Men's Basketball | 2/5/2017 3:52:00 PM

Georgia Southern (15-8, 8-2) vs Louisiana (14-9, 4-6)
Monday, Feb. 6 - Hanner Fieldhouse (3,897) – Statesboro, Ga. - 7 p.m.
Television: ESPN3
Tickets | Live Video | Live Audio  | Live Stats
Promotions: Glowstick Night - Free glowsticks for fans! Make sure you wave your glowsticks high when the lights go out for the starting lineup! Scholar Student-Athlete Recognition - Georgia Southern Student-Athletes will be recognized for their hard work in the classroom. These student-athletes earned a term GPA of 3.0 or higher in the fall 2016 semester.
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 trails 5-3, W1
Last meeting: W, 81-76, 1/14/17 (away)
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]

Louisiana Information:
[Stats] [Roster] [Schedule]

Setting the Scene
• Georgia Southern takes on Louisiana for the second time this season when the Eagles play host to the Ragin' Cajuns Monday in Hanner Fieldhouse. 
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
• Promotions: Glowstick Night - Free glowsticks for fans! Make sure you wave your glowsticks high when the lights go out for the starting lineup! Scholar Student-Athlete Recognition - Georgia Southern Student-Athletes will be recognized for their hard work in the classroom. These student-athletes earned a term GPA of 3.0 or higher in the Fall 2016 semester. 
• GS topped Louisiana 81-76 in the season's first meeting back on Jan. 14 in the Cajundome.
• GS is 3-2 in its last five and coming off a 76-62 win over ULM Saturday evening. GS is 11-3 in its last 14 contests.
• Georgia Southern is 8-1 at home this season. The Eagles are 38-13 under head coach Mark Byington in Hanner Fieldhouse and own a 21-5 all-time record in Sun Belt games in the facility.
• The Eagles are tied with Georgia State and Arkansas State for first place in the Sun Belt.
• Georgia Southern features the Sun Belt's top two scorers in sophomores Ike Smith (19.5 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).
• Louisiana is 2-3 in its last five and coming off an 85-82 setback at Georgia State Saturday afternoon.
• The Ragin' Cajuns are 5-6 on the road and 2-3 in road league games.
• Three of Louisiana's Sun Belt losses have been by five points or less.
• The Ragin' Cajuns rank 15th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.52) and is 24th in scoring offense (82.0), 20th in free throw attempts (589) and 30th in rebound margin (+6.1).

The Series vs. Louisiana
• Louisiana leads the all-time series, which began in the 1964-65 season, 5-3, and has won three of the last four. 
• Before the Eagles joined the Sun Belt in 2014-15, the teams had not met since 1992.
• Louisiana won both contests last season, and GS topped the Ragin' Cajuns 81-76 in this year's first meeting, back on Jan. 14, in the Cajundome.
• The Eagles are 1-1 against the Ragin' Cajuns in Hanner Fieldhouse.

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 79.0 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 51st nationally and second in the Sun Belt in fewest turnovers and ranks 44th nationally and second in the SBC in turnovers per game. The Eagles have logged single-digit turnovers in six 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 season. 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. 
• GS is ranked 14th 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 (9.2) this season, and the Eagles have made 10 or more threes 11 times.
• The Eagles won their first two conference road games for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
• GS is 11-3 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 second in the Sun Belt in free throws. 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 31-13 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.
• 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 131st career game today and his 120th 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 45-8 in games when leading at half and 56-4 when leading with five minutes to go.
• Georgia Southern is 31-7 in Hanner Fieldhouse in its last 38 contests there and 38-13 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 23-2 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-100 in the NCAA RPI (Akron - 49, FGCU - 82, Minn - 24, NC State - 99, Winthrop - 93).
• 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
• A trio of underclassmen are nearing the 1,000-point mark for their careers. Junior Mike Hughes has 908 points, sophomore Tookie Brown has 971 and sophomore Ike Smith has 798.
• No Eagle in the program's modern era has reached the mark as a sophomore. Two Eagles did it in their second seasons at Georgia Southern (Elton Nesbitt and Johnny Mills).
• 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 return to the road for a pair of games at Coastal Carolina Saturday and at Appalachian State Monday.

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