fouled on a dunk that brought the crowd to its feet. 
• Last time in Fant-Ewing - 1/25/2015:  Eric Ferguson scored a season-high 19 points and added eight rebounds, and Georgia Southern held ULM to 36 percent shooting to post a 57-53 win over the Warhawks.
• Ferguson was 8-of-13 from the floor and hit two triples. Jelani Hewitt tallied 15 points, including 10 in the second half, and seven rebounds for the Eagles, and Jake Allsmiller scored nine points after hitting 3-of-5 from the 3-point line.
• Tyler Ongwae had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead ULM, and Nick Coppola added 10 points and six rebounds.
• The Eagles led 55-49 after Mike Hughes hit 1-of-2 free throws, but Coppola hit a jumper with 44 seconds left and the Warhawks called timeout. ULM elected to press and try to force the turnover, and the Eagles made them pay as Hewitt broke the press with a pass up to Hughes, who fed Ferguson for a dunk and a six-point cushion with 32 seconds to go.  The Eagles got a defensive stop with 13 seconds left, and ULM managed just a pair of free throws the rest of the way.

Team Storylines
• The Eagles are led in scoring by freshman Tookie Brown. 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 fellow rookie Ike Smith average 29.3 points a game combined, making them the third-highest freshmen scoring duo in the country. Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (31.4 ppg) lead the nation, Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis are second (31.2) and Duke's Brandon Ingram and Luke Kennard (28.4) are fourth.
• Georgia Southern's seven freshmen and redshirt freshmen combine for 41.0 points a contest, the third-highest total in the country.
• 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.
• Georgia Southern canned a season-high 16 3-pointers against Appalachian State Feb. 25.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 105th career game today and his 94th at Georgia Southern .
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 36-5 in games when leading at half and 44-1 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 19 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 12-7.
• The Eagles are averaging 76.4 points a game this season and have scored 80-plus points in 10 games and 100-plus in three contests. Georgia Southern scored 80-plus points in six contests last year.
• The Eagles posted a 4-6 record through the first half of conference play. They are 6-2 so far in the second half.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• Georgia Southern is 22-6 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 28 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 11 different combinations of starting lineups this season.
• The Eagles lost their first Sun Belt game after leading at halftime at Georgia State Jan. 19 (17-1).
• 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.

Next Up
• Georgia Southern finishes the regular season with an 8:15 p.m. ET contest against UL Lafayette Saturday.

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