Trojans Host Georgia Southern Thursday Night

GM20: Little Rock (17-2, 7-1 SBC) vs. Georgia Southern (7-11, 3-5 SBC)
Thursday, Jan. 28 | 7:15 p.m. (CST)
Little Rock, Ark. | Jack Stephens Center (5,600)
Radio: The Point 94.1 FM / KKPT.com
Talent: Ray Tucker (PxP), Bobby Vint (Analyst)
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
 
LITTLE ROCK – The Little Rock men's basketball team kicks off a four-game home stand with Georgia Southern on Thursday night at the Jack Stephens Center. Tipoff is set for 7:15 p.m.
 
Thursday night is Maroon Mania at the JSC, and fans are encouraged to wear maroon to support the Trojans. The Department of Athletics will pass out #LittleRocksTeam wristbands to the first 250 fans at the doubleheader.
 
Additionally, Thursday is Student-Athlete Recognition Night and all student-athletes with a 3.0 GPA in fall 2015 or a 3.0 cumulative GPA will be recognized at halftime of the men's game. All told, 74 percent of the Trojans' student-athlete population will be honored for academic achievement.
 
All alone atop the Sun Belt standings, Little Rock is coming off back-to-back road wins at Texas State and UT Arlington and now leads the nation with nine true road victories. The Trojans are 7-0 at home this season and boast a scoring margin of +20.7 at the JSC.
 
The Trojans' scoring defense (58.1 ppg) continues to lead the nation, while its defensive field goal percentage (.369) is third-best nationally.
 
This week, the Trojans received votes in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll for the fifth time this season. Little Rock also received two first-place votes and was ranked fourth in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.
 
Georgia Southern was picked to finish 10th in a preseason poll of the Sun Belt Conference coaches after winning 22 games and falling in the Sun Belt Conference Championship­­ a season ago. The Eagles are 7-11 through 18 games this year with a 3-5 mark in conference play.
 
The Eagles are coming off a 101-100 win at Appalachian State on Monday night that saw Mike Hughes execute a four-point play with 0.8 seconds remaining that proved to be the game-winner. Hughes finished with 19 points and a career-high nine rebounds in the win.
 
Tookie Brown leads the Eagles in scoring at 17.6 ppg, followed by Ike Smith (12.7 ppg) and Hughes (12.5). Georgia Southern scores 78.1 points per contest to rank third in the Sun Belt. The Eagles make 8.6 3-pointers per game and are second in the league with 478 attempted 3s this season.
 
Quick Hits
• Little Rock is off to its best start in program history and is one of eight teams in the nation with a record of 17-2 or better (.895).
• Just four teams in the nation currently have more wins than Little Rock (17).
• Little Rock leads the nation with nine true road victories.
• Little Rock has won an arena-record nine straight games at the JSC dating back to last season.
• Little Rock (7-1) is in first place in the SBC standings.
• A win Saturday would give Little Rock its first 8-1 start to Sun Belt play in program history.
• Little Rock's scoring defense ranks first nationally (58.1 ppg) and its defensive FG% (.369) ranks third.
• Little Rock is 27th in the nation in free throw percentage (.742) and ninth in turnover margin (4.6).
• Little Rock leads the SBC in scoring defense, defensive FG%, turnovers per game (10.2), turnover margin, and free throw percentage.
• Head coach Chris Beard comes to Little Rock after two seasons at Angelo State, where he went 47-15 and led ASU to the 2015 NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen and No. 19 national ranking in 2014-15.