Trojans Face Georgia State Thursday on ESPN3

GM26: Little Rock (22-3, 12-2 SBC) at Georgia State (13-10, 6-8 SBC)
Thursday, Feb. 18 | 6:30 p.m. (CST)
Atlanta, Ga. | GSU Sports Arena (3,455)
TV: ESPN3
TV Talent: Sam Crenshaw (PxP) and Rodney Turner (Analyst)
Radio: The Point 94.1 FM / KKPT.com
Talent: Ray Tucker (PxP)
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes
 
LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock will go for a season sweep of Georgia State on Thursday at GSU Sports Arena in a game that can be seen on ESPN3. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
 
A win Thursday would give Little Rock its 23^rd win of the season, matching a program record for victories in the regular season. A win would also give the Trojans their first win over the Panthers in Atlanta since 1991, when both were members of the Trans America Athletic Conference.
 
Little Rock, who is tied with No. 1 Villanova and No. 8 Xavier for the best record in the nation, is coming off a 68-64 win at Louisiana on Saturday – the Trojans' 10^th true road victory of the season. Another road victory would tie the 2008-09 team for the most road wins in a single season in program history.
 
Josh Hagins enters Thursday's game having scored in double figures in nine straight. Hagins is averaging 16.0 points, 4.9 assists and 4.3 rebounds over the same span while shooting 49.5 percent from the floor and 51.3 percent from 3 over the same span.
 
Georgia State is 13-10 overall and 6-8 in Sun Belt play after losing three straight and six of its last seven games. Each of GSU's last two losses have come by a single point.
 
Jeremy Hollowell (14.2 ppg) and Kevin Ware (12.5 ppg) lead the Panthers on offense. Hollowell, Ware and Markus Crider were all Preseason All-Sun Belt selections.
 
In all, six players score at least 6.4 points per game for Georgia State.
 
Head coach Ron Hunter is in his fifth season as head coach.
 
In the season's first meeting, Little Rock used a 14-0 second-half run to pull away from Georgia State for a 63-53 win in front of 4,682 fans at the Jack Stephens Center on Jan. 30.
 
Hagins finished with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, with nine of those points coming in the final eight minutes. Roger Woods totaled 16 points while making 7 of 8 shots from the floor. Mareikk Isom came off the bench to knock down three 3-pointers and score 13 points.
 
The Trojans trailed with under eight minutes to play before Hagins' triple with 7:56 remaining gave the team the lead for good.
 
Little Rock leads Georgia State 18-4 in the all-time series and has won back-to-back matchups to stop a four-game GSU win streak.
 
Quick Hits
• Little Rock is off to its best start in program history and tied for the best record in the nation at 22-3 (.880).
• Little Rock recently secured its first 20-win season since 2008-09, and 10th in its Division I history.
• A win Thursday would match a program record for regular-season wins (23 in 1987-88).
• Little Rock is 11-0 at home and has won an arena-record 13 straight games at the Jack Stephens Center.
• Little Rock is tied for second nationally with 10 true road victories.
• Little Rock is off to its first-ever 12-2 start to Sun Belt Conference play and in sole possession of first place.
• Little Rock's scoring defense ranks first nationally (58.6 ppg) and its defensive FG% (.378) ranks seventh.
• Little Rock is 10th nationally in turnover margin (3.9) and ranks 19th in turnovers per game (10.6).
• Little Rock leads the SBC in scoring defense, defensive FG%, turnovers per game, turnover margin and scoring margin (+12.2).
• 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.