Men's Basketball | 1/19/2017 1:59:00 PM

Georgia Southern (12-6, 5-0) at Appalachian State (6-10, 1-4)
Saturday, Jan. 21 - Hanner Fieldhouse (3,897) – Statesboro, Ga. - 5 p.m.
Television: ESPN3
Tickets | Live Video | Live Audio  | Live Stats
Promotions: Promotions for Saturday: Blue Out Game - Wear your best True Blue colors, Men's Basketball Alumni Day - All men's basketball alumni are invited back for a fun weekend, Teddy Bear Toss - Fans are encouraged to bring new or slightly-used medium-sized teddy bears to throw on the court and win a prize during halftime of the game. The teddy bears will be donated to the Safe Haven organization. 1,000 Free foam fingers for fans, courtesy of Coca-Cola, will also be distributed
Radio: 105.5 FM WIFO (Jesup), 100.9 FM WLYU (Lyons), 103.7 FM WBMZ (Metter), 900 AM WJLG (Savannah)
Series Record: GS trails 25-21, W4
Last meeting: W, 88-63, 2/25/16 (Hanner)
Probable Starters:
#0 Montae Glenn
#2 Mike Hughes
#3 Ike Smith
#4 Tookie Brown
#10 Jake Allsmiller

Georgia Southern Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule] [Game Notes]

Appalachian State Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule]

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern opens a two-game homestand by taking on longtime rival Appalachian State Saturday at 5 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader with the women's teams.
• Promotions for Saturday: Blue Out Game - Wear your best True Blue colors, Men's Basketball Alumni Day - All men's basketball alumni are invited back for a fun weekend, Teddy Bear Toss - Fans are encouraged to bring new or slightly-used medium-sized teddy bears to throw on the court and win a prize during halftime of the game. The teddy bears will be donated to the Safe Haven organization. 1,000 Free foam fingers for fans, courtesy of Coca-Cola, will also be distributed.
• Winners of their last six, the Eagles are coming off a 62-60 come-from-behind win at ULM Monday. The last four wins in the streak have been decided by five points or less, and one was decided in overtime.
• It's the Eagles' longest win streak since the 2011-12 campaign. The last time GS won seven straight was in the 2003-04 season, when the Eagles won 13 in a row.
• The Eagles are 5-0 in league play for the first time since the 1991-92 season. GS won its first nine games in the Trans America Athletic Conference that season.
• Georgia Southern is 5-1 at home this season. The Eagles are 35-13 under head coach Mark Byington in Hanner Fieldhouse and own a 18-5 all-time record in Sun Belt games in the facility.
• Georgia Southern features the Sun Belt's top two scorers in sophomores Ike Smith (19.6 ppg) and Tookie Brown (17.5 ppg). They were the third-highest freshman scoring duo in the country last year (1-Rice's Marcus Evans and Marquez Letcher-Ellis, 2- FSU's Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley).
• Appalachian State is 1-4 in its last five and coming off an 85-73 loss at Coastal Carolina last Saturday.
• App is 1-8 on the road and searching for its first league win on the road this season (0-3).
• The Mountaineers were picked 11th in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, and Ronshad Shabazz was named preseason third-team all-league.

The Series
• Georgia Southern trails the all-time series, which began in 1949, 25-21, but the Eagles have swept the Mountaineers in both seasons since the schools joined the Sun Belt in 2014-15.
• The Eagles are 6-13 in the last 19 contests, dating back to 2006 but have won the last four.
• Georgia Southern is 11-8 at home against App and has won four of the last five in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• Both meetings in the 2012-13 campaign went into overtime, and the Mountaineers won both.

More Team Storylines
• The Eagles are off to their best start in league play since the 1991-92 season.
• Georgia Southern's come back from 16 points down at ULM Jan. 16 is the Eagles' largest since a 17-point rally vs. UTA March 5, 2015.
• Last year, Georgia Southern set new school records with 3-pointers made (282) and attempted (834) in a season. GS ranks third in the SBC in threes per game (8.8) this season, and the Eagles have made 10 or more threes seven times.
• Georgia Southern was picked fourth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, Tookie Brown was named preseason first-team all-league and Mike Hughes earned second-team honors.
• GS finished the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 7-6 record, its first winning record in non-conference play since 2014-15 when the Eagles went 8-3. It's just the second time in the last eight seasons that the Eagles were above .500 in non-conference games.
• Georgia Southern played six non-conference games against five teams that are currently in the top-100 in the NCAA RPI (Akron - 48, FGCU - 71, Minn - 13, NC State - 49, Winthrop - 106).
• GS is 8-1 since changing its starting lineup following an 86-49 loss at Minnesota Dec. 9.
• GS has a combined record of 27-11 in Sun Belt games played in January and February since joining the league in 2014-15.
• Georgia Southern plays conference games the rest of the way on Saturdays and Mondays.
• The Eagles played 10 of their first 12 games away from home. The stretch ended Dec. 20 at Winthrop, which also capped a four-game road trip that covered 4,120 miles of travel as the Eagles went from Minnesota to Ft. Myers to Miami to South Carolina and back home. 
• GS played three contests in Savannah this season and won all three. The Eagles defeated Florida A&M (83-72) and Radford (65-64) in the Savannah Invitational and won 94-75 at Savannah State.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 126th career game today and his 115th at Georgia Southern. His 51 wins in his first three seasons at Georgia Southern are the best of any coach in the modern era.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 41-7 in games when leading at half and 52-4 when leading with five minutes to go, but three of those losses in each category have some this season.
• Georgia Southern is 28-7 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 35 contests there and 35-13 under Mark Byington.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 23 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 16-7.
• The Eagles are 20-1 in Sun Belt games when leading at halftime. GS is 22-0 when leading with five minutes to go.
• The Eagles picked up the 1,200th win in the history of the program, which began play in 1926-27, when they topped Coastal Georgia 92-43 Nov. 14.
• GS held Coastal Georgia to 23.1 percent shooting from the field, the lowest for an opponent since holding North Georgia to 22.7 percent in 2003.
• Georgia Southern used 11 different combinations of starting lineups last year. GS has used six this season.

Next Up
• Georgia Southern plays host to Coastal Carolina Monday, and tipoff is set for 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.
• Promotions for Monday: Salute to Heroes Night - Join us as we honor members of the military, police department, fire department and EMS. Active duty and veteran military personnel and first responders will be admitted free and may purchase discounted $5 general admission tickets for their families.

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.