Men's Basketball | 3/9/2016 7:17:00 PM

Georgia Southern (14-16, 10-10) vs South Alabama (13-18, 8-12)
Thursday, March 10 - Lakefront Arena (10,000) – New Orleans, La. - 6 p.m. ET
Live Audio | Live Video | Live Stats
Television: ESPN3 (Matt Stewart and Bob Donewald)
Radio: 103.7 WBMZ-FM (Statesboro/Metter/Swainsboro), 102.1 WZAT-FM (Savannah), 1370 WLOP-AM (Jesup)
Series Record: GS trails 8-3, L2
Last meeting: 2/13/2016, L 76-80 (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)]

South Alabama Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [@SouthAlaMBK]

Layup Line
• Georgia Southern has advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament for the second straight season. The fifth-seeded Eagles will take on eighth-seeded South Alabama Thursday at 6 p.m. ET in Lakefront Arena.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Matt Stewart and Bob Donewald calling the action.
• South Alabama won both meetings against the Eagles in the regular season, posting a 64-58 win in Hanner Fieldhouse Jan. 7 and an 80-76 decision in the Mitchell Center Feb. 13. It's the first time the Eagles and Jaguars will meet in a conference tournament and on a neutral floor.
• Georgia Southern is 2-3 in its last five contests and coming off an 87-78 loss at UL Lafayette last Saturday. The Eagles won nine of 15 after starting conference play 1-4.
• It will be Georgia Southern's second neutral site game this season. The Eagles fell 95-90 to The Citadel at USC Upstate Nov. 25, in the Palmetto State Shootout.
• Georgia Southern makes its 35th appearance in a Division I conference tournament this year, and the Eagles are playing in their 19th-straight tournament. Georgia Southern is 29-31 all-time in conference tourneys, 1-1 in the Sun Belt Tournament, 19-9 as the higher seed, 4-6 as the fifth seed and 10-3 in first round games. The Eagles have never won their league tourney as a fifth seed.
• Georgia Southern advanced to the championship game of the Sun Belt Tournament last season as the second seed but fell 38-36 to top seed Georgia State. It was the lowest-scoring Sun Belt game since the shot clock era began.
• This is the 40th edition of the Sun Belt Men's Basketball Championship. A team has won four games in four days to take home the title three times in the last five seasons. No. 5W Little Rock beat No. 4W North Texas, 64-63, in 2011, No. 7 Western Kentucky beat No. 5 North Texas, 74-70, in 2012 and No. 6 Western Kentucky defeated No. 4 FIU, 65-63, in 2013. All three tourneys were at Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Ark.

Three Things to Know about the Eagles
1 - 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. With 76 percent of its scoring and 72 percent of its rebounding from last season gone, the Eagles were picked 10th in the Preseason Sun Belt Conference Coaches Poll.
•  The Eagles are led in scoring by Sun Belt Freshman of the Year 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. Brown owns the Georgia Southern freshman scoring record with 536 points and is the first freshman in school history to score 30-plus points in a game (34 at App St., 1/25).
• Brown is ranked in the top-10 in the Sun Belt in scoring (4th, 17.6 ppg), assists (7th, 3.4 apg), steals (2nd, 1.7), free-throw percentage (7th, .811) 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 (17.9 ppg) is half of the third-highest scoring freshman duo in the country. He and Ike Smith (11.6 ppg) combine to average 29.5 points a game. Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis (31.6) lead the nation, and Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley of Florida State (31.5 ppg) are second. Duke's Brandon Ingram and Luke Kennard (28.5) rank fourth.
• Georgia Southern's seven freshmen and redshirt freshmen combine for 41.0 points a contest, the third-highest total in the country.
2 - Eagle sophomore guard Mike Hughes was named third-team All-Sun Belt after averaging 17.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.8 assists in conference play. Hughes ranks ninth in the Sun Belt in scoring (15.1 ppg) and leads the league in steals (2.1 spg). He has scored 20-plus points eight times and has reached double figures in the last 16 contests.
3 - Georgia Southern set new school records with 3-pointers made (278) and attempted (811) in a season. 
• The Eagles have made 40 3-pointers in their last three games and have made 10 or more triples in a contest 13 times, hitting nine from long distance on four more occasions. 
• Georgia Southern averages 27 (16th nationally) attempts and 9.3 makes (25th nationally) a game. 
• Three Eagles are in the top-15 in the Sun Belt in 3-pointers made per game - Mike Hughes (4th, 2.2), Jake Allsmiller (7th, 2.1) and Tookie Brown (12th, 1.7).

The Series
• South Alabama leads the all-time series, which began in 1978, 8-3, and swept the Eagles this season.
• The teams have never met in Sun Belt Tournament play or on a neutral floor.
• 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.
• Georgia Southern swept the season series last year.
• Season's First 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.
• Season's second meeting - 2/13/16 - Mitchell Center: Georgi Boyanov scored 20 points and hit the game-winning free throws with 29.8 seconds left to thwart Georgia Southern's comeback bid and lift South Alabama to an 80-76 victory over the Eagles Saturday evening in the Mitchell Center.
• The Eagles trailed by 17 points with 5:42 to play but used a 21-2 run, aided by four 3-pointers, to tie the score 76-76 with 51 seconds left. Boyanov was fouled on his way to the hoop on the Jaguars' next possession and made both to put South Alabama back on top. 
• Tookie Brown drove to the bucket on the Eagles' trip down the floor, but Tafari Whittingham blocked the freshman's shot and the ball wound up out of bounds off the Jags with 18.8 seconds remaining. Georgia Southern found Devonte Boykins for a 3-pointer in the corner but the sophomore's shot was off to the right. The Jags got the rebound and got it up the floor to Ken Williams, who was fouled with 6.7 seconds left. The junior sank two from the charity stripe to seal the win.
• Jake Allsmiller knocked down eight 3-pointers, tied for the fourth-most in a game in school history, to score a career-high 29 points for Georgia Southern. Mike Hughes finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Tookie Brown posted 16 points, three steals and two assists.
• Boyanov made all six of his shots from the floor, hit 8 of 11 from the foul line and corralled a game-high nine rebounds for South Alabama. Shaq Calhoun scored 20 points off the bench, and Ken Williams collected 15 points and seven assists. Nick Stover scored 12.
• The Eagles made 14 of 35 from 3-point range but were outscored 40-20 in the paint. Allsmiller's eight triples were the most for a Georgia Southern player since Antonio Hanson made nine against Elon in 2010.

More Team Storylines
• Georgia Southern leads the Sun Belt and ranks 12th in the country in turnover margin (+3.6). The Eagles have recorded less than 10 turnovers in 10 games this season and average 11.4 per game.
• Tookie Brown is the first Eagle to win conference Freshman of the Year since Lonnie Edwards in 1994 (Southern Conference by both coaches and media).
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 107th career game today and his 96th 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 76.3 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.
• Eleven different Eagles have scored 10 or more points in a game this season.
• 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 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.
• Devince Boykins is the lone scholarship senior on the Eagles' roster, but this is his first year in the program.
• 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.

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