Men's Basketball | 2/16/2017 3:47:00 PM

Georgia Southern (16-10, 9-4) at Texas State (15-9, 8-4)
Saturday, Feb. 18 - Hanner Fieldhouse (3,897) – Statesboro, Ga. - 5 p.m.
Television: WSAV-TV/WSAV-CH/ESPN3
Tickets | Live Video | Live Audio  | Live Stats
Promotions: Cheerleader for a Day - Any child ages 4 to 14 has the opportunity to spend the day with the GS Cheerleading team. Participants will learn cheers, chants and important cheerleading skills from the very best, our own five-time National Champion Georgia Southern Eagle Cheerleaders. Halftime - Cheerleader Senior Recognition.
Radio: WMCD 107.3 FM (Statesboro), 105.5 FM WIFO (Jesup), 100.9 FM WLYU (Lyons), 103.7 FM WBMZ (Metter), 900 AM WJLG (Savannah)
Series Record: GS leads 4-1, W1
Last meeting: W, 66-62, 2/6/16 (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]

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

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern opens its final homestand of the regular season against Texas State Saturday in the second end of a double header with the women's teams.
• The men's game will be broadcast live on WSAV-TV and WSAV-CW in Savannah. It will also be broadcast on ESPN3 but blacked out in Savannah.
• It's the first and only regular-season meeting between Georgia Southern and Texas State.
• The Eagles are in a three-way tie with Georgia State and Arkansas State for second place in the Sun Belt standings. The Bobcats are a half game back, and UTA is in first by half a game. The top four teams get a bye in the upcoming Sun Belt Tournament March 8-12 in New Orleans.
• Georgia Southern is 9-1 at home this season and has won eight in a row in Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles are 39-13 under head coach Mark Byington in the facility and own a 22-5 all-time record in Sun Belt games there.
• GS is 2-3 in its last five and coming off an 83-78 loss at Appalachian State Monday night. GS is 12-5 in its last 17 contests.
• The Eagles are in a stretch in which they finish the season with five of their last seven games on the road.
• Georgia Southern features the Sun Belt's top two scorers in sophomores Ike Smith (19.6 ppg) and Tookie Brown (18.1 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).
• Texas State is 4-1 in its last five with the lone loss coming at conference leader UTA Feb. 4.
• The Bobcats are 4-6 on the road and 3-2 in road league games.
• Texas State leads the Sun Belt in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and blocked shots. The Bobcats rank 13th in the country and seventh among mid-major programs in scoring defense.

The Series vs. Texas State
• This will be the sixth meeting in the series, which began in 1965. The teams renewed the series in 2014-15 as members of the Sun Belt Conference, and both contests were settled by a combined six points. Four of the five meetings in the series have been decided by six points or less.
• The Eagles split the season series against Texas State last year with each team winning on its home floor.
• The Eagles' 40-36 win over Texas State (1/3/15) was the fewest points allowed since Dec. 5, 1987, when they held Savannah State to 36 points. It is the first 40-36 game in the shot clock era and ranks in a tie for 19th lowest scoring game for two teams combined and the lowest scoring Sun Belt game in the shot clock era.  The Eagles were on the losing end of a game that topped that mark in a 38-36 setback to Georgia State in the Sun Belt Championship (3/15/15).

More Team Storylines
• Georgia Southern has no seniors in its rotation and starts three sophomores and two juniors. Walk-ons James Holder and Dominique Bullock are the team's lone seniors.
• GS is averaging 78.4 points a game this season, the most since the 2004-05 campaign, when the Eagles scored at an 80.8 clip. The Eagles have scored over 80 12 times, including six straight games from 12/20-1/14, and have scored over 90 five times, including two in a row Jan. 21 and 23. It's the first time the Eagles scored 90-plus points in back-to-back Division I games since Feb. 11 and Feb. 13, 2006.
• Georgia Southern ranks 56th nationally and second in the Sun Belt in fewest turnovers and ranks 41st nationally and second in the SBC and 43rd in the country in turnovers per game. The Eagles have logged single-digit turnovers in seven games and posted a season-low six vs. Troy (1/7).
• The Eagles are off to their best start in league play since the 2014-15 season. The Eagles started 7-0 in league play for the first time since the 1991-92 campaign. GS won its first nine games in the Trans America Athletic Conference that year. 
• GS posted an eight-game win streak from Dec. 2-Jan. 23. It's the Eagles' longest since the 2005-06 season. 
• Three Eagles have been named Sun Belt Player of the Week - Tookie Brown (Jan. 3), Ike Smith (Jan. 24) and Mike Hughes (Feb. 7).
• GS is ranked 20th in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top-25.
• Georgia Southern's top-3 seasons in 3-pointers made and attempted have all come during Mark Byington's tenure. GS ranks first in the SBC in threes per game (9.3) this season, and the Eagles have made 10 or more threes 13 times.
• The Eagles won their first two conference road games for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
• GS is 12-5 since changing its starting lineup following an 86-49 loss at Minnesota Dec. 9.
• The Eagles have shot 50 percent or better in a half in 18 games this season, including 60 percent or better twice. The Eagles have shot 50 percent or better in both halves of a game twice (GSU, 12/31 and CCU, 1/23). The Eagles have shot 50 percent or better in five games. 
• GS ranks third in the Sun Belt in made free throws and second in free-throw attempts. The Eagles have attempted 30-plus free throws in five games and made 20-plus free throws in six contests.
• GS has a combined record of 32-15 in Sun Belt games played in January and February since joining the league in 2014-15.
• Georgia Southern returned all five starters and 11 lettermen from last season's squad. Ninety-four percent of the Eagles' scoring and rebounding is back in uniform.
• 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.
• Mark Byington is coaching in his 134th career game today and his 123rd at Georgia Southern. His 51 wins in his first three seasons at Georgia Southern are the best of any coach in the modern era. He posted a 7-4 record at College of Charleston in 2012, filling in as the interim coach for Bobby Cremins.
• Under Mark Byington, Georgia Southern is 46-8 in games when leading at half and 56-4 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Georgia Southern is 32-7 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 39 contests there and 39-13 under Mark Byington.
• Since joining the Sun Belt in 2014, 26 Georgia Southern games against Sun Belt schools have been decided by five points or less, and the Eagles are 18-8.
• The Eagles are 24-2 in Sun Belt games when leading at halftime. GS is 25-0 when leading with five minutes to go.
• 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.
• 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-110 in the NCAA RPI (Akron - 35, FGCU - 96, Minn - 23, NC State - 109, Winthrop - 82).
• 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.
• 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.

Talking 1K
• Sophomore Tookie Brown scored his 1,000th career point at Appalachian State Feb. 13. 
• He is the first Eagle in the program's modern era to reach the mark as a sophomore. Two Eagles did it in their second seasons at Georgia Southern (Elton Nesbitt and Johnny Mills).
• Junior Mike Hughes has 949 points, and sophomore Ike Smith has 860.
• Three Eagles reached the mark in the same season once. Nesbitt, Terry Williams and Jean Francois scored their 1,000th point in 2004-05.
• The 2004-05 trio and Jelani Hewitt, Eric Ferguson and Trent Wiedeman in 2014-15 are the only times Georgia Southern had three 1,000-point scorers on the same team (Wiedeman scored 886 points at College of Charleston before transferring to GS).

Next Up
• The Eagles play their final home game of the season Monday against UTA.
• Promotions: The game will be televised live on ASN and ESPN3. Men's Basketball Senior Day - Join us as we honor James Holder, Dominique Bullock and manager Joy Bonner for their hard work and determination in the classroom and on the court. It's also Southern Explosion Dance Team Senior Day.

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.