The Arkansas State men's basketball team travels to Georgia Southern for the first time since 2004 looking to snap a three-game losing skid.
The last time out, A-State was defeated by Troy, 69-64, at the Convocation Center. The Red Wolves outscored Troy by 13 points in the second half, but couldn't overcome a slow start. Sean Gardner had a game-high 20 points while Cameron Golden and Anthony Livingston added 13 points each.
After playing 11 games in January, the most in the month since the 1986-87 season, A-State has six games in February, tied for the fewest dating back to the 1959-60 season. The only other time A-State played six games in February was the 2000-01 season.
A-State has amassed a record of 200-199 (.501) since joining the Sun Belt Conference in the 1991-92 season. A-State is now 129-68 (.655) in home SBC games while the road record sits at 71-130 (.353).
A-State is 4-0 in league play, 6-0 on the season, when pulling down 40 or more rebounds. In each of the Red Wolves four conference wins, the opponent shot below 40 percent from the field. The Red Wolves are 9-2 on the season when pulling down 35-plus rebounds. A-State is 8-4 when attempting fewer three-pointers in the second half compared to the first half and 8-3 when shooting a better field goal percentage than their opposition.
A-State is 1-2 this season in game two of the home-and home conference series. Last season, the Red Wolves posted a 6-3 mark. Under head coach John Brady, A-State is 19-24 in game two of a regular season home-and-home conference series.
ARKANSAS STATE/GEORGIA SOUTHERN HISTORY
• Georgia Southern defeated A-State 73-61 on Jan. 8 at the Convocation Center to win their fourth-straight in the series and extend their lead in the series to 5-3.
• The Eagles hit six of their first eight shots from beyond the arc to race out to a 29-5 lead over A-State on Jan. 8. The Red Wolves never recovered from a 2-for-11 start, but a 7-0 run with 2:21 left in the first half sent A-State to the halftime break trailing 39-26.
Charles Waters posted career highs in points (8) and rebounds (6). A-State pulled to within eight in the game, but Georgia Southern went on to win 73-61. Cameron Golden led A-State with 17 points and six assists. PJ Hardwick added 12 points and
Anthony Livingston chipped in with 11. Jelani Hewitt led the Eagles with 18 points, one of five players in double figures.
• A-State has lost its last two games as the road team in the series and is 1-2 all-time against Georgia Southern on the road. A-State last played at Georgia Southern on Dec. 15, 2004 with the Eagles winning 85-70. Previously, Georgia Southern hosted A-State on Feb. 26 of 1976 (89-82, L) and Dec. 2, 1974 (74-72, W).
• In the 1975-76 season, A-State PF Dan Henderson went 14-of-14 from the field against the Eagles, an A-State and Southland Conference record that stands to date for best field goal percentage in a game.
SCOUTING GEORGIA SOUTHERN
• Georgia Southern, sporting the league's best scoring margin (+11.1), enters Thursday's game with a 16-5 record and a 9-3 mark in league play. The Eagles fell in overtime to ULM (71-68) on Saturday in game four of a five-game homestand.
• The Eagles played six of their first eight league games on the road and posted a 6-2 record to race to the top of the league standings. Georgia Southern is in the midst of a stretch in which it plays five out of seven games at home. Thus far, the Eagles have gone 3-1 with A-State being their fourth-straight game at home before a road trip to UALR on Saturday.
• Jelani Hewitt leads the Eagles averaging 19.0 points per game and nearly four assists per game. Trent Wiedeman is the only other player averaging double figures (12.0) and he leads the team with six rebounds per game. Four other players average seven or more points with three of those four players shooting 45 percent or better.
• As a team, Georgia Southern shoots 43 percent from the field and 34 percent from beyond the arc. The Eagles sink 70 percent of their free throws and have a rebounding margin of +3.9 on their opponents. The Eagles are fourth in scoring offense (70.8) and second in scoring defense (59.7).
• Eagles head coach Mark Byington is in his second season as Georgia Southern's head coach and has compiled a 31-24 (.564) record. He has an overall record of 38-28 (.576) in three years after he was the interim head man at College of Charleston in 2012. He played collegiately at UNC-Wilmington, scoring more than 1,000 points while earning All-CAA honors and a spot on the All-CAA Defensive Team as a senior.
STAT TRENDS
• A-State is 9-2 this season when grabbing 35 or more rebounds. The two losses with came against Toledo (73-65) and UALR (75-65). A-State is 6-0 overall and in each of A-State's SBC wins the Red Wolves pulled down 40 or more rebounds.
• The Red Wolves are 8-4 on the season when having fewer three-point attempts in the second half than in the first half. Further, in the 12 games in which A-State has fewer three-point attempts in the second half, the Red Wolves have outscored their opponents 406-366 in the second half alone. In the first half of those games, A-State has been outscored 421-356.
• The Red Wolves are 8-4 when 25 or more of their points are inside the painted area. A-State is 8-5 this season when opponents score 30 or fewer points in the paint.
• The Red Wolves are 6-1 this season when earning a trip to the free throw line more than their opponents.
A COMMON THEME
• A-State enters Thursday's game with a 4-9 mark in league play and a few stats stand out when finding what went right for the four wins.
• The Red Wolves are 4-0 in league play when grabbing 40 or more rebounds. A-State is 4-1 in league play when reaching 50 points before their opponent, 8-2 on the season. The lone loss came to Appalachian State on Jan. 3.
• When opponents shoot 40 percent or below from the floor, A-State sports a 7-1 record on the year and 4-1 in league play. Georgia State (35.8 percent) is the only foe to shoot below 45 percent and defeat the Red Wolves.
FEBRUARY OF LOVE
• A-State played 11 games in January for the first time since the 1986-87 season. The Red Wolves will love February though, playing six games, the fewest since the 2001-02 season and fewest of any year dating back to 1959-60.
• Dating back to the 1961-62 season, A-State has a 216-219 record in February. The ledger includes a 143-78 mark on the home floor, a 71-139 record on the road and a 2-2 mark in neutral site games. A-State had won 13-straight on the home floor in February dating back to a 64-57 loss to Troy on February 27, 2010 before the 69-64 loss to Troy on Feb. 5
• Under head coach
John Brady, A-State is 22-23 in February with an impressive 15-5 record at the Convocation Center. The Red Wolves are 7-18 on the road in February, going 2-1 last season.
KEEP CALM AND TRAVEL A LOT
• The Red Wolves have put a lot of mileage on their bodies this season, having traveled 11,390 miles to date. A-State is scheduled to travel 14,372 miles on the season.
• In conference play, the Red Wolves have logged 6,510 miles, including a trip of 816 miles to Georgia State last weekend. With trips to Georgia Southern, UALR and Texas State remaining on the schedule, A-State has 2,982 miles to cover in league play.
• The Red Wolves non-conference schedule included a 2,302 mile journey to Niagara and A-State covered 2,578 miles in their road trip to play at Purdue and Toledo. In the non-conference slate, A-State traveled 4,880 miles.
• A-State will have traveled more than halfway around the Earth, 14,372 miles of 24,859 miles.
DID YOU KNOW?
• The Red Wolves have gone 121-straight games hitting a three-pointer. The last time A-State didn't hit a shot from behind the arc was Feb. 24, 2011 when North Texas held the Red Wolves 0-8 from three at the Convocation Center. A-State would win the game without needing a three-point make, 63-47.
• A-State has gone 578 games since losing a game in which it scored 90 or more points. The loss came in the 1995-96 campaign, a 101-93 loss at Jacksonville on January 22, 1996.
