Men's Basketball | 1/22/2017 3:23:00 PM

Georgia Southern (13-6, 6-0) at Coastal Carolina (9-10, 4-2)
Monday, Jan. 23 - Hanner Fieldhouse (3,897) – Statesboro, Ga. - 7 p.m.
Television: ESPN3
Tickets | Live Video | Live Audio  | Live Stats
Promotions: Salute to Heroes Night – GS will 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.
Radio: 105.5 FM WIFO (Jesup), 100.9 FM WLYU (Lyons), 103.7 FM WBMZ (Metter), 900 AM WJLG (Savannah)
Series Record: GS trails 4-0, L4
Last meeting: L, 76-64, 12/29/2009 (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]

Coastal Carolina Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule]

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern caps a two-game homestand by hosting Sun Belt newcomer Coastal Carolina in the first meeting between the teams since 2009.
• The Eagles look to maintain their early lead in the league standings and open a three-game advantage for a coveted first-round bye in the conference tournament, which goes to the top-four finishers.
• Promotions for Monday: Salute to Heroes Night – GS will 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.
• Winners of their last seven, the Eagles are coming off a 92-88 home victory over Appalachian State Saturday. The last five 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 2005-06 campaign when GS won eight in a row. 
• The Eagles are 6-0 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 year.
• Georgia Southern is 6-1 at home this season. The Eagles are 36-13 under head coach Mark Byington in Hanner Fieldhouse and own a 19-5 all-time record in Sun Belt games in the facility.
• Georgia Southern features the Sun Belt's top two scorers in sophomores Ike Smith (19.8 ppg) and Tookie Brown (18.3 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).
• Coastal Carolina is 4-1 in its last five and coming off a 76-56 setback at Georgia State Saturday.
• The Chanticleers are in a four-way tie for second in the Sun Belt standings with a 4-2 record.
• Coastal is 1-6 on the road and 1-2 in road league games.
• The Chants were picked fifth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches Poll, and senior Elijah Wilson was named second-team all-league.
• Coastal leads the Sun Belt in total rebounds and rebounds per game.
• With 800 career wins, Chanticleer head coach Cliff Ellis ranks fourth among active coaches in Division I, and is the only coach to record 170 wins or more at four Division I schools.

The Series
• Georgia Southern trails the all-time series, which began in 1995, 4-0, and the teams have not met since 2009.
• This will be the teams' first meeting as members of the Sun Belt Conference.
• The Eagles are 0-2 against the Chanticleers in Hanner Fieldhouse and 0-2 on the road.
• All four meetings were part of home-and-home series in the same season.

More Team Storylines
• The Eagles are off to their best start in league play since the 1991-92 season.
• Georgia Southern's comeback from 16 points down at ULM (1/16) 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 fourth in the SBC in threes per game (8.7) 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 - 39, FGCU - 90, Minn - 18, NC State - 79, Winthrop - 85).
• GS is 9-1 since changing its starting lineup following an 86-49 loss at Minnesota Dec. 9.
• GS has a combined record of 28-11 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 127th career game today and his 116th 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 42-7 in games when leading at half and 53-4 when leading with five minutes to go, but three of those losses in each category have some this season. 
• Georgia Southern is 29-7 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 36 contests there and 36-13 under Mark Byington.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 24 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 17-7.
• The Eagles are 21-1 in Sun Belt games when leading at halftime. GS is 23-0 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 heads out for its Alabama road swing. The Eagles play at South Alabama Saturday (1/28) and at Troy Monday (1/30). 

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.